Mums rally after restaurant discrimination

A GROUP of Sydney mothers has held a public nurse-in after a young mum was asked to move to the bathroom to breastfeed at a restaurant at the Rocks.

Breastfeeding baby and mum

"IF you don't like it, look away."

That's the message a group of breastfeeding activists in Sydney have given to anyone uncomfortable with public breastfeeding.

About ten "lactivists" held a nurse-in at the Rocks on Tuesday after mother Larissa Bakewell was asked to move to a bathroom to breastfeed her 18-month-old daughter at a restaurant last week.

Ms Bakewell told AAP at the nurse-in that she had finished lunch with her mother at the Japanese restaurant Sake when a staff member told her other patrons had complained about her breastfeeding.

The staff member then asked her to finish feeding her daughter in the bathroom.

Ms Bakewell declined and instead paid her bill and left.

"I was completely taken aback," she said. "I've been breastfeeding for 18 months and I've never once faced negativity."

The right to breastfeed in public is protected by the 1984 Federal Sex Discrimination Act.

Victoria Brookman from Lactivists Australia said it was important that women have the freedom to breastfeed in public.

"This is about saying to women, you can exist in society when you're a mother," she told AAP.

"You don't have to hide away in the home.

"I had very good friends who hid away for 10 months with their kids ... because they were terrified they'd be harassed."

Her message to patrons sharing a restaurant with a breastfeeding mother is simple.

"If you don't like it, look away," she said.

No one from Sake was available to comment but Ms Bakewell said "the restaurant has responded really wonderfully".

She said Vince Lombino, the group director of the restaurant's umbrella company, Urban Purveyor Group, had contacted her to say he was shocked by the incident.

Ms Bakewell also said Mr Lombino assured her that staff across the group's 18 venues would be educated about the rights of women in their restaurants.