A mum-of-two has slammed a "disgusting" breastfeeding experience at Asda which left her “shaking with anger”. Gemma Balmbra, 26, has vowed never to return to the supermarket after being given “rude” treatment by a checkout worker, as Edinburgh Live reports.
Gemma was left horrified when a member of staff told her to “cover up” while breastfeeding her six-week-old baby at an Asda superstore in Straiton, near Edinburgh, on Monday. The mum revealed she felt intimidated by the staff member after both her children - a five-year-old son as well as the baby - became unsettled as they arrived at the checkout.
The stressed-out mum had been trying to help her children and unpack the shopping on her own, before the worker made her "feel awkward" and like an "inconvenience". The Asda store has since apologised to Gemma over her experience.
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"I ended up cutting my shopping visit short as my baby was very unsettled and my son was getting impatient due to me having to stop and keep getting the baby out the trolley to stop him crying,” Gemma said. “I went over to a checkout where little did I know I was about to have the pleasure of meeting the staff member.
"I started unpacking my shopping onto the conveyor. I was all stressed and was dropping things, my baby was crying at this point. The lovely woman behind me offered help and held my baby so I could get everything out of the trolley.
"The worker was so, so rude she made me feel awkward, maybe even an inconvenience as I was about to hold her up as I needed something replaced that had burst open, she couldn’t get a member of staff over so she was getting annoyed about that.
“I clearly didn’t have any bags but she just kept scanning stuff through that I had to just put straight into the trolley whilst holding a baby and keeping an eye on my son, she was rushing me."
Trying to calm the situation, Gemma opted to quickly breastfeed her baby while attempting to sort and pay for her shopping. However, she was left stunned when the staff member immediately told her to “cover up”.
"Since my baby was crying I decided some milk would help to settle him,” she continued. “I am a breastfeeding mother who while in store got asked to ‘cover up’, I told her no. I let her know how disgusted I was in her to even ask me. I asked her if she’d rather my baby cry or I feed him, not that she had a choice.
"I spoke to a manager and I was shaking with anger, as I was walking away I felt like I was going to cry, the other people in the queue were quite disgusted and one woman reported it to a different manager. I won’t go back to the Straiton store.
"Luckily I’m a second time mum with feeding experience so it’s not knocked my confidence to feed in public but today the employee could have really affected a new mothers' confidence."
Having made a formal complaint to Asda, Gemma has since been contacted by the supermarket. She revealed they had apologised for the incident and assured her this is not their breastfeeding policy.
She added: "A manager phoned me and sent me their policies which say you can breastfeed anywhere in the store as long as you and your baby feel safe. She also said they would follow up on seeing if they can get some breastfeeding welcome signs, and they've been over the policies again with their colleagues at Straiton."
An Asda spokesperson said: "We welcome customers who wish to breastfeed in our stores and we are sorry that our policy was not followed in this instance. We have spoken to Gemma and reassured her that we are looking into this with the Straiton store and we will remind our colleagues of our policy on breastfeeding in our stores.”
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