We were at the Crayola Factory in Easton, PA this weekend with the kids. I had literally just come from nursing DS in the back of the demonstration room, and DH and I were taking the kids to do another art project when I noticed a staffer following a woman holding a baby, talking to her a bit agitatedly. I took note and wondered what was going on, and asked DH if he'd seen it, but he was ahead of me and hadn't.
We got to the next art station, and just as we did, the same staffer (male, and I think either speech/hearing impaired or developmentally delayed) had come up and was talking to the young woman giving out supplies. I overheard him say, "I told her she had to go to the bathroom, that was right, wasn't it?" The young woman told him it was.
I had a feeling I knew what had happened and said, "Um, excuse me, did I just overhear that a woman was sent to the bathroom to breastfeed?" The young woman said yes. I told her that Pennsylvania law protects a woman's right to breastfeed wherever she is otherwise authorized to be. She looked at me kind of blankly and then said, well, we have a nursing room but it's not open right now (she didn't say why), so for privacy... I repeated the information about the law and said that they were not within their rights to tell a woman to feed her child in the bathroom.
I then found the mom in question. She was from MD and hadn't known the law in PA, so I told her it was legal to BF in public there too. She said she probably would have confronted the guy more except for the fact that he seemed to have a delay of some sort. She was glad to know she was within her rights to nurse.
Since the young staffer didn't seem to pay much attention to what I had to say, I sought out a docent-type older woman on the ground floor to ask for a manager. The docent totally got things as soon as I explained the situation, and she said "Oh yes, we have a nursing room for privacy or they can use this auditorium space, but that's only if they want to, they can nurse anywhere." She got the manager on duty who confirmed that, and promised that she will ask the director this week to send out a memo reiterating the policy and reminding all staff that nursing moms can be offered the nursing room, but have the right to nurse wherever they are.
I was really pleased with the outcome. While the staffer at the table was a bit dismissive, she was also really busy. The manager and the docent were both very receptive and pro-active. Kudos to the Crayola Factory!
We got to the next art station, and just as we did, the same staffer (male, and I think either speech/hearing impaired or developmentally delayed) had come up and was talking to the young woman giving out supplies. I overheard him say, "I told her she had to go to the bathroom, that was right, wasn't it?" The young woman told him it was.
I had a feeling I knew what had happened and said, "Um, excuse me, did I just overhear that a woman was sent to the bathroom to breastfeed?" The young woman said yes. I told her that Pennsylvania law protects a woman's right to breastfeed wherever she is otherwise authorized to be. She looked at me kind of blankly and then said, well, we have a nursing room but it's not open right now (she didn't say why), so for privacy... I repeated the information about the law and said that they were not within their rights to tell a woman to feed her child in the bathroom.
I then found the mom in question. She was from MD and hadn't known the law in PA, so I told her it was legal to BF in public there too. She said she probably would have confronted the guy more except for the fact that he seemed to have a delay of some sort. She was glad to know she was within her rights to nurse.
Since the young staffer didn't seem to pay much attention to what I had to say, I sought out a docent-type older woman on the ground floor to ask for a manager. The docent totally got things as soon as I explained the situation, and she said "Oh yes, we have a nursing room for privacy or they can use this auditorium space, but that's only if they want to, they can nurse anywhere." She got the manager on duty who confirmed that, and promised that she will ask the director this week to send out a memo reiterating the policy and reminding all staff that nursing moms can be offered the nursing room, but have the right to nurse wherever they are.
I was really pleased with the outcome. While the staffer at the table was a bit dismissive, she was also really busy. The manager and the docent were both very receptive and pro-active. Kudos to the Crayola Factory!
:
