A mother-of-two was left angry and embarrassed after she says she was told to stop breastfeeding her baby on a recent flight.
Rachel Duffy, 40, had apparently taken her seat on a Ryanair flight from Faro Airport in Portugal, when she encouraged her seven-month-old son, Noah, to latch onto her breast.
The British mum claims she had read online that having your child breastfeed during take-off would help prevent his ears from popping, so decided to give it a go.
Having successfully done so on her outbound Ryanair flight just 10 days prior, from Manchester Airport to Faro Airport, Rachel presumed it wouldn’t be a problem.
However, the stay-at-home mum claims that before the plane took off, an air steward came and ordered her to stop breastfeeding her child and waited until she had unlatched her crying child and re-dressed to move on.
Rachel claims that this also happened when the plane was landing at Manchester Airport, and has been left angry and embarrassed by the situation.
She said: “I got on the plane and sat down in the seat and strapped Noah in on my lap with the two seatbelt extensions provided.
“Noah was moaning so I latched him onto my breast as I had read that sucking would be good to stop his ears popping and it would stop him disrupting the rest of the flight.
“Then the air steward came over and told me that I couldn’t feed my son.
“The steward stood and watched while I struggled to sit my baby up – who started to cry – and continued to stand there until I had re-dressed myself.
“I was really shocked, angry and embarrassed by the situation – I continued to breastfeed during the rest of the flight, but I was told to stop again before landing.
“It’s left me incredibly anxious and nervous to fly again – and I won’t be doing so with Ryanair.”
Despite claiming she was told to stop breastfeeding during take-off and landing on her flight from Portugal to Manchester, Rachel claims she had no problem doing so on the outbound flight 10 days earlier.
Rachel was travelling with her two sons, Noah and Nathan, 14, and her sister-in-law, Rachel Hey, 34, who is 32 weeks pregnant.
Rachel Hey said: “The whole thing was disgusting – there was no communication, the steward was just abrupt and said ‘no feeding’.
“There was no elaboration, apology or even notice that she would continue to feed during the flight.
“The steward stood there and watched Rachel unlatch and there was no privacy or dignity.
“The exact same happened on landing too – there was no compassion showed to a screaming, unsettled baby and a panicking mum.”
A spokesperson for Ryanair said: “Breastfeeding mothers are very welcome on board our flights.”
