A young mum says her confidence was hit after a Sainsbury's employee told her off for breastfeeding her four-week-old daughter, claiming it was "inappropriate".
Beth Coles, 25, was completely covered up while feeding Rosie in the car park of the Kidderminster Sainsbury's branch when she was approached by a member of staff. The mum claims her little girl had a "meltdown" while shopping in the store, so she decided to take her to the car to feed, not once considering it would be an issue.
However, when a female member of staff who wasn't wearing their name badge approached her, the situation soon turned sour. Speaking to the Mirror, Beth said: "She knocked on the window, so I opened the door, moved the child. She said, 'can you stop that, please? It's inappropriate'.
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"My reaction was to just burst out crying. I didn't know what to do. She just gave me a funny look and walked off, and I was like, 'oh, okay your goal was to make me cry'. Beth suffers from post-natal depression and borderline personality disorder (BPD) and had already been feeling down prior to the incident on Friday, June 24.
That evening, she felt well enough after two weeks to take Rosie out shopping with her partner James. She says the incident with the employee has negatively impacted her mental health.
She added: "It sort of solidified my view of maybe I shouldn't be leaving the house because when I do things like that happen." Beth decided to share her story on Facebook which featured a pic showing how covered up she was while feeding Rosie.
The post quickly garnered a lot of attention and one of the group's members took it upon themselves to tweet directly to Sainsbury's. The member was asked by the supermarket giant to DM them, however, Beth claims they stopped responding after a number of other people spoke out online.
Beth decided to email the supermarket directly herself and was offered a £40 gift card and a promise that members of staff would be spoken to. But she felt this wasn't a good enough response and replied that they had "to be joking".
"I don't want the money. I just want an actual apology, which they don't seem to want to give," she added.
A Sainsbury's spokesperson said: "We have apologised to Ms Coles for this unacceptable experience and we have reassured her that breastfeeding is very welcome in our stores.
"We are investigating with the store and further training will be provided to our colleagues where necessary." However, Beth is adamant that she has still not received a proper apology.
"Unless they sent it by carrier pigeon, and it got lost, then no there has been no apology at all," she said.
Speaking about the situation and support she's received from others online, Beth said: "It's been lovely to see the response. It's just the fact that the lovely response is being ignored by Sainsbury's themselves.
"Even somebody from Tesco has messaged me saying 'we're sorry on Sainsbury's behalf, even though we're Tesco, you're more than welcome to come into our stores, we will happily accommodate you'. So another large store has responded to me, but the store in question hasn't."
Considering what she'd say to those who respond negatively to breastfeeding mothers, the mum added: "If you have a personal preference or opinion about it if you are in uniform especially representing a supermarket.
"Not only is it damaging for your workplace, but it is majorly damaging to the person that you've said it to. You really got to be careful about what you say in general nowadays, but to come up and knock on the door of somebody who's very covered up.
"And I really did try. I had a muslin and blanket over me and still had all my clothes on. How damaging that is. And for somebody who's still fairly young and has BPD and postnatal depression. They're lucky that it didn't tip me over the edge in a sense, and cause a much bigger issue.
"All I want is an apology. That's all I want. I don't want money. I don't want anything silly. I just want an apology."
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