It’s the last place that you’d expect your baby to be in danger.
However one mother has taken to Facebook to issue a frightening warning about public changing mats.
Hayley Turner wrote: “I don't normally post things like this but I'm guessing if it happened to me it could happen to someone else, so I thought I'd spread a little word of warning to prevent it happening in the future.
“Today I changed Samuel’s nappy on a public changing mat, somewhere I trust to be a safe place. When I led him down he screamed.
“I dismissed it as him being tired, cold and grumpy so I changed him as quickly as possible so I could give him a cuddle and calm him down.”
What Hayley discovered next is truly shocking.
She continued: “It turns out some lowlife scum thought it would be 'fun' to deliberately put drawing pins in the bottom of the changing mat.
“Our poor baby boy was laid on pins!!! And because he isn't old enough to tell me it hurt, he now looks like a pin cushion with 5 holes in total.”
Image via Facebook
She finished with a warning to other parents, writing: “Angry doesn't even cover it.
“It's quite sad to think this has to be done but my word of warning is to CHECK YOUR CHANGING MATS!”
The image has been shared over 100,000 times - and attracted almost 100 comments from shocked Facebook users.
One wrote: “This is horrendous I actually feel sick thinking about this.
“I’m so sorry this happened to you and Samuel.”
Another added: “Where did this happen? The changing room should be checked every hour to be cleaned, which should involve lifting and wiping the mat.”
“There are some really sick f*****s in this world!” exclaimed another.
We hope that spreading this image will raise awareness - and that this incident, now reported and flagged, will never happened again.
Are you shocked by this mother’s story? Has anything similar ever happened to you?
Let us know via Facebook or Twitter (@CloserOnline) now.