WIS News 10 - Columbia, South Carolina | Woman says she felt bullied while breastfeeding at Wal-Mart

Woman says she felt bullied while breastfeeding at Wal-Mart

COLUMBIA, SC (WIS) - A Midlands mother called us about something she says happened at a Richland County Wal-Mart.

Heather Silvis says she felt bullied when Wal-Mart associates told her she could not breastfeed her baby in the store on Two Notch Road.

"I sat down on the bench and put the baby on my lap. I had not even began to nursing when supervisor and four Wal-Mart employees who were standing in the area began to tell me 'You can't do that here,'" Silvis said.

Instead, Silvis says employees told her to go into a dressing room.

"Then one of them stood up and pushed my shopping cart with my 21-month-old baby in it and my purse around the corner and I was told, 'If you want to breast feed, you're going to have to go in there.' So I followed my child who was in my shopping cart went into the dressing room and nursed my baby," Silvis said.

Silvis says she wants an apology from Wal-Mart and hopes she and other mothers don't have to face this type of discrimination.

State law does allow mothers to breastfeed in public.

Wal-Mart representatives say the dressing room was offered to Silvis as a courtesy and employees did not mean to offend her.

Reported by Jasmin Guerrero

Posted by Jeremy Turnage