Woman Harassed for Pumping in a Mall Parents’ Room

An Australian woman pumping on her lunch break in the Westfield Marion shopping center “parents’ room” was approached by the cleaning lady and later questioned by mall security and police. Sharleen Salmon had recently returned to work and was expressing breast milk for her five-month-old baby Justice. The Guardian Messenger quotes Salmon as saying:

I was in a private area (in the parents room) behind the curtain and this cleaner just walked in on me and watched what I was doing. She told me the parents room was for parents and breastfeeding only – and that I wasn’t allowed to eat lunch in there.

Apparently a little boy running around the room had seen Salmon pumping, and he told his mother that there was a topless woman eating lunch in the parents’ room. The mother then complained to mall security.

Shopping center management issued an apology to Salmon but her husband says no one has apologized to her personally. It is bad enough that women are being harassed for breastfeeding in public. It is discouraging to hear of a woman being harassed for pumping, and for pumping behind a curtain, in a parents’ room no less!

Thanks to Inside Motherhood for the lead on this story!