Tesco staff instruct young mother to breastfeed in storage area
The new mother felt embarrassed to breastfeed her baby in public
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Your support makes all the difference.A young mother say she was left feeling humiliated by Tesco staff when she was told to breastfeed her baby in a storage area.
On January 7, 24-year-old mother Lucy Foster was sitting in the café of a Tesco store in Plymouth, Devon when she realised that her seven-week-old baby needed feeding.
After ordering a cup of tea, Foster asked a worker whether it would be ok for her to breastfeed her baby in the café.
Rather than reassure Foster that it was fine, the staff member replied: “It depends,” and told her to take her baby to a storage area that was cluttered with tables, chairs and Christmas decorations.
Foster, who had been waiting for a friend in the café, felt too flustered to question the worker’s instruction.
The storage area that the young mother was directed to was, as Foster described, surrounded by “a wall of chairs”.
“It obviously wasn’t in use, and there were tables piled up in there, as well as old Christmas decorations,” she said.
“It didn’t look safe, and I had to move the chairs myself to get the buggy in there.
“Because she had pointed to this area, I felt I had to go there, but it made me feel ashamed of breastfeeding my baby.
“I don’t understand how such a big company can feel like that, especially when they supply everything for breastfeeding.
“There were only about four other customers in the café, and it is not as if I get my whole breast out; it is all very discreet.”
A few days after the incident took place, Foster emailed the customer care team to complain about the way she was treated.
A day later, she received a response that said the store manager would contact her to apologise.
However, that apology never arrived.
“Their staff clearly aren’t trained in basic customer care,” she said. “Even if they sent me an email saying they were sorry, that would have been fine.
“I think [retailers] need to make it more friendly for people to breastfeed, and as comfortable as possible.
“If they are worried about people seeing us, there were other places I could have been shown to go, like the toddler area.”
Tesco has since issued a statement in regards to the situation, apologising for the experience Foster had in their store.
“It is our policy that nursing mothers can breastfeed wherever they feel comfortable to do so in our customer cafes, and we are very sorry to hear that there was a misunderstanding of our policy on this occasion,” they said.
“A member of our café management team will be in touch with Lucy to discuss her experience so that we can learn from it and ensure we provide breastfeeding mothers with a warm welcome."
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