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Breast feeding in public


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  • 2 years later...

It seems store managers in Nova Scotia are not getting the message. You cannot bar woman from a store for breastfeeding. A Nova Scotia woman was recently tossed from a store for breastfeeding.

Breastfeeding is a right under the NS human rights act per the NS Human Rights Commission (and has been so since 2000).

2.1 BREASTFEEDING POLICY

2.2 Reference and Authority

Human Rights Act. R.S.N.S., c. 214, ss. 5(1)(a), 5(1)(d), 5(1)(m), 5(1)®, 5(1)(s)

...

2.4 Policy Statement

Under the Human Rights Act women are protected from discrimination and harassment because of sex, which includes pregnancy, and family status, which means being in a parent-child relationship. In Nova Scotia it is illegal to discriminate because a woman is or was pregnant, because she may become pregnant or because she has had a baby. This includes a woman’s right to breastfeed her child.

2.5 Policy Directives

2.5.1 Access to Services or Facilities

The Human Rights Act prohibits discrimination in the area of “the provision of or access to services and facilities”. Women have the right to breast-feed a child in public areas, including restaurants, retail stores and shopping centres, theatres and so forth. Women should not be prevented from nursing a child in a public area, nor asked to move to another area that is more “discreet.”

2.5.2 Employment

The Human Rights Act prohibits discrimination in the area of employment against women who are breastfeeding. Employers have a duty to accommodate employees who are breastfeeding. This duty is limited only if the accommodation would create an undue hardship. Accommodation could include allowing the employee to have the baby brought into the workplace by a caregiver for feeding, and arranging a quiet place to breast-feed. The onus is on the employer to show an undue hardship if a request for accommodation related to breastfeeding is refused.

http://humanrights.gov.ns.ca/sites/default/files/files/breastfeeding%20revised%20policy(1).pdf

The head office for the store has admitted the error.

Some concerned mothers in Nova Scotia are lending their support to a Cole Harbour mom who was asked to leave a store in Mic Mac Mall because she was breastfeeding her baby daughter.

Kendra-Ann Nugent said she was shopping at Claire's in Mic Mac Mall on Christmas Eve with her family when her eight-month-old daughter Brooke-Lynn became fussy.

Nugent asked an employee for a chair and started to breastfeed her baby in the back of the accessories store.

She said she used her husband's winter jacket to cover herself, but while she was in the middle of breastfeeding an assistant manager asked her to leave.

"I informed her [of the] rights of mothers breastfeeding, they can feed anytime, anywhere in Nova Scotia," Nugent told CBC News.

The province declared breastfeeding a human right in 2000.

But she said the assistant manager repeated herself and asked Nugent to leave if she wished to continue breastfeeding.

Claire's says it's iin the middle of interviewing associates at the Dartmouth store to determine all of the facts. (CBC)

"I left the store immediately. I was pretty shocked and I was upset. I felt bullied," Nugent said. "I [feel] that all mothers in Nova Scotia should have the right to breastfeed… and feel comfortable while doing so."

Nugent said as far as she knows, no customers had complained about her breastfeeding.

Nugent's friend Nicole Fraser said she is hoping a lot of people will show up for the demonstration.

"We will just be there together to show the store that it's important to understand and to educate their staff so that something like this doesn't happen again," said Fraser.

A Claire's spokesperson said the store is investigating the complaint.

"We do not have a company policy that would require a mother that is breast feeding a baby to leave our store, so we would not condone such an action," wrote Stacy Forgang in an email.

"We will ensure that all our store associates are aware of our policy and are sensitive to these types of situations in the future."

It's the second time in a week a Nova Scotia mother has been told to stop breast-feeding in public.

Earlier this month a Dartmouth restaurant owner said customers complained about her breastfeeding, sparking a food safety investigation.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/story/2012/12/28/ns-breastfeeding-claires.html

Mind you it seems Nova Scotia civil servants do not know their own laws. In an earlier case restaurant inspectors were pulled up short when they attempted to prevent an owner from breastfeeding her child in a restaurant under some bizarre interpretation of food safety.

The Department of Agriculture has apologized for the way it handled complaints about a restaurant owner breastfeeding while at work, CBC news has learned.

"Babies in restaurants in and of themselves don't represent a food safety risk," read the statement.

Hannah Gibson, who owns Rocco's Ristorante Italiano in Dartmouth, told CBC News customers complained about her breastfeeding, which sparked a food safety investigation.

Last week the restaurant received its second official letter of complaint in six months from Nova Scotia's food safety inspectors. Gibson said she was then visited by inspectors and warned about publicly breastfeeding in her restaurant.

"Our minister has been in contact with Ms. Gibson and regretted any misunderstanding with regard to the province's support for breastfeeding," said the department.

The provincial Department of Health supports several breastfeeding campaigns, including a promotional video called Make Breastfeeding your Business.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/story/2012/12/23/ns-breastfeeding-department-.html

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Guest Gumballthechewy

No, the mother should starve her child because society thinks a naked breast is the worst damn thing a human being could be exposed too.

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Guest Gumballthechewy

You know what is gross though?

I work at a pool, and we have no authority to tell a woman that she isn't allowed to breastfeed in the pool. Go ahead and do it off in the seating area if you want, but nobody wants to see breastmilk floating around in the pool. Sadly, this has occured.

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