http://www.news.com.au/perthnow/story/0,21598,24250024-949,00.html?referrer=email

A YOUNG mother was followed by police and security officers through a
shopping mall then questioned after a complaint over her expressing
breast milk in a parents room.

Sharleen Salmon, who works at at the Westfield Mall in Marion, Adelaide,
said she felt harassed and embarrassed when a woman and a cleaner
complained about her using the room during her half-hour lunch break.

The young mum, who recently returned to work to support her family,
said: "I was in a private area (in the parents room) behind the curtain
and this cleaner just walked in on me and watched what I was doing," the
/Guardian Messenger
<http://guardian-messenger.whereilive.com.au/news/story/express-delivery-furore/>
/reported.

"She told me the parents room was for parents and breastfeeding only -
and that I wasn’t allowed to eat lunch in there.’’

Ms Salmon said she was using a standard breast pump to express milk to
feed her baby daughter Justice, who was being cared for by her father.

Ms Salmon, who expresses milk once a day, said she was followed back to
work by a security guard and a police officer, who said a formal
complaint had been made to centre management.

"They told me that a little kid had been running around in the parents
room and had briefly seen what I was doing and had complained to its
mum,’’ she said.

"The mum then complained to security and the cleaner came in to inspect
what I was doing. They told me the complaint was that there was a
topless woman eating her lunch in the parents room.

"It’s tough enough that I have to do this during my break, but for a
complaint to be made about me doing it, is really upsetting.’’

Westfield management did not return several calls for comment.

Breastfeeding Association spokeswoman Tracey Kelly said many people were
ignorant about expressing milk.

"There’s a public ignorance and there’s still a lack of knowledge around
breastfeeding and how it works,’’ she said.

Ms Kelly, who is also the Breastfeeding Friendly Workplace Accreditation
program manager, said returning to work was an emotional time for
mothers, regardless of how they fed their baby.

"This mother was very humiliated and something like this could have seen
the end of her expressing milk or working.

"It’s already very stressful and then to have someone complain about it
is absolutely traumatising.".

Ms Salmon has made a complaint to the Equal Opportunity Commission and
is awaiting a response.

- - -

``A woman who is treated unfairly because she is breastfeeding can
complain to the Commissioner for Equal Opportunity, and we do receive
complaints about how women who are breastfeeding are treated,’’ Ms
Matthews wrote.

http://www.news.com.au/perthnow/story/0,21598,24250024-949,00.html?referrer=email

Morgan Gallagher



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