The bras are off! Angry moms stage national Nurse-In's at Target after one mother was 'harassed and humiliated' by employees for breastfeeding



A Texas mother’s negative experience at her local Target last month led to a day of Nurse-In demonstrations yesterday.

New mothers from at least 35 states showed up at branches of the shopping centre to show their support and assert the legality and normalcy of being able to nurse their children in public.

Michelle Hickman, a mother of four, said she was ‘harassed and humiliated’ by Target employees last month after she tried to feed her little one in the Houston store.



Booby trap: Michelle Hickman's bad breastfeeding experience at Target last month inspired Nurse-In's across the country Wednesday

Hungry baby: She said she was feeding her five-month-old son Noah when she was 'harassed' by Target employees

‘I never knew that sitting in a Target and doing what’s normal - which is feeding my baby - would result in all of this one day but I’m glad it did,’ Mrs Hickman told ABCNews.com.

More than 6,700 moms and breast-feeding supporters have joined the Target Nurse-In group.

Mrs Hickman was rushing to complete her Christmas shopping on November 9 when her five-month-old son Noah started crying.

The mother tried feeding him by the women’s jeans department after she covered up with a blanket, according to her Facebook recounting of the event.



Annoyed: Mothers across the country are showing their support by staging nurse-in protests by coming together to feed their babies in Target stores



Protest: Mothers and their babies line outside a Target in Waterford, Connecticut



Several employees asked her to relocate to a more private location, such as a family fitting room. She wrote: 'Even after I informed the 2nd employee of my legal right to nurse in public she still suggested me moving closer to the jean display, turning to face another direction, and also turn my basket a certain way which would have put me practically underneath the jean display and totally barricaded me in.' One employee even told her she could get a ticket for ‘indecent exposure,’ she wrote on the website Best for Babes. There were no complaints from other Target shoppers, Time reports. Legal right: The women are outraged Ms Hickman was told she could get a ticket for 'indecent exposure' when she began breastfeeding at the Target store Angry: Mothers said they should not have to go to bathrooms to feed their babies

Defiant: Mothers in Kingston, New York, feed their children in solidarity Mrs Hickman called Target’s corporate headquarters the next morning to voice her complaints. She said she was told by guest relations: ‘Just because it’s a woman’s legal right to nurse a baby in public doesn’t mean she should walk around the store flaunting it.’

Target told ABCNews.com in a statement that it supports the use of fitting rooms for breastfeeding.



Taking a stand: Mothers gather in a Target store in Webster, Texas

Proving a point: Women feed their babies in a Waterford, Connecticut Target

They added: ‘Guests who choose to breastfeed in public areas of the store are welcome to do so without being made to feel uncomfortable.'

NASCAR DRIVER TWEETS DISGUST AT PUBLIC BREASTFEEDING

NASCAR driver Kasey Kahne, 31, went on an anti-public breastfeeding tirade on Twitter Tuesday saying he was disgusted to see a woman’s breast out as she was feeding her son in the produce aisle of a supermarket. ‘One boob put away one boob hanging!!! #nasty’ he tweeted. Later, a woman tweeted to him that she disagreed. He responded by calling her a ‘dumb b***h.’

The racer apologised Wednesday via his Facebook page. He wrote: ‘It was in no way my intention to offend any mother who chooses to breastfeed her child, or, for that matter, anyone who supports breast feeding children.’

After Mrs Hickman recounted her story online, hundreds of moms with young children voiced their outrage at the way Mrs Hickman was treated.

Lacy Naud of San Diego, California told Time that she planned to participate in the Nurse-In at her local Target with her ten-month-old daughter Milla.

‘If I can help so someone else doesn’t have to go through with what she went through, all the better,’ she said.



Mrs Hickman was joined by approximately 50 fuming mothers in the Webster, Texas store.



‘It felt great, it’s nice to see us all just coming together,’ 29-year-old Kelly Roth told ABCNews.com.

‘We shouldn’t have to sit at home or in a bathroom to [nurse.] Babies shouldn’t have to wait.’

This isn’t the first Nurse-In – on December 15, 40 women from the UK staged a breastfeeding flash mob in front of Christmas shoppers.

Last year, a group of outraged mothers staged a Nurse-In at their local Utah supermarket.

Whole Foods later commended the effort and issued an apology.

Free to feed: A Target rep said mothers are welcome to breastfeed in public parts of the store



