All over the country right now, working mothers of young children are in their offices, cubicles, break rooms, parked cars, or other spot in their workplace, pumping breast milk for later use. However, flight attendants for Frontier Airlines say they have been barred from pumping while on the clock. [More]
breastfeeding
Lawsuit Claims Meijer Failed To Provide Worker A Safe Place To Pump Breast Milk
By 7.11.16
For a nursing mother, it can be quite a challenge to find somewhere private to pump breast milk when you aren’t actively feeding your baby. But although a federal law requires employers to provide such a safe spot for workers, one former employee of grocery chain Meijer claims in a lawsuit that there was no such place for her to express breast milk while she was at work, which she says ultimately led to her losing her job. [More]
Woman Says She Was Asked To Stop Breastfeeding At Ohio Pizza Hut
By 3.29.16
Under Ohio state law, public establishments – including restaurants and retail stores – must allow mothers to breastfeed their children. But one woman says a Pizza Hut restaurant she visited didn’t follow that rule and asked her to leave when she started nursing her child. [More]
Ohio Museum Apologizes After Employees Tell Woman To Stop Breastfeeding
By 3.23.16
An Ohio museum is clarifying that mothers are welcome to nurse their children on the property, after employees told a visiting woman that she had to stop breastfeeding. [More]
United Passenger Says Airline Suggested She Pump Breast Milk In Pet Relief Area
By 10.6.15
Over the years, airlines have been found to be less than welcoming when it comes to nursing mothers: a flight attendant shaming a women for breastfeeding during a flight or the carrier that made a mother check a bag containing her breast pump. That rocky relationship continued this week as a United Airlines passenger says she was instructed to use a “pet relief’ area for pumping purposes. [More]
Marshalls Sorry That Mom Had To Breastfeed In Bathroom Instead Of Dressing Room
By 9.14.15
While Oregon law explicitly states that “A woman may breast-feed her child in a public place,” the staff at a Portland Marshalls store are apparently not well-versed in local laws or their employer’s own policies. [More]
Restaurant Owner Apologizes For Asking Breastfeeding Mom To Cover Up Or Move
By 5.6.15
We support many things here at Consumerist. One of them is the right of parents to feed their infants however and wherever they choose, which includes the right to openly breastfeed in business establishments. State law in Illinois also supports this right. We also support proportionate responses when a business wrongs you. After a mother shared her grievance against a local restaurant on Facebook, the owner claims to have received threats of death and property damage. [More]
Woman Says United Airlines Flight Attendant Shamed Her For Breastfeeding During Flight
By 3.12.15
For years now nursing mothers have encountered any number of displeased looks, rude remarks and requests to cover up. A Vancouver mother says she was the latest victim of such a run-in when a flight attendant on a United Airlines flight tossed a blanket to her husband in an attempt to get her to cover up.
[More]
Oklahoma Moms Stage Walmart Nurse-In After Store Tells Breastfeeding Customer To Cover Up
By 2.4.15
No matter how many stories we write reminding people that every state has a law allowing nursing moms to breastfeed in public, some manager at a store will still screw things up and ask a mother to leave the store or cover up. The latest incident involves a Walmart in Oklahoma, where several woman recently staged a nurse-in to drive their point home. [More]
Delta Apologizes For Making Nursing Mother Check Bag Containing Her Breast Pump
By 1.27.15
Perhaps you’ve been there before — you’ve got three bags and the airline tells you you’ve got to consolidate your carry-ons down to two, even if it means checking an item. But a nursing mother who says she was told she’d have to check her breast pump says Delta Air Lines should’ve allowed her to bring it onboard instead of making her check it. [More]
Restaurant Fires Worker After Customer Says She Caught Him Taking Photos Of Her Breastfeeding
By 10.27.14
As if it’s already not hard enough to find a private moment to breastfeed a baby in public, a woman nursing her 2-month-old son at a Texas restaurant says she saw an employee of the eatery snapping photos of her during the breastfeeding session. [More]
Woman Says Anthropologie Manager Sent Her To Breastfeed On The Toilet
By 8.21.14
A woman in California says that Anthropologie used to be her favorite store, but she gave serious thought to boycotting the chain after a store manager asked her to please feed her six-week-old son in the bathroom, not in the back of the store. The goal? To make everyone more “comfortable.” [More]
Barnes & Noble To Train Employees To Not Be Jerks To Breastfeeding Moms
By 7.9.14
In spite of the fact that every state in the U.S. has laws that allow nursing moms to feed their babies in public, there are still frequent reports (some possibly fictional) of breastfeeding mothers being told to cover up or leave stores, restaurants, and airplanes. In the wake of one such incident at one of its stores in New York state earlier this year, Barnes & Noble has agreed to train its employees that it’s not illegal for a mother to give sustenance to her young child. [More]
IKEA Now Denies Claims Of Breastfeeding Mom Who Says She Was Called “Disgusting”
By 3.17.14
Last week, we told you about IKEA apologizing to a mom in Ottawa, Canada, who claimed that an employee at the store told her she was being “disgusting” while she nursed her daughter and allegedly told her to “take it to the bathroom.” But now, IKEA is saying that after reviewing in-store footage from the day in question, it found no evidence that the customer was even nursing. [More]
IKEA Apologizes After Manager Allegedly Calls Breastfeeding Mom “Disgusting”
By 3.13.14
UPDATE: IKEA says it has reviewed footage from the day in question and says it has found no evidence that any such incident occurred.
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IKEA is having to do the apology song-and-dance after a mom in Ottawa claimed that she was treated rudely by a manager who told her she was “being disgusting” by nursing in the store and to “take it to the bathroom.” [More]
Victoria’s Secret Apologizes After Store Tells Mom To Breastfeed In Alley
By 1.24.14
When the mom of a 4-month-old asked the clerk at a Texas Victoria’s Secret if she could use one of the store’s fitting rooms to nurse her child, she was doing so out of courtesy, as Texas law allows mothers to breastfeed in all locations. She certainly wasn’t expecting to be told that she should feed her infant in an alley next to the store. [More]
Airlines Adding ‘Flying Nannies’ And Lactation Stations
By 9.5.13
Rather than banishing kids to a create a child-free zone on its planes or removing an entire family from the aircraft because of an upset youngster, one airline has decided to train its cabin crew as “onboard nannies,” while another carrier is carving out a small section for traveling moms who need a few moments of privacy. [More]
American Airlines Says Flight Attendants Shouldn’t Tell Nursing Moms To Cover Up, But Vague Policy Results In Confusion
By 8.7.13
Yesterday, we told you about the semi-apology letter from American Airlines to a nursing mother who said she was treated rudely by a flight attendant while trying to feed her 5-month-old during a recent flight. At the time, we weren’t sure if the “cover it up” sentiment stated in the airline’s response to the mom was company policy or just a rep misstating the policy. Now we have a better idea. [More]
