A breastfeeding group from Greenville in the US, held a nurse-in at a local supermarket, after one of their members was verbally harassed for breastfeeding inside.
Shawnee Colabella told her breastfeeding support group about the incident that took place at her local Walmart.
Colabella explained that employees told her to cover up and questioned how it was legal to breastfeed in public.
"Not only were they staring at me, they were making rude and disgusting comments about how disgusting what I was doing was, and how I should cover myself, and how if what I was doing was even legal.”
Upon hearing this the Facebook group “Upstate SC Breastfeeders” organized a nurse-in.
“We have decided to organize a nurse in at the Walmart on White Horse Road in order to protest against the disgusting behaviour of the Walmart employees and management. Hopefully we will encourage Walmart executives and management to educate there managers and employees about breast feeding, as well as, how to be courteous to those who do.”
The nurse-in took place on Monday morning. Walmart said that they are investigating the matter, and all nursing mothers are welcome to breastfeed in their stores.
“We welcome nursing mothers to breastfeed their child in our store. We recognize the intimate and personal nature of the decision a mother makes to breastfeed their child - and we never want to make her feel unwelcome in our stores because of it. We apologize if our customer felt uncomfortable during her store visit.”
Colabella said she spoke out about the incident, as she wants to feel comfortable, wherever she may need to feed her son.
"I want my son to be able to eat whenever he's hungry, however we are comfortable,"
