Earlier the week, Tennessee mum, Wittney Hope brought her young baby shopping at her local shopping centre.
At some point Hope's baby daughter needed feeding as is generally the way with us humans.
The young mum found an out-of-the-way spot and after asking a shop assistant for permission, she settled in to breastfeed her baby. Then just moments later, the same woman approached her and told her it wasn't acceptable to "do that" in the store and suggested that she take the lift to another floor and relocate to the toilets.
Hope made a complaint to the store manager and then left. Later she wrote a post to the shop, Dillard's on their Facebook page highlighting the ridiculous double standards of not allowing her to breastfeed in their premises.
"As we were leaving the store I passed by this advertisement for bras, I mean seriously the lady’s face is not even in this. Why is it acceptable for a giant picture of BOOBS to be on the wall but I can not feed my child?"
The post has subsequently been shared more than 2000 times and has racked up over 4000 likes.
Hope admitted that the store’s manager had apologised to her at the time and offered the use of the fitting room to breastfeed her daughter, however she was still utterly dismayed at the treatment.
"The more I thought about it, the more upset I got. If people are offended by the act of breastfeeding and not by seeing an exposed woman, then it doesn’t matter what I do to try to respect others – they’re going to have an issue with it."
The shop subsequently released a statement:
"Dillard’s strives to create a pleasing and comfortable shopping experience for all our guests at all times. Accordingly, we respect the right of mothers to nurse their children wherever they feel comfortable in doing so."
"Upon becoming aware of this situation, our store manager immediately reached out to our customer and apologised. Our associates have been reminded of our breastfeeding policy."
I have to say when I was a breastfeeding mother; I found attitudes in Ireland to be quite welcoming towards the breastfeeding. In all honesty, the most negativity I encountered came from my own mother who breastfed me – hello irony. She was always horrified whenever I fed my son in public and there was many a poorly constructed fort of menus erected to shield the innocent bystanders from my offensive breasts.
Were YOU ever been mistreated while breastfeeding in public? Let us know in the comments...
