'Nurse-In' SEATTLE (Reuters) - More than two dozen mothers staged a breastfeeding "nurse-in" at a Starbucks Corp. store in Maryland over the weekend in an effort to get the world's largest coffee shop chain to adopt a policy allowing breastfeeding in all its U.S. stores. [Reuters: US Domestic News]
Nothing about being a new father surprised me more than my near-instant transformation into a militant breastfeeding advocate. I only wish that I was a Starbucks customer so that I could boycott the chain until they implemented rational policies (just what the hell do they think those things are for?)
Lorig Charkoudian, who organized the event, said on Tuesday that she began her quest a month ago when she was nursing her 15-month-old daughter at the store in Silver Spring, Maryland, and was asked by a Starbucks employee to cover up with a blanket or breastfeed in the bathroom.
She protested and, after eventually reaching the regional vice president, got Seattle-based Starbucks to recognize a Maryland law that allows mothers to breastfeed their children in public.
Starbucks spokeswoman Audrey Lincoff said in a statement that the coffee chain "quickly apologized for her negative experience" and reminded employees at its Maryland stores to comply with the law.
Charkoudian argues that Starbucks should have gone a step further and allow breastfeeding at all its 5,882 coffee shops in the United States.
The boiled down story: a Starbucks employee tells a mother to feed her child in the bathroom. The company does not immediately institute clear policies allowing mothers to feed their children in a comfortable place of her choosing.
Corporate family values
8:21:32 PM 
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