1. Breastfeeding mum angry after a Muslim woman used a parent’s room cubicle as a prayer room meaning she had to feed her baby out in the open.
A breastfeeding mother has demanded her local Westfield put signage above the cubicles in the parent’s room saying they’re for the exclusive use of nursing mums after she was “inconvenienced” when she went to use a cubicle and it was taken up by a women praying.
She said she hopes no other mother has to “endure” what she did.
Tatiana, who did not use her last name, told The Leader she reluctantly decided to feed her son on the couch in the shared area of the room at Westfield Doncaster, Melbourne, with other kids running about and playing.
“As I continued to sit there and feed my baby, one of the toddlers whom I assumed was her child, pulled open the curtains and there was the woman on the floor praying,” Tatjana said.
“Now I don’t have issues with religion or praying, but I was shocked that this family thought it was OK to take up this room to pray, while my son was denied a feeding room.”
“I hope no other mother has to endure this, and I would like to see signage in these rooms explaining what they are used for.”
Tatjana said “I know I can feed anywhere I like, but at the moment, he’s so inquisitive that he wants to pull his head out all the time and it’s just easier to be somewhere quiet and private.”
Tatjana said she contacted centre management but was not happy to be told they would’t be acting to stop praying women from using the rooms.
Centre management told Tatjana it would only police the use of the cubicles if “publicly indecent or dangerous” activity was taking place.