Breastfeeding mums protest at Sports Direct

Wioletta Komar, from Lincolnshire, was asked to leave the Nottingham branch of Sports Direct for feeding her baby earlier this year.

Now women from Telford have staged a group breastfeeding protest in the sports shop to show their support.

The protest was one of a number of events across the West Midlands that have been organised by Emily Slough, who organised the Free to Feed campaign after being labelled a "tramp" by internet trolls for feeding her eight-month-old daughter Matilda during a shopping trip in Rugeley.

The Telford protest was co-ordinated by Highley mum-of-one Claire Saunders, who gathered together 10 local mums to descend on the shop at the Wrekin Retail Park in Wellington - where they received a positive welcome from Sports Direct staff.

Claire brought her own eight-month-old daughter Penelope after the plight of Ms Komar struck a chord with her, as a fellow new mum.

She said: "It is quite hard to do the right thing.

"You want to feed your baby but the discrimination that some mums face is awful.

"I wouldn't want anyone to suffer discrimination like that - personally I have had a few funny looks and comments while I've been feeding my daughter.

"It can be quite off-putting, particularly to new mums and young mums.

"I hope Sports Direct has spoken to its staff and educated them now so they are a bit more welcoming to breastfeeding mums."

It is unlawful for a business to discriminate against a woman because she is breastfeeding a child and so shops should not ask breastfeeding women to leave.

In fact, when the women took to the Telford store, they received a very positive reaction from the shop's staff, with one assistant pointing them in the direction of more chairs and another continuing to serve customers around the group.

Ms Saunders said: "It has been really positive - one of the members of staff told us where there were more seats and another male member of staff said all the babies were making him broody."