http://www.whatsonxiamen.com/news10733.html
“UK charity shop manager Steve Symonds sprays air freshener at breast-feeding Anisa Baker.
When her hungry baby daughter began to cry in the changing room of a charity shop, Anisa Baker thought it a perfectly secluded spot to breast-feed.
So she was astonished when the manager peered through the curtains – and then sprayed air freshener while loudly declaring: ‘Your breast milk stinks.’
Mrs Baker, 32, complained but was even more surprised when a more senior manager confirmed that breast-feeding was not allowed in the shop.
On Wednesday night, angry mothers were threatening a mass feed on the premises in protest at the ban.
The incident happened at a branch of the mental health charity Mind in East Dulwich, South-East London, where NHS worker Mrs Baker was shopping with ten-month-old Elsie and her other daughter, Rosa, three. She chose a selection of clothes and went into the changing room.
‘I closed the curtain as far as possible, and my baby immediately cried, so I sat down to feed her,’ she said. ‘This never takes more than a couple of minutes, there was another changing room available, and there was only one other customer in the shop.’
However, Mrs Baker realised that ‘a man with multiple facial piercings’ – whom she later learned was manager Steve Symonds – was watching her through the side of the curtain.
The man said loudly: ‘Changing rooms aren’t for breast-feeding.’
Despite this, she finished feeding Elsie and was browsing for shoes in the shop when Mr Symonds began spraying air freshener.
‘My baby started to cry,’ she said. ‘When another customer suggested it was from the strong smell of the spray, the manager said very loudly, “I have to spray because your breast milk stinks”.
‘Shocked and indignant, I complained, including asking why he felt it was appropriate to look into changing rooms.
‘He was insistent that he needed to look because he was the manager, and that I should not feed my baby in his store.’
Mind’s area manager, Lindsay McBryne, who was also in the shop, supported Mr Symonds and said changing rooms were ‘for trying on clothes, not for other purposes’.
Mrs Baker, of nearby Forest Hill, said: ‘I was amazingly insulted to be told my milk stinks. At this point I feel I will never buy nor donate clothing to Mind stores again. I want Mind to announce a clear policy allowing breast-feeding in changing rooms, and guaranteeing privacy behind curtains.’
She said her experience showed the importance of a campaign by the National Childbirth Trust to make it illegal to bar women from breast-feeding in shops and restaurants.
Mrs Baker wrote of her experience on internet forums for mothers, which soon caused a storm. Other mothers responded online by calling for a boycott or asking how the manager would feel about ‘20 breast-feeding mums whipping them out in his shop’.
One commented: ‘I know who I think stinks – and it certainly isn’t that poor mum!’
Other correspondents observed that charity shops themselves were renowned for having a ‘not too pleasant smell about them’.
Paul Farmer, chief executive of Mind, said he had ordered an investigation into the incident and both he and Mr McBryne had written to Mrs Baker to apologise. Mr Symonds did not respond to requests for a comment.”
Mind don’t make it easy to find who best to complain to about this sort of thing. They have a complaints procedure http://www.mind.org.uk/assets/0000/0175/Complaints_procedure.pdf which is “for members of the public who have received a service from Mind” in brief it suggests you write to: Outline the details of your complaint by letter, fax, email, or audio tape and send it to
the Chief Executive (CEO), Mind (NAMH), 15-19 Broadway, Stratford, London, E15 4BQ if speaking to someone about it does not resolve it.
Or you could try
Mr Monteith
Managing Director of MIND Shops
15-19 Broadway
Stratford
London
E15 4BQ
The Head Office number is 020 8534 4040
But the easiest way might be to email the Chief Exec 
p.farmer@mind.org.uk
Let me know if you get any response, it would be great to see them put a breastfeeding policy in place that protects mothers.
Lisa
Here’s what I sent to the Chief Exec:
”
I would like to add my name to the no doubt growing number of complaints regarding Mr Steve Symonds, manager of your East Dulwich branch and his abusive and threatening behaviour towards a breastfeeding mother.
To hear that a representative of your charity feels it appropriate to spy on a customer using a changing room, verbally assault her, humiliate, intimidate and potentially poison her and her children by spraying them with air freshener is disgusting and apalling.
I would have liked to have put this incident down to the ignorance of this particular member of staff, but the fact that Mr Symond’s actions were supported by the area manager, Lindsay McByrne, indicates that it is a policy of Mind to attack and discriminate breastfeeding mothers. I find it ironic that a charity who are supposed to support vulnerable people find this attitude acceptable.
I would like to draw your attention to the following information:
“The Government Equalities Office has confirmed that:
1) There is not, and never has been, any law that prohibits a woman from breastfeeding a child of any age in public, for example in a cafe.
2) The 1975 Sexual Discrimination Act created legal protection for a woman under the provision of goods, facilities and services section. This protection covered a woman breastfeeding a child, of any age, by implication, and meant that she could not be discriminated against for breastfeeding in places such as restaurants, cafes, surgeries, libraries etc.
3) The 2008 amendment to the SDA brought in more specific cover under the wording of ‘maternity’ – this also brought in the first mention of a six-month period, as it is tied to broader maternity rights covering 6 months before and after birth – whereby a mother could also challenge the owner under the grounds of maternity
4) The Equality Bill seeks to make it even more explicit that this maternity protection includes breastfeeding, by including the word breastfeeding in the statute.”
In conclusion, I will not be shopping in or donating to any of Mind’s shops and I will be encouraging my friends and family to boycott until Mr Symonds has issued a personal apology to the mother concerned and Mind have publically stated how they intend to address this issue through training and new policy.
“
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
Wow Charlotte, beautifully put!
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
And I have just been peeking around your website, you have some fantastic crafting ideas there, thank you!
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
I usually agree with the posts on this blog, but in this instance I must say that I do not agree with this.
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
[...] they simply couldn’t make enough for their babies? For every woman who kicks up a fuss about being told to cover up or get out while feeding her baby in public, how many slink away silently or go sit on a dirty toilet, [...]
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
Thankfully in Scotland this could not have happened. Or rather, if it had happened then there is an explicit law supporting feeding mothers, whether natural or with a bottle, whereby both the shop and area manager would be personally held to account for their actions.
As an aside, the name “Lindsay” can be male or female, and it’s useful to clarify that the area manager was a “he”!
Like or Dislike:
0 
0