Nursing moms get out the word at Target: Breastfeeding is best

Waterford - They weren't allowed to hand out pamphlets, were denied permission to set up a table and felt awkward about the presence of security guards, but about a dozen nursing mothers who gathered today at a Target department store on Hartford Turnpike said they were glad to get out their message that breastfeeding in public is not only natural - it's also their legal right.

"I just think it's raising awareness that we as a nation have a certain stigma about breastfeeding," said Emily Kellner of Norwich. "Some people see it as sexual or inappropriate, which it is not. It's kind of an art. Women need to see other women breastfeeding to pick up on it."

Kellner wasn't sure many customers at Target were aware that the group of women and their children sitting in the store's snack area were part of a national "nurse-in," called to protest the harassment of a breastfeeding woman at a Target in Houston. The woman, Michelle Hickman, said she was told last month to move from a discreet spot in the store and warned that she could be arrested if she didn't nurse her baby elsewhere.

Mothers who gathered today said the nurse-in, which was expected to attract more than 3,000 women to more than 240 Target stores across the country wasn't a boycott of Target. In fact, Target has been supportive of the rights of nursing mothers, they said, and its executives have indicated that the actions of employees in Houston were an aberration.

"We have a longstanding policy that supports breastfeeding in our stores," said Target spokeswoman Jessica Carlson. "Women are welcome to do so."

Leigh-Anne Sastre of Norwich, a nurse at Lawrence & Memorial Hospital, said she decided to join the nurse-in after hearing about the event through a home-birth support group. The event was organized by Leah Fennell of Colchester, who posted information onto a Facebook site.

Sastre noted that breastfeeding has long-term beneficial health effects for both the baby and mother. Breastfeeding not only decreases the risk of a mother developing breast cancer, it also cuts the chance of a female child developing the disease as well, she said.

"It's just what you do - it's natural," Sastre said.