The battle over public breast-feeding has moved to a new front line: Victoria’s Secret stores, where lacy bras are in, but nursing mothers are out, angry moms charge.
A Quincy mother says she was humiliated when an employee of the lingerie franchise’s Faneuil Hall store flatly refused to allow her to breast-feed her daughter, directing her to a public restroom outside.
“I was upset. I was embarrassed. My heart was breaking for my daughter,” said Jessie Chandler, who ended up going home to feed her 9-month-old daughter, Charlotte. “I felt powerless to do anything.”
Anthony Hebron, a spokesman for Victoria’s Secret, apologized yesterday, saying the Boston employee was a new hire. Hebron said it’s store policy to allow women to breast-feed in the store.
But Chandler, 24, and other moms say that policy isn’t trickling down to the employees who work with the public - and they cite instances of similar problems at the chain’s stores in two other states. They are planning a “nurse in” protest July 1.
“I’m sure that they have models in their stores and catalogs that have a lot more breast showing than any woman who’s breast-feeding,” said Anne Merewood, director of the breast-feeding center at Boston Medical Center.
“If they’re going to make their money off of selling things for women’s breasts, they ought to recognize all aspects of the breast,” Merewood said.
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It's also worth noting that the employee was *not* new - the store manager, Melissa, told Jessie that she was a longtime employee.
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