A young mother found herself in an uncomfortable situation when circumstances forced her to breastfeed on the dirty floor of a train. Sophie Molineux, a 22-year-old from the UK, was traveling with her partner, Rob Moore, on a train journey from Shropshire to Ludlow when her 1-year-old son, Chester, became hungry.
The train was crowded, leaving no available seats for Sophie to sit comfortably while nursing Chester. The couple found themselves amidst a carriage full of around fifty other passengers, none of whom offered their seats to the mother and her baby.
Reflecting on the situation, Sophie expressed disbelief at the lack of compassion from fellow passengers. “I was so shocked. There were around 50 people in the carriage and not one person moved. We were stood in the aisle with seats on either side of us so both sides of the train could see us stood there and no-one moved,” she shared.
Sophie explained that Chester, now at an age where he insists on breastfeeding by tugging at her top, left her with little choice. “Obviously I’d rather not sit on the dirty floor of a moving train breastfeeding him, it wasn’t the nicest place, but I didn’t really have much choice.”
Despite her struggles, those passing by offered no assistance. “When I sat down on the floor there were people walking past going to the toilet and they would look and see that I was breastfeeding but no-one offered us a seat,” Sophie recalled.
“They just looked at me acknowledging what I was doing and then giving a blank expression. It was almost like they were not wanting to draw too much attention to themselves because they didn’t want to offer me their seat,” she said.
Sophie described her experience as “shocking” and pointed out she had never faced such indifference in similar situations before. “I just hope that people might be a bit more considerate in future, it should just be common sense to give up your seat for a child,” she concluded.
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