Breastfeeding mother shamed for using Parents’ room
August 29, 2008 by Sherry Osborne
Filed under Parenting
According to this story, a young mother was followed and questioned by security officers and even the police after she had used a mall’s Parents’ Room to express breast milk for her baby. Two complaints had been filed, one by another female shopper and the second by a female cleaning lady.
The mall has since apologized for the shame that the mother felt, especially when the cleaner stood there watching her and telling her she couldn’t pump there, that it was only for breastfeeding mothers. Supposedly the other shopper’s complaint was made after a kid in the room mentioned it to his/her mother.
I am incensed by the story, especially since the mall apologized in a statement and offered the FATHER a gift certificate but never apologized directly to the mother.
Breastfeeding can be hard; pumping is even harder for some people. We constantly get blasted with messages telling us that “breast is best” and we want to do our best in regards to feeding our babies, so why do people have to make it so much more difficult? There’s truly not enough support for breastfeeding mothers.
I was always incredibly lucky. The worst I ever got was a couple of old biddies walking by when I was sitting and breastfeeding my young baby on my balcony – on the top floor, and they pointed at me in disgust. No one ever came up to me in a public place to question or complain about what I was doing.
Have you ever been harassed for breastfeeding? How did you handle it?
(Thanks to Andrea for the heads’ up // photo: sxc.hu)
The first year that we lived in AZ I drove back to CA twice with my daughter. I pulled over and got in the backseat of my Suburban to BF her when people walked by and stared at me. I was away from other cars and not near the bathroom so there was no real reason to walk by me. Another time we had gone out to dinner with friends and I walked out to the closed patio/garden area to feed her when a friend came out to smoke. I was sitting in a darkened corner away from the entrance so, again no real reason to come near me, when he came over to the table and asked me what I was doing.
Some people just don’t get it. My feeling is if you don’t want to see it, then stop looking. Most people go out of their way to look at mothers breastfeeding.
I was once pumping in a public bathroom (not in a stall, because my batteries were dead, and I needed the outlet by the sink), and a woman asked me what in the heck I was doing. I said I was expressing breastmilk. She looked all around and said, “where’s the baby”. LOL.