Mother told off for breastfeeding because it's against museum's 'food and drink policy'

A mother was left “utterly humiliated” after being "told off" for breastfeeding her three-month-old son at a musuem - with a staff member telling her no food and drink was allowed.

Fae Church said the "disgruntled" staff member at the University Museum of Zoology in Cambridge then told her she should have gone to the museum's cafe.

Breastfeeding in public is a legally protected right, and the museum, which is part of the University of Cambridge, has apologised for the "unfortunate mistake" and the way Ms Church "was made to feel".

Ms Church, 35, was visiting with her husband and two children, including three-month-old Reuben. When Reuben needed feeding, she found a quiet spot next to a Komodo dragon skeleton and used her buggy as a screen.

She told Cambridgeshire Live she sat there “quite happily” breastfeeding Reuben for five minutes, with no fellow museum visitors paying any attention.

After finishing, she said she noticed a museum staff member walk past and give her a “sort of funny sideways glance”. Ms Church then told her: “I hope you don't mind, I just made this my breastfeeding corner."

She recalled: “There was a sort of silence and she looked at me again and she went: ‘Actually, no, it’s not OK because no food and drink are allowed to be consumed in the museum.'

“I stared at her, my jaw slightly went open and I didn’t know what to say. She then said: ‘There is a café upstairs, you should have gone there.'

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“I felt utterly humiliated, like a little girl at school, just getting told off. I didn't know what to say."

She added it was the first time she had received negative comments about breastfeeding in public.

“Especially from a woman, I found it quite shocking," she said.

“She seemed disgruntled with me. It was just bizarre and it left me really shaken up.

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"She was making me feel humiliated by it. I did just feel about three inches high in that moment, it wasn't nice.”

The museum's website itself states states: "Breastfeeding and bottle feeding is welcomed in all museum spaces."

In a statement, it said: "On behalf of all the staff and volunteers at the Museum of Zoology we can only apologise wholeheartedly for what happened to Fae and the way she was made to feel. We absolutely allow and welcome breastfeeding and bottle-feeding in all our public spaces.

"We pride ourselves on being a family-friendly museum and it’s terrible that a visitor was treated in this manner. The volunteer she spoke to made an unfortunate mistake, one which is not reflective of our culture or policy."

It added it has told staff "how important it is that visitors should feel comfortable breastfeeding and bottle-feeding in the museum".