Dispute over breastfeeding leads to rally at H&M store
Breastfeeding advocates are holding a “nurse-in” at a Vancouver clothing store tomorrow after a new mother said she was told to stop nursing and move to a private changing room.
The company however said the incident was a misunderstanding and the fitting room was offered out of courtesy to make it easier and more comfortable for the nursing woman.
“I was upset and completely humiliated,” said Manuela Valle, 34, a PhD student in women’s and gender studies at the University of B.C., who said she planned to file a human rights complaint yesterday.
“They made me feel completely shameful and obscene.”
On Saturday, Valle was shopping with her husband and two-month-old daughter Ramona at the new H&M clothing store on Granville Street. Valle was breastfeeding, when a clerk came up and allegedly told her the feeding was making customers uncomfortable and asked that she move to a fitting room to continue. Valle claimed the clerk, and later a manager, told her it was the store’s policy.
Laura Shankland, a spokeswoman for H&M Canada, said the fitting room was offered to make Valle more comfortable.
“We allow — of course — women to breastfeed in our stores,” Shankland said. “It’s certainly not our policy to disallow that … we’ve really apologized and again we can only apologize.”
She said unfortunately Valle took the offered room the wrong way.
WITH FILES FROM KRISTEN THOMPSON
