A mother says she was left ’embarrassed and ashamed’ after being singled out for breastfeeding in a cafe.
Prairie Zephaniah, 23, was out when baby Dekota woke up and wanted a feed. After breastfeeding her, Prairie passed the baby to her mother-in-law and finished her drink.
She says a male chef then approached her in front of everyone and said she must not feed her baby in the cafe if she were to come back.
The barmaid from Clacton said she immediately felt embarrassed and quickly left after paying.
‘I was absolutely fuming. It made me want to cry.
‘I’m a first-time mum and I was completely embarrassed – it has really knocked my confidence.’
She gives Dekota on-demand feeding, which means whenever she signals that she is hungry she will feed her.
She purposely tries to feed Dekota before leaving the house to avoid having to breast-feed in public, but has to do it whenever the baby is hungry.
‘I think this is the reason that so many mothers purposely stay at home to feed’ she said.
It happened at Caffe Dominic and Piccolo Deli in Clacton High Street, Essex.
A manager at the cafe said ‘We have unsuitable access for both prams and highchairs, so we asked the woman to sit at the back of the cafe due to the limited space.
‘We tried to help the woman when the baby started crying loudly, but we were powerless to do anything more.
‘I can’t be sure what the chef said, but we never meant to make her feel uncomfortable and we are sorry for any upset caused.’
The chef claimed he asked Prairie ‘that if she were to return to the cafe if she could not feed her baby’ but denied mentioning breast-feeding.
The Equality Act 2010 states it is ‘unlawful for a business to discriminate against a woman because she is breast-feeding a child’.
It says a ‘business may ask a breast-feeding woman to leave their premises if the reason for this request is not due to her breast-feeding’.
It goes on to say ‘However, if the woman later claims that discrimination occurred because she was breast-feeding, the business will have to prove that there was in fact no discrimination.’
