Nursing EasyJet Passenger Asked to Stop Breastfeeding Child
Jackie Reddy September 28, 2018
A nursing mother has criticized EasyJet for its “confused” breastfeeding policy. Kelly Edgson-Payne was travelling on a flight from Gatwick Airport when she was asked to stop nursing her infant. She said “that there is no consistency” on this practice between its web and customer service channels.
An EasyJet passenger and nursing mother has criticized the carrier for its confused policy on breastfeeding, reports Fox News. Kelly Edgson-Payne was travelling on a Fuertaventura-bound flight from London’s Gatwick Airport (LGW) last month along with her husband and four children when she was asked to stop nursing her infant son by a male crew member.
Explaining the incident, which occurred on August 20, Edgson-Payne said that she had begun to nurse her child just prior to departure. Suddenly, she said that, “a male member of cabin crew came over and told me I couldn’t feed him during takeoff, and that I’d have to stop and strap him in to his infant seat next to me.”
“It was just crazy. I said, ‘Well, he’s feeding.’ But I just had to stop mid-feed and hand him to my husband. I was mortified,” Edgson-Payne added. But soon after this, she says that she was offered an apology by a female member of the flight’s cabin crew.
Commenting on her experience with the carrier, she said, “What annoys and disappoints me is that there is no consistency. On their website they state, ‘We support breastfeeding mothers and you can feed your baby on board at any time.’ But when I emailed their customer services about it afterwards, I was told, ‘Passengers are allowed to breastfeed their babies on board the aircraft, as long as you are doing this in a discreet manner.’”
A spokesperson for the carrier offered clarification, saying, “EasyJet supports breastfeeding and customers flying with EasyJet can breastfeed at any time during the flight. It is not our policy to ask mothers to be discreet and we make this very clear in our training.”
“This flight was operated by another airline on our behalf and while they should follow EasyJet policies we are sorry this did not happen on this occasion. We have followed up to ensure this does not happen in future,” the spokesperson added.
[Photo: iStock]
In order to prepare for take off, the flight attendants are responsible for the flight safety, meaning they will try and make sure that the cabin is ready. This has nothing to do with the policy of breastfeeding on board, but a simple measure on making sure that both the mother and child are safe during take-off as per the instructions of the airline. This has nothing to do with customer services of the cabin crew
Taking shoes off and feeding a child are very different things. It's like telling someone not to breathe during take off.
Sounds like the issue was the infant was not restrained in an infant seatbelt for take-off. If they were safely secured and nursed the airline probably wouldn't have had an issue.
Being a mom. Now an older one. It is good to breastfeed a child when the plane is going up or down. Better for the little ones ears.Otherwise you van have a kid in pain and crying non stop.
EasyJet customer service apparently has gone tits-up/