Don't Mess With a Mommy!

Recently a friend of mine/our wedding photographer was told that she could not use a Target (Pflugerville) fitting room to breastfeed her infant and that she would need to go to the store's restroom if she needed to do so. There was no one in any of the fitting rooms, nor was anyone waiting to go in.

I see many problems with this. First and foremost this is in violation of the state Breastfeeding Law which: "gives the mother the right to breastfeed her baby in ANY location she is authorized to be." Check out the statute in the Health and Safety Code, Chapter 165 for yourself: http://www.dshs.state.tx.us/wichd/lactate/mother.shtm#item2

Secondly, it's not like she was wanting to walk around the store with her boob hanging out. She asked for permission to privately feed her child in an unused space- SO THAT SHE COULD SHOP LONGER. Hello Target? I am a very private person and had a lot of anxieties about breastfeeding, along with some incorrect preconceived notions. One being that I would never be able to do it in public. Wrong. I fed Cody in an Old Navy dressing room (which were also all empty) so that I could continue to shop and not have to leave the store. Even if my friend wanted to walk around the store with her child in a sling and covered-up she should have been able to do so, and it protected under the law to be able to do so.

Unfortunately, this was not the first for Target. http://mamaknowsbreast.com/target/ Perhaps they need to think about their sales; $300 breastpumps and all the families who choose to register and shop for their infants and children at their stores. If you cannot accommodate us, it seems as though we should shop elsewhere. This saddens me. Target was literally one of my daughter's first words! Sad, but I like to shop there! At an early age she knew to associate the bullseye logo with my favorite store, "Target!" At her 5th birthday party this weekend she got giftcards and though she cannot read, knew they were to Target! Michigan (where the story in the above link takes place) also has laws protecting breastfeeding mothers.

From what I'm reading online it looks as though (at least for Texas and most other states) in each case where management has been contacted after the fact at the various stores, movie theaters, restaurants and grocery stores where women have been asked to leave, escorted out or refused service- that management have simply issued apologies and said that they needed to better educate their staff and employees on the law pertaining to breastfeeding. I'm sorry, but that's not good enough. Not when I'm able to so easily find NUMEROUS cases of this happening. If you don't want breastfeeding in your store, open a gay bar.

There is no private property loophole. Go back to the top of this blog and read the sentence. It's black and white. If a woman is allowed in your establishment, she is allowed to breastfeed there. It's not public indeecency or lewdness, it's nature. Most women I know or have ever seen breastfeeding in public have been private about it. If I was every uncomfortable, I didn't look in that direction! I'm going to stay tuned for whatever Kim decides to do. The employees of Target need to get their act together if they don't want to lose business.

These are our children we're talking about. I'm not on this soapbox for attention or because I don't have anything else to be worrying about. Breastfeeding is protected under the law and a letter of apology doesn't do anyone any good at the time that they are being escorted out of a store or refused service. If I am ever embarrassed like that because I am trying to breastfeed our son somewhere, who ever is embarrassing me better watch out for my husband! Let us feed our kids, people. Just google 'breastfeed in public', 'not allowed to breastfeed', 'breastfeed at target' etc. and you'll be amazed. As you can see if you've read my previous blog, breastfeeding can be hard work- please don't make it any harder on us. I have a whole new respect for mothers who choose/are able to breastfeed.