Nurse-In at Florida Starbucks

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Monday, June 12, 2006

One of the hardest things about being a Lactivist is having discernment over what battles to fight and what battles not to fight. I firmly believe that screaming foul over every single incident that gets "reported" on the Internet or even in the news does us no good. On the other hand, it's essential that sites like this one exist to help spread the word about both positive and negative treatment of nursing mothers by corporations.

That's why I'm torn on this whole Florida Starbucks issue.

From the Miami Herald...


Nicole Coombs, 22, says she was discreetly nursing 4-month-old Brahm at the Starbucks at 1451 Ocean Dr. when a manager ordered her out May 18.


However...the story goes on to say...


But Starbucks spokesman Alan Hilowitz described a different sequence of events. He said Sunday that a store manager asked Coombs to leave when she refused to stop changing her baby's diapers on a table inside the coffeehouse.

''She continued to change her baby and then she was asked to leave. There was no mention of breast-feeding whatsoever,'' Hilowitz said. ``We welcome nursing mothers in all of our stores. We always have.''

See my point? That's a tough one...

If she was asked to leave because she was breastfeeding, then clearly, I'm going to jump on Starbucks and point out the obvious problems here.

On the other hand, if she nursed her child, but was actually asked to leave because she changed a diaper on a table in the cafe, then I absolutely side with Starbucks. Changing a diaper on a table that people eat food on is digusting and a health hazard and anyone that does it SHOULD be asked to stop. Thus, I can envision a scenario where a mom has both nursed and changed the diaper in Starbucks and decides that it's the nursing that has caused her to be kicked out.

So I leave it at this...it's a he said/she said issue and it's a tough one to call. I don't know this woman from Adam. She may be completely sincere, she may be simply mistaken or she may be trying to get attention and exploit the situation. Who knows.

Labels: In the News, Nursing in Public

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