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Judge Deems Breastfeeding Inappropriate in court room

1K views 7 replies 5 participants last post by  Adaline'sMama 
#1 ·
An incident in Van Buren County, Michigan (SouthWest MI) happened where a woman waiting to make a court appearance for a boating ticket was told she that breastfeeding her 5 month old in the court room was inappropriate. The woman had been waiting for 2 hours in the court room and the baby had a been fighting a fever and an ear infection. When she started to nurse the baby, the bailiff noticed and notified the judge who then called the woman up front and told her (in front of everyone) that it was inappropriate and not to breastfeed in his court room. He then proceeded with her ticket summons.
This incident happened very close to where I live and I am working with another mom on putting together a nurse-in. We are currently trying to find the Michigan laws on protesting in/on/around a court house and working on a date and time that works best for the few moms that we know will come. At this point the incident has made it to some national news outlets. I am hoping to start a letter writing campaign as well. I just wanted to spread the word.

Here is the original article:
http://www.woodtv.com/dpp/news/local/sw_mich/Woman-humiliated-for-breastfeeding

Any advice on the best way to get more moms and more ppl to support the nurse-in? Any advice on the letter writing? Should the letters go directly to Judge Robert T. Hentchel (the judge involved in the incident) or the chief judge Judge Paul E. Hamre

Van Buren County Court
219 East Paw Paw Street, Paw Paw, MI 49079

Any advice would be very appreciated. I'm a noob in the lactivism dept. This just made me so crazy angry. Thanks!
 
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#2 ·
I just read about this in the Huffington Post, and followed the link to the mom's post on another site. Then I thought that surely Mothering would have the story. I don't live near there or I'd offer to participate in your nurse-in. I also don't know the best way to go about it, but hopefully someone on this site does and will help you. I'm just offering my support from afar. I'd be happy to write a letter or whatever you need. It makes me so mad when our "leaders" lead us backwards rather than forward. Would the judge say it was inappropriate to bottle feed a baby in his courtroom? Or to blow your nose? How backwards-thinking and completely in opposition to the Surgeon General's and the WHO's goals of promoting and encouraging breastfeeding.
 
#4 ·
#5 ·
I saw this article in my facebook news feed.I would message these folks about it because they are always good for putting out the word about nurse ins and such.
 
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