Saskatoon breastfeeding advocate says public needs more education
CBC News | Posted: March 25, 2015 7:34 PM | Last Updated: March 25, 2015
Woman feeding child at Saskatoon restaurant asked to cover-up
A breastfeeding advocate says the public needs to be reminded of the rights of breastfeeding mothers after an incident at a restaurant in Saskatoon this week.
Jennifer Willems was feeding her infant daughter at the Preston Crossing Cora restaurant when she was asked by an employee to cover her exposed breast after another customer complained.
“It’s humiliating to be publicly berated like that in front of your children,” Willems said.
Martha Neovard, a member of Breastfeeding Matters, said mothers are well within their rights to breastfeed in public.
“The problem is, is that we know statistically that when incidents like these happen it makes mothers afraid to feed in public,” said Neovard.
“They don’t seem to be aware that when they ask the server to get the mother to cover-up or to move her that they are asking people to violate human rights laws in Saskatchewan that have been laid down for close to forty years.”
Neovard said that there can be several reasons why a mother may not want to cover-up while feeding.
What are we doing to public health, what are we doing to taxpayers dollars when we make mothers uncomfortable to feed in public, whether covered or uncovered? - Martha Neovard, member of Breastfeeding Matters
“The thing is is that it’s not up for debate,” she said. “We need to move past that rhetoric and into how does this impact public health. What are we doing to public health, what are we doing to taxpayers dollars when we make mothers uncomfortable to feed in public, whether covered or uncovered?”
Neovard said that her group is currently working on an advisory committee with restaurants to help educate staff and owners about the rights of breastfeeding mothers.
Restaurant apologizes
Brianna Snider, the co-owner who received the call, said she told the manager that the woman was legally entitled to breastfeed and they support her rights to do so "100 per cent."
Snider said she called and apologized to Willems and offered a formal apology when she spoke to CBC News.
“We’re trying to take every step we can to resolve it,” Snider said. “ It was just a matter for us of educating our staff.”
But Willems said the apology didn’t go far enough.
“We need to work on fixing and making sure this never, ever happens again to another woman.”