Breastfeeding in public has been an issue to some. However, for mothers who have children to attend to, they forget their inconvenience just to feed their young ones. A new mom from South Wales was distraught after being reprimanded while breastfeeding her daughter.
New mom Victoria Jones was in Kath's Korner Kafe in Manselton, Swansea to have breakfast with a relative. Prior to attending her six-week-old daughter, Savannah-May, Jones asked a manager if she could breastfeed her daughter and she received an affirmative response, South Wales Evening Post reports.
Unfortunately, five minutes later the owner approached her and told her to "have a bit of dignity," Mirror has learned. The encounter hurt Jones, who was so appalled.
"I'm a new mother and I feel quite shy about breastfeeding in public anyway, but this has really knocked my confidence," said Jones.
The first-time mom revealed that she asked permission from the management and they said they do not have problems with it.
"But not long afterwards, she came over and told me I needed to cover myself up. When I asked her what she meant, she said I should have a bit of dignity about what I was doing," Jones added. "I couldn't believe she said that to me. Breastfeeding is the most natural thing in the world, and it left me in tears that I had been asked to cover up."
Jones revealed that she breastfeed in different restaurants and she never encountered such negativity. Instead of finishing their meal, Jones asked for a refund and they left straight away. The new mom swear that she will never return to the same café ever.
Jones took her disappointment to social media. One user commented that he finds the staff in the café very polite but with their treatment to breastfeeding moms he might not visit the shop ever again. Check the screenshot of Jone's post here.
The shop owner, Kath Craven admitted that she asked Victoria to cover up herself, but despite the encounter, Crave stressed that she supports breastfeeding in her café.
According to Craven, it's not an issue to her for women to visit her café and breastfeed but in Victoria's case, she was sitting in an open area of the café which could be seen easily by other customers.
"She had most of her breast out, so I asked her to cover the top part of her breast, as the cafe was busy and people could clearly see her," Craven said.
Craven added that she is not a prude. She has eight grandchildren and her daughter has breastfeed in the café. However, she thinks that Victoria has "overreacted a bit."
