A young mother of a four-month old ventures out in public for the first time without her baby.
You can imagine she would be nervous and anxious. It’s a big thing for any mother to leave their newborn.
What happened to her though left her angry, humiliated – and desperately unhappy.
Rikki Forrest from Adelaide went with a group of friends to the Sea and Vines Festival on the weekend. As a part of the tour they stopped at a McLaren Vale Winery.
Rikki needed to pump her breastmilk as her four-month old baby, Brock was not with her. She says she asked the winery staff if she could use a private room.
Rikki writes on Facebook that the worker then asked her manager before returning to tell Rikki that the most private place they had was in a corner.
She says the woman pointed to a crowded extension of the winery with about 20 people sitting at tables and chairs.
“I have no problem breast feeding in public, but pulling your breasts out and pumping is completely different and there were a lot of men around,” Rikki told The Advertiser.
Rikki says that she then told her she needed somewhere private. “ I told her I needed to empty my milk somewhere, so would like somewhere more private.”
She writes “ She then told me she would empty it for me and pointed to the sink on the cellar door counter and laughed. Appalled we turned away.”
What made matters worse was the comment she says the woman made to a male customer.
“I heard her joke with a male customer ‘too much information’.“
Rikki says she was forced to walk the grounds walk the grounds, to find a quiet place away from people.
Top Comments
Breast feeding mums aren't allowed in private staff areas to feed their babies so why should an expressing mum? I'm fully express bottling so I understand but seriously it was her choice to express outside. The staff weren't stopping her from being inside... As for dumping the milk down any old drain would do or on the side of the road even. It's not really as big a deal as she made it into.
I'm really over all this public shaming crap. Why can't people simply report a situation to management and ask for an apology without posting it on FB? I'm sure she felt humiliated and embarrassed and I'm not saying that's OK, but is it really worth destroying the reputation of someone's business in return?