Tuesday, September 4, 2007

Not Eating Good in the Neighborhood

I read recently on the Lactivist that a woman, Brooke Ryan, in Lexington, Kentucky was harassed by the staff in Applebees to cover herself with a blanket while nursing her baby. This despite the fact that she was apparently sitting in an out of the way booth with her back turned. This, despite the fact that Kentucky law quite clearly states that a woman has the right to breastfeed her child where ever she happens to be.

Apparently, the woman tried to get an appropriate response from Applebees, and from the owners of this particular franchise. But the response has been less than satisfactory. So Brooke Ryan is organizing a nurse-in at the Applebees she had a problem at. In addition, people, nationwide will be attending nurse-ins at their local Applebees at the same time to protest the corporate response, which seems to be in support of the actions of the employees at the Lexington franchise.

The nurse-in is going to be Saturday, September 8th. There's a yahoo group for people interested in finding (or organizing) a nurse-in locally.

In NYC people started planning a nurse-in on the Mothering boards. So, mothers and their nurslings will be gathering at the Applebees on 50th and Broadway - 205 West 50th Street from 12-1pm. I'm hoping that the Bull can take Sugar to her tennis lesson, so that Spice and I can head to midtown to lend our support.

I also found quite a comprehensive account of what's happening at Breastfeeding 123.

3 comments:

Paula said...

Im trying to get one together here in lawrence, ks. Sounds like a fun way to get the situation under control.

I would love to nurse with a group of other mamas! Kinda of like a dream of mine even. Reminiscent of the breastfeeding support group I went to in the early weeks...except this time my insides wont be falling out and i will be well rested (at least for the better part).

Julie said...

It's funny, I've always wanted to be part of a nurse-in. So I'm really looking forward to it.

I think it's the part of me that missed all the demonstrations and sit-ins and stuff from the 60s and 70s. I love the idea of being a part of something like that. Putting myself out there to try to make a difference.

The Bear Maiden said...

There's an Applebee's in Bay Plaza, the Bronx. Not for nothing, I'd get a bigger kick out of seeing a bunch of crunchy nursing moms sitting in Bay Plaza that I would on W. 50th, where's there's liable to be a nursing mother there at some point.

Much less likely in Bay Plaza, the Bronx....