MOBILE, Alabama – A mother of five said she has received support from all over the country after she was asked to leave a Mobile County child support courtroom on Monday while breastfeeding her 3-month-old daughter.

Jeanna Harris, 32, told the Alabama Media Group that while waiting for her case to be called before District Court Judge George Brown, she was feeding her daughter Ellie in the same manner she has with her four other children when a court officer asked her to leave the courtroom.

Harris was at Mobile County’s Bay Haas building on Government Street, where the child support court is housed.

“He came around the corner shaking his finger at me, telling me I can’t do that,” Harris said. “It was blindsiding.”

She said she tried to argue that she has the legal right to breastfeed in public, which state law does support, but the bailiff would not back down.

“He told me that if I didn’t leave then, he was going to escort me out,” Harris said. “I didn’t know what that meant, and I was about to cry, so I just left.”

She was escorted to a waiting room outside the courtroom, she said, but was surprised to see it also had people in it, instead of a private area.

“They moved me from one room that was filled with people to another room that was filled with people,” Harris said. “So what was the point in moving me?”

For the single mother of five, two of whom are still taking breast milk, the issue isn’t about privacy, it’s about her guaranteed right as a mother and what she called a healthy choice for her children. Harris said by feeding her children breast milk, she is helping curb diabetes, heart disease and high blood pressure.

Her 16-month-old daughter is now nourished with the breast milk of donor mothers while she nurses Ellie, she said.

“She’s never had a bottle, and she won’t take it. I’ve tried,” Harris said. “I have breast fed for almost 22 months straight, (and) I’ve never had any kind of comments, whether good or bad, in all that time I’ve been nursing.”

As a stay-at-home mom who doesn’t work, she said, “I have to take my baby everywhere I go,” and that she feeds Ellie every two hours, on average. Harris said she takes care to cover up as much as possible when feeding her baby.

“Every single time I have been out of my home, I have had to nurse,” Harris said. “I don’t show my boobs when I’m at home, and I don’t show my boobs in public.

“I try to hide as much as I can hide.”

Harris said that, on Monday, it took her only about five more minutes to finish feeding her child in the waiting room she was moved to, but that she was made to wait almost an hour longer before a female court officer brought her and the baby back into the courtroom.

Calls to Judge Brown were not immediately returned on Wednesday, as he had a full court docket and was hearing cases, according to a member of his staff.

Harris said a supervisor told her any complaints would have to go to Judge Brown’s office, but she has since decided to hire an attorney to see if legal action is needed. Several have already contacted her, she said.

In the meantime, Harris said she is planning a “nurse-in,” at Government Plaza in the coming months, open to all who support breastfeeding.

But first, “We’ve got to research this so we don’t get into any more trouble,” she said.

A Facebook page for the "Plaza Nurse In" has more than 100 invitees, with more than 60 saying they will attend.

Reporter Theresa Seiger contributed to this report.

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This post was updated to correct information about the date the incident allegedly occurred.

