Nursing mothers pack clothing store in breastfeeding protest

By: THE CANADIAN PRESS

VANCOUVER - About 100 women with their babies packed into the H&M clothing store in downtown Vancouver protesting attempts by store staff to force a nursing mom from the public view.

Every isle in the store was jammed with mothers, babies, children and baby strollers for what the group called a "nurse-in" protest.

They're angry over the treatment of Manuela Valle last week, who says she was humiliated when a sales clerk asked her to use a changing room to nurse her baby.

Protest organizer Veronica Polanska says women have a right to breastfeed in public, but that message isn't getting through.

She says the protest today is a message to every business in Canada that discriminating against women who want to nurse their babies in public is not acceptable.

Valle has planned to launch a human rights complaint against the clothing store.