V&A breastfeeding row after staff told mother to ‘cover up’
THE head of the Victoria and Albert Museum has apologised to a mother after she was asked to cover up while breastfeeding at the attraction.
The woman, 37, said a member of museum staff approached her after she revealed a “nanosecond of nipple” while feeding her one-year-old son. Last night, she said she was “stunned” by the response, which she said could adversely affect other mothers’ confidence if it happened to them.
Speaking to The Daily Telegraph, the woman, who has asked not to be named, said: “I was actually stunned into silence – rare for me – when I was first approached by a female staff member who asked me to “please cover up a bit, I could see you.”
“I had been attempting to be discrete and to feed under a cardigan, but with a distracted one-year-old it can be challenging. The staff member was friendly and polite, but obviously asking me to cover up was still intrusive, unpleasant and embarrassing for me, as well as obviously ludicrous.”
She added: “I felt it was important to draw attention to the issue – and I tried to do so playfully – because the shame and embarrassment caused by that kind of interjection when you are trying to feed could be crushing for a woman who was less Teflon than me.
“It could really badly affect someone’s attempt to breastfeed if they were struggling with their confidence.”
The mother later posted a picture of herself and her son next to a statue of a woman breastfeeding her child.
Tristram Hunt, director of the V&A, former Labour MP and shadow cabinet member replied to the mother and apologised.
He said: “Sorry. Our policy is clear: women may breastfeed wherever they like, wherever they feel comfortable and should not be disturbed.”
The mother said she “appreciated the V&A’S sincere and swift apology”.