Nursing mother told she violated no eating policy
Posted: Jul 31, 2010 10:55 AM
Updated: Jul 31, 2010 10:56 AM
WOBURN,MA-Hundreds of YMCA employees are being retrained after a local mom was told she had to stop breastfeeding in one of their facilities.
Elizabeth Gomez was with her three young children at the North Suburban YMCA. When she started to nurse her 3-month-old she said an employee told her it violated the room's no eating policy.
"I was shocked," said Gomez. "I said do you realize you're breaking the law by telling me this? Do you realize you're being discriminatory?"
A state law allows mothers to breastfeed in public places where both the mother and child are lawfully present.
Gomez says the employee told her to leave the room and take it up with the director if she still had complaints.
Gomez did just that, sending a letter to the director of the YMCA. An excerpt reads:
"..My overall goal in addressing this issue is a peaceful resolution, but staff education on the local level, and attention brought to this issue within the regional/national structure of the YMCA are also extremely important to me..."
The YMCA responded quickly, a spokeswoman writing:
"In Woburn, we are proactively working with Y staff to re-enforce this message through required staff meetings, sharing the specific content of the legislation, conducting sensitivity training and amending written policies to expressly allow for a mother to breastfeed in our facilities."
The YMCA also said it is educating all of its 1,500 employees about the state law, and notifying YMCAs nationwide about the issue.
Gomez says she's happy her situation was a way to stick up for other moms.
"If they did it to me they could've done it to someone else easily," said Gomez. "I also felt that it was a matter of education, so perhaps we could take it and turn it into a teachable moment."
