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Hers is a story we've heard all too often. Back in March, Shereen Matera says she was told by an assistant manager to "cover up or leave" while breastfeeding her son at a Barnes & Noble in Nanuet, New York. Although it must have initially been all sorts of upsetting for Matera, she responded boldly -- suing the bookstore chain for mistreatment. Thankfully, she also got a ton of back-up!
After hearing about the incident, 15 other breastfeeding moms jumped to Matera's defense, joining her in a "nurse-in" at the store, to the disapproval of another store manager. Later, after Matera's complaint to the Barnes & Noble corporate office led nowhere, she went to the New York's Attorney General's office. And today, she's celebrating her settlement and victory in the case.
Earlier this week, Attorney General Eric Schneiderman announced that the book store must now offer more training for its workers. And in response, B&N says they support breastfeeding, will offer more training, and agreed to donate $10K to Rockland County's Breastfeeding Promotion and Support Program. Hey, it's a start ...
The bottom-line is that moms have a legal right in New York state to breastfeed their babies in any location -- covered or not. So, the fact that Matera had to endure any of this in the first place is truly aggravating. At least she took a stand, and in turn, the outcome -- seeing the store have to eat crow -- was the best it could be possibly be.
Still, it's proof we all have to keep fighting the good fight to support breastfeeding moms. And we can't back down until incidents like this are unheard of altogether.
What do you think can be done to make sure that incidents like these stop happening?
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