Bringing together two of our favorite topics — lawsuits and chocolate — a new mom in New York City has filed a lawsuit against the chocolate store she says gave her the boot for attempting to nurse her child.
The mom claims that she and her friend — also the mother of an infant — were at Lily O’Brien’s Chocolate Cafe in Midtown Manhattan last summer when both of their children needed to be fed.
According to the suit:
“[The moms] began nursing their hungry and tired toddlers… and positioned [them] with their heads toward their respective bodies… No part of either the plaintiff’s nor [her friend's] nipples were exposed.”
That’s when the cafe manager approached them and allegedly told the moms to “stop doing that.”
The plaintiff says she twice politely declined to cease nursing but ultimately opted to leave.
She claims that, because of the incident, she has suffered “severe embarrasment, severe shame, severe humiliation, severe emotional distress and loss of dignity” and has been “unable to breast-feed her child in places of public accommodation, as her experience at O’Brien’s has left her feeling inhibited from nursing her child. These feelings of inhibition result in severe anxiety whenever [the plaintiff] contemplates nursing her child outside the privacy of her home.”
The store’s manager says the employee at question did not tell the moms to leave, but merely asked them to cover up more while nursing. “Certainly no one was ever thrown out of our cafe for breastfeeding,” he said.
For what it’s worth, the law in the state of New York allows permits a mother to breastfeed her child in any public or private location. Click here to see a detailed list of nursing laws in all states.
Mom said she was booted from Midtown chocolate shop for breastfeeding her baby [NY Post]
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“severe embarrasment, severe shame, severe humiliation, severe emotional distress and loss of dignity”
I know it’s just the lawyer talking here, but that is such garbage.
“Someone was rude to me! SUE SUE SUE SUE!!!”
I find it offensive that people who are obviously not educated on the matter ridicule mothers for feeding older children. They must not know that the World Health Organization experts agree that breast feeding up till the age of four has proven beneficial. I’m not saying that a four year old can’t wait till they get home, but theses were toddlers and I’m sure they would prefer a feeding toddler to a fussy one. The store’s proprietor asked these ladies to “stop doing that” several times, she broke the law. I think these women have every right to stand up for themselves and demand their rights & the rights of others be respected. It doesn’t say that they are asking for financial compensation by suing, who knows what they are asking for, it could be as simple as posting a breastfeeding welcome sign.
Here’s a repeat comment I see over and over… about “the pump.”
Every breastfeeding breeder has some comment about how you can’t use one…
WTF ARE THEY FOR THEN!?!?!?!?!?
Plastic has been shown to have numerous endocrine & hormone mimicking chemicals every time the use of one is discontinued another is found. Why would anyone introduce poison to their baby when they have natural feeding implements readily available?