Queensland Mums Plan Flash Mob at Kmart After Women Asked to Leave Store to Breastfeed

A group of mothers has planned to target a ‘flash mob’ protest at a Kmart store in Queensland after a young mum was reportedly asked to leave for breastfeeding her baby.

According to the organiser of the protest, Rachel Benton, the woman was ‘asked by management of Kmart Smithfield to leave the store if she wished to continue breastfeeding her child’.

The mother-of-four said that the woman, who has requested not to be named, was told by the manager that ‘it was against store policy for her to feed her child whilst there despite being covered with a wrap’.

‘The manager was also encouraged by witnesses to apologise for his stance, which he declined,’

As a result, Ms Benton has planned a flash mob at the entrance of the store for Saturday the 18th of March.

‘Indirect discrimination happens when an apparently neutral condition has the effect of disadvantaging a particular group, in this case women who are breastfeeding,‘ the event’s details read.

‘We will be meeting at the Kmart entrance in a protest for this discriminatory and illegal treatment towards a breastfeeding mother.’

You can find out more about the event here

At this stage, 44 people have confirmed their attendance and 68 are interested.

Ms Benton originally heard about the incident via social media, but other mothers who witnessed the event have come forward and expressed their anger as well.

‘I actually saw this happen, I saw the girl feeding then about 5 minutes later saw a lady yelling at a guy that worked there and he was saying “I was just passing on a message” and the lady yelled at him again and walked out,’ one woman wrote on social media.

The Cairns Post reported that the woman was ‘pretty upset’ over the ordeal and that Sarah Cannell, a mother who had overheard the incident, said the woman breastfeeding had a ‘green cotton wrap draped over her shoulder and no breasts were visible’.

‘The employee of Kmart told her that it was against policy to breast feed in store as it was offensive,’ she wrote on social media.

‘Those were his exact words.’

Hundreds have vented furious posts on Kmart Australia’s Facebook page to which the store’s team have responded and requested details via private message.

A spokesperson for Kmart told Daily Mail Australia that they ‘sincerely apologise for this situation‘.

‘We were concerned to learn of our customer’s experience and have asked her to contact us directly,’ she said

‘Kmart has an equal opportunity policy in place which clearly states that the business will not tolerate unlawful discrimination or harassment on the basis of pregnancy, potential pregnancy or breastfeeding and the features associated with these attributes.’

Reading and learning about this, it is so easy to become enraged but where does it get us? Rather than anger I’m saddened, saddened that in this day an age a mother is shamed and made to feel inadequate for doing the most natural and necessary of actions, her baby, her child, needed to eat. The fact that she was covered so that she could not be considered ‘offensive’ saddens me more so, saddened that even to elude feeding is considered vulgar in any way. While I agree that emotion should be felt, let’s not tackle ignorant thinking with anger, lets meet with support for a mother and meet with intelligence for unfounded and misguided actions, let us not be angered and bitter mothers but educated and empowered women.