Several new moms protested outside of an Anthropologie store in Beverly Hills on Wednesday after a shopper said a store manager asked her to go to the bathroom to breastfeed her child, ThinkProgress reported.
For the Anthropologie "nurse-in," as the growing movement is called, several mothers gathered at the store to feed their babies publicly in hopes of sending a public message that women shouldn't be barred from nursing in stores.
Ingrid Wiese-Hesso was asked to feed her six-week-old son in the store's bathroom, which didn't have any place to sit, apart from the toilet. She felt uncomfortable and judged, and wondered whether feeding in a bathroom is what it means to be a mom, according to ABC7.
The woman said she has breastfeed her child in other public places with no problems. The general manager of the store called Wiese-Hesso and apologized for what happened.
California is one of 46 states that allows women to breastfeed in public. Women are still often asked to cover up or step inside a bathroom when nursing despite it being legal in all 50 states. One of the protestors who attended the nurse-in said she would never force a child to eat in a bathroom because she herself wouldn't eat there either.
August is breastfeeding awareness month, intended to highlight the various health benefits breastfed children receive during the early stages of their lives. The high-end clothing retailer markets largely to women.
"Nurse-ins" have become a frequent method of resisting. Dozens of Oregon moms staged a similar protest at a restaurant where a breastfeeding woman was asked to cover her chest up. In Oklahoma, a group of mothers got together to breastfeed in a park. There was also a nurse-in at an American Airlines terminal in 2013, and in Target stores nationwide in 2011. Women in Detroit banded together after a nursing woman was kicked off a bus in 2011 as well.
On Twitter and Facebook, women have created online groups to share photos of breastfeeding after the social media sites have often flagged images or nursing mothers as too obscene and graphic.
