Nursing grievances
Battles over breastfeeding in public bring controversy to an ageless and tender practice | Susan Olasky

Photo by Christinne Muschi/Reuters/Landov
Breastfeeding mothers versus those offended by the sight of a baby suckling in public: Two recent contretemps received attention. In June near Chicago, a storeowner told a mom to stop nursing her baby in a resale shop, or leave. In July in Detroit, Afrykayn Moon, 32, was nursing her 3-week-old baby as she boarded a public bus. The female driver told Moon to cover up or get off. Moon told the Detroit Free Press, "'I had him in a football wrap. . . . She wasn't seeing much.'" Nonetheless, the driver refused to drive until Moon had finished feeding the baby.
Both incidents led to "nurse-ins," sit-in type gatherings of nursing moms outside the place where the confrontation occurred. Their message: You were embarrassed by the flash of one breast, so we will humiliate you by flashing dozens. Last year a nurse-in at a Glendale, Ariz., McDonald's came after a manager asked a breastfeeding mother to leave. This February, 100 parents and babies showed up for a nurse-in at the Hirshhorn Museum in Washington, D.C., after a security guard asked a breastfeeding mother to move to a restroom.














