‘You Cannot Breastfeed In Here’: Mother Forced To Leave Child Support Hearing For Breastfeeding Baby

A 25-year-old mother-of-three, KyLee Dickinson, says she was humiliated by a court attendant who told her she could not do “that” in the courtroom and subsequently dismissed the woman before the hearing was over. Dickinson says that she was called to a hearing after her ex-husband filed an objection to child support claims. The women says she was told by the attendant that the 6-month-old baby could enter the courtroom with her as long as she didn’t fuss. Dickinson agreed, but says that when she began to breastfeed her daughter to comfort her, the attendant told her it was not allowed in the courtroom.

The Detroit Free Press reports that the mother from Lansing, Michigan, was forced to leave a child support objection hearing when a court attendant refused to allow the woman to breastfeed in the courtroom. The upset mother claims she was told by Ingham County referee Dean Winnie not to breastfeed during an April 30 child support hearing. She says the inability to breastfeed caused her to later be ordered to leave the hearing when her 6-month-old baby began fussing.

After the ordeal, Dickinson reached out to the Capital Area Breastfeeding Coalition who say that Dickinson was discriminated against under the Breastfeeding Anti-discrimination Act (Act 197 of 2014). Since the incident, Dickinson has filed a formal complaint against the court referee for his discriminatory remarks during the hearing. According to Dickinson, the referee told her that she needed to “leave the room” if she was going to “do that.” She says she was initially confused by what the referee was referring to, as she was breastfeeding while covered; therefore, she asked the man to clarify his concerns.

“If you are going to breastfed you need to leave. You cannot breastfeed in here… This is an official hearing, you cannot.”

Dickinson says her 6-month-old daughter was hungry and could not be soothed in any other fashion and that ultimately the referee asked her to leave the hearing. When she exited the courtroom, she discussed her concerns with the staff in the waiting room. The staff simply informed her that she should not have brought the child, as the notice specifically stated no children allowed. Dickinson says she did receive the notice. However, her 6-month-old will not take a bottle and is not on solid foods yet. Therefore, she was unable to leave the baby with anyone else until she is weaned. Dickinson also notes that the referee had no problem with the baby being present in the courtroom until the mother attempted to breastfeed the child.

As a result, women in the area staged a nurse-in to show support for the mother they say was humiliated for doing what is natural to nourish her child. Since the incident, the judge in the case has apologized and noted that the situation could have been “handled differently.”

“We’re very sorry that this happened, we’re sorry of the effect that this has had on Ms. Dickinson. We acknowledge after listening to the sequence of events that Mr. Winnie could have handled it differently. It is very unfortunate that this isolated incident has projected the impression that we are not breastfeeding-friendly, because that is not the case at all.”

What do you think of the court referee’s statement that the woman must leave if she is going to breastfeed during the hearing? Was KyLee Dickinson’s rights violated when she was told to leave the hearing?

[Image Credit: Facebook/ KyLee Dickinson]