Nina Brewer-Davis, a 31-year-old Californian mother, stood in tears at the Vancouver Airport as she watched a security guard throw one and half litres of her breast milk into the garbage.
Security staff told her she could not bring it onto the plane unless she had her baby with her. But that was the crux of the matter. The mother said she was away from her seven-month old baby for 51 hours while attending an academic conference, during which time she pumped breast milk every three hours. Having to throw out the milk she planned to bring home to her baby left her feeling « violated. »
« I was very upset …. It represented a lot of work and a lot of time and it was something that was very important for me to bring back to my baby. » She says it is absurd to prohibit nursing mothers without their children from being breast milk on a plane, because if they had their baby with them they wouldn’t need to carry breast milk around.
Officials from the Canadian Air Transport Security Authority say that Ms Nina Brewer-Davis should have been allowed to keep some of the milk.
In a letter to the Globe this morning the mother calls her treatment « outrageous ».
Do you agree?
Neil McKenty Weblog 