Bridal company bans mum from breast feeding in shop as 'she might spurt milk on dresses

An outraged mother claimed a bridal company banned her from breast feeding in their shop because she “might spurt milk all over the dresses”.

Josephine Fenton, 28, said she was asked to feed her seven-month-old daughter Ella “on the street” after she had gone to search for her dream bride’s dress.

But the business has strongly denied the claims - and said it was taking legal advice over adverse comments made on their Facebook page.

Josephine travelled from her home in Holmfirth, near Huddersfield, West Yorks., to the Jackson Couture studio in Manchester because they stocked a dress she could not find anywhere else.

She said the store owner’s mother Rebecca Jackson made the comments after she checked whether it would be OK to bring Ella along.

Josephine said: “I called the company a number of times before my appointment and never heard back. Then when I got them on the phone five minutes before my appointment I explained that I might need to breast feed Ella.

“The owner’s mum said I ‘would spurt milk all over the dresses’. I had my loudspeaker on in the car and my fiancée got very upset. I was just shocked.”

Josephine then attempted to feed Ella before arriving for her appointment but struggled because of her anxious state.

And after leaving her young daughter with fiance James Mallinson, 37, in the city, she then went to the appointment with her sister Georgina.

She said: “We got there and I explained that James might pop by with Ella as she might need feeding. The owner’s mum was acting quite rudely. She was treating me like there was something wrong with me because I was breast feeding. Then she said I could not feed Ella there, and if she needed feeding I would have to do it on the street. I was so shocked after the appointment I had to check with Georgina to see if she had really said that.”

Josephine decided to stay for the remainder of her appointment but opted not to buy her dream dress from the store. She said: “I still tried the dress on because it was the one for me and I really had my heart set on it. At first I would have put the spurting comment down to a misjudgement and put it to the back of my mind, but after the second comment about breastfeeding out on the street I was just so shocked.

“They kept treating me as if I had been the horrible one.”

The store’s website asks people to “refrain from bringing small children to appointments”.

The store’s owner, Felicity Jackson, denied Josephine’s claims. She said: “Josephine visited us and seemed happy. She was never told she would spurt milk or to go out on the street. We have a waiting area where she would have been fine to breast feed, with water, chairs and toilet facilities. We are very upset by what happened after her visit, Josephine and her friends have posted many messages on our Facebook page which we feel are unjust, and we have consulted a solicitor about their content.

“We have been trading for 17 years and have never had any complaints.

“If we knew Josephine was breast feeding we might have asked her to put back her appointment as a lot of our dresses require you to take your bra off.

“But we use our common sense, and people have visited who are breast feeding or have children before and always left happy.”