An American Airlines stewardess allegedly told a mother on board to cover up while breastfeeding her baby and gave her a "displeased look."
The mother, on condition of anonymity, shared her experience on Facebook through her friend, Hannah Butta. On her July 21 flight on American Airlines along with husband and five-month-old son, the mother was told by the stewardess to breastfeed "discreetly."
She said that she was breastfeeding her baby to avoid ear pain during take-off. She was seated next to the window with her husband sitting in the center seat, next to him sat a girl about 10-12 years old. "A few minutes after my son started nursing, a stewardess walked by our row, shook her head at me, and shot me a very displeased look," the mother wrote. The couple thought that it would not go any further.
But after a while, the stewardess came up to the parents again and told the mother to put a blanket on her baby because there were "others kids on the flight." The father of the child said that they were being careful just that they did not prefer to use a blanket.
After some time the stewardess came back and told the young girl sitting next to the parents that her seat will be changed because she was possibly feeling "uncomfortable." The baby was asleep by then and the mother wrote that the girl did not notice the child being breastfed.
The mother said she filed a complaint against the "inappropriate, harassment-style behavior" of the stewardess to the airline. Although the company offered an apology to the mother but they also clarified that American Airlines allowed the mothers to breastfeed onboard with "certain discretion and sense of modesty." "We believe it is reasonable to ask that the mother cover-up in an appropriate manner during the feeding, and by your account it appears that you were sensitive to this need," the airlines wrote in their apology letter.
The letter received over 7000 shares on Facebook with people supporting the idea of breastfeeding on flight.
In April, a woman claimed that she was "humiliated" for using a breast pump on an American Airlines flight.
"The approach our flight attendants take is to ensure breastfeeding mothers have the privacy they wish to have, while also ensuring the comfort of our other passengers," Andrea Huguely from American Airlines media relations, told news.com.au.
"We apologise to the breastfeeding mother who was offered a blanket during a recent flight by a well-intentioned flight attendant. The intent was to make everyone onboard comfortable, including the unrelated 12-year-old sitting in the same row," she said.
