The benefits of breastfeeding are being touted these days more than ever. Breast milk is the perfect mix of vitamins, protein, and fat for babies to grow, and it’s more easily digestible than milk. Breastfed babies, as a whole, are less likely to experience asthma, allergies, ear infections, respiratory illnesses, diarrhea and more. In fact, the World Health Organization recommends “exclusive breastfeeding for the first six months of life.”
Despite the undeniable health benefits (and you know, being the whole reason mammals have mammary glands), there is still a huge stigma attached to public breastfeeding in our society— one that Suzie Ramirez recently experienced first-hand.
Last month, Suzie Ramirez, a mom of four, was at A Confident Smile dental clinic in Thomasville, Georgia.
While sitting in the waiting room, Suzie’s four-month-old daughter grew fussy, and it was clear the infant wanted to eat. As a breastfeeding mother, Suzie wasn’t too concerned with the dilemma. She simply lifted her shirt and began to feed her baby.
“I took her out of the car seat and started breastfeeding her, which is completely normal,” the mother explained.
As Suzie was breastfeeding the baby, she was approached by the office receptionist and told to cover up.
“I feed my baby in large public places and never have a problem,” the mother said afterward. “I couldn’t believe this was happening, especially in dentist’s office.”
“I felt humiliated, embarrassed, angry. A lot of feelings at once.
The woman insinuated Suzie was making a group of teenage boys in the room uncomfortable.
“This lady came and put a blanket on me. All I heard her say was, ‘I have teenagers,” Suzie recalled.
“I thought she had put it on me in case the baby was cold, but the blanket was really heavy and Dianerys started fussing.”
“She started waving her finger at me. She repeated again, ‘There’s teenagers here.'”
At one point, Suzie’s husband Selvin Oliva begins to record the interaction, which was later shared on Facebook.
During the 2-minute video, the receptionist tells the mother: “This is not your home. This is an office, okay?” Suzie also later states: “She suggested teenagers don’t see it as just breastfeeding. She said if I didn’t want to use the blanket I could go into a different room.”
When Suzie shared the video to Facebook, the dentist’s office was hit with a wave of backlash.
However, the owner of the office, Dr. Sharon Patrick, claims the entire thing is just a big misunderstanding. “We offer these as an act of hospitality and kindness, and no way control. But, she was offended and we are very sorry she was offended,” Dr. Patrick said.
Since the video went viral, Patrick says her staff has been harassed, with many members deleting their social media pages because of an onslaught of negative comments. “I’ve had people cry all day and are scared to stay at work,” she said.
But Suzie doesn’t regret coming forward: “I don’t want other mothers to go through what I went through.”
Since the event, the clinic has issued an apology: “We sincerely apologize to Ms. Ramirez and those who have been offended by our response. We immediately reached out to her and personally offered our deepest regrets for her unpleasant experience in our office.”
It should be noted that it is legal for women to breastfeed in nearly all 50 states.
“Forty-seven states, DC and the Virgin Islands have laws that specifically allow moms to breastfeed in any public or private location,” The Huffington Post explains. “Two of the remaining states– South Dakota and Virginia– exempt breastfeeding moms from public indecency or nudity laws, and Idaho is the only state that has yet to pass any similar laws.”
See Suzie’s video below.
