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Over the years, we've heard our fair share of stories of moms getting kicked out of places for breastfeeding. There have been stores, pools, and places of work, to name a few. But in a deliciously ironic twist, new mom DanielleGendron was kicked out of a courtroom recently for breastfeedingher 3-month-old son. Gendron was there to testify in a case, but never made it up to the stand, because she was asked to leave for feeding her baby. The ironic part? The courtroom she was kicked out of was in Connecticut. And Connecticut is one of 45 states, and the District of Columbia, that have passed statutes allowing women to breastfeed in any public or private location. If this were Idaho or Michigan, it would kind of be understandable (not right, but understandable), but Connecticut? A place were mothers legally should have a right to breastfeed? If you can't nurse in the building that makes these things legal, where can you nurse?!
According to Gendron, a family court marshal waved her out after she started feeding her newborn son, Maddox. "I went to feed him and the marshal ... immediately just waved me out," Gendron said. "That's never happened to me so I wasn't sure she was speaking to me at first so I kind of looked around and she was like, you know, get out." After a local news station got wind of what happened, they contacted the courthouse and were told that the marshal was in error and the state law was re-enforced not only to that marshal, but also to all the other marshals there at the court house. It will be re-enforced to marshals all across the state.
So, ultimately, the problem here wasn't with the law -- this was evidently just an error. But perhaps educating (or re-educating) all employees of all governments and businesses on the policies regarding breastfeeding would help normalize it. Now not only was a mother humiliated in a room full of people, other people were made to think that public breastfeeding is "wrong" and shouldn't be happening. No, it doesn't need to be in people's faces 24/7 (and there are discreet ways to do it), but the fact is, the more people see it, the less they'll care about. And then maybe women will have an easier time nursing.
Did/do you breastfeed in public?
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