Women Stage “Nurse-In” at Chick-Fil-A to Support Breastfeeding Rights

Breastfeeding in public is legal in every state—yet moms are still being told to “cover up.” One Georgia mom, after being told to do so while feeding her daughter in Chick-fil-A took to social media to voice her outrage. Not only did her post go viral, but moms in the area joined together to stage a “nurse-in.”

Samantha McIntosh was at a Chick-fil-A in Evans, Georgia with her 9-year-old niece and 7-month old daughter, when a female manager came over to her with a jacket saying someone had complained and asked her to cover herself as a courtesy to the other kids in the restaurant. McIntosh, not wanting to create a scene, refused the jacket and stopped feeding her daughter—but later took to Facebook to voice her anger.

“Let me start by saying I am in no way, shape, or form a ‘breast is best’ mom! I am a HUGE believer in FED IS BEST! I support all ways of feeding our little munchkins and do not tolerate mom shaming in any form or fashion because honestly your mom decisions are your own,” she wrote in her post, later continuing, “…as I sit there in this family friendly restaurant I start to simmer. I’ll admit it. I got angry. Mostly because my niece started asking questions about why I couldn’t feed my daughter. Why would someone ask me to cover up? Why would a baby eating in any way offend someone to the point where it takes a manager approaching me about the situation?! So I got mad.”

She continues to explain that, when another mother in the establishment also got angry, management came back to her to tell her “that they have every right to ask me to cover up when I’m nursing my child and that I should just leave it at that.”

The now-gone-viral post has over 1,500 shares—and garnered the attention of one local mom, Jessica Gaugush, who had never met McIntosh, but felt compelled to do something, TODAY reports. So, she helped to organize a “nurse-in” at the restaurant. “I felt called to action,” Gaugush told TODAY Food in an interview. “So I created the event and put it on pretty much every Facebook group in the community.”

Her mom tribe did not disappoint, as over 50 families gathered at the Chick-fil-A last week, just one day after the incident for a peaceful protest. “There was one mom that drove two hours just for the nurse-in,” McIntosh told the outlet. “I never in a million years thought the support would be so far and so wide.”

“We had moms nursing and moms bottle feeding, there were women there who didn’t even have children themselves,” Gaugush told the outlet, adding that the employees were “respectful” and even have stuffed animals to the kids.

The owner of the Chick-fil-A has since apologized to McIntosh, who appreciated the gesture. “He seemed very open to training his staff and having a lactation consultant come in,” she told TODAY Food. “I’d be happy come in and talk to them too.”

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