Breastfeeding: November 2007 Archives

By Barbara Correa

Four times a night, guests of the Treasure Island Casino in Las Vegas gather to ogle scantily-clad ladies seduce a band of beefy renegade pirates aboard a giant pirate ship. But they’d rather not see bared flesh when it’s connected to a suckling infant.

Last week, a Van Nuys mother won a settlement against Treasure Island Corp., the casino’s parent company, for violating her right to breastfeed her baby. Michelle Nielson was staying at Treasure Island last February to attend a furniture trade show. When she arrived with her four-month-old son, she was told that a room she had booked for early check-in wasn’t ready and staff suggested she wait in one of the hotel restaurants.

Over breakfast in the Tradewinds Buffet, Nielson started to nurse her baby, when another diner complained. “A young girl who was 18 or 19 asked me to go feed him in the toilet and that it was in violation of the health code,’’ said Nielson. The manager then asked Nielson to cover herself, and then to leave the restaurant.

The settlement excludes any payment to Nielson but requests coverage of legal fees up to $1,500. “I just wanted them to know they’d done something wrong,’’ said Nielson, a mother of three who owns several furniture stores.

In 2001, Treasure Island settled a similar case after asking a breastfeeding mother to move out of public view. According to the current settlement agreement, Treasure Island agrees to improve employee education and training about public breastfeeding.

Yvette Monet, a spokeswoman for MGM Mirage, TI’s parent company, said the company regretted the incident and responded to it by implementing changes in training. “This was a very unfortunate incident and we regret it took place. We’ve since taken steps in training and related efforts to see to it doesn’t happen again.

Nevada, like California, stipulates that businesses cannot ask a nursing mother to leave the premises, go to a separate area or cover up. But awareness of the law is limited.

“People assume [breastfeeding in public] is against the law,’’ said Cacilia Kim, a staff attorney for California Women’s Law Center, based in Los Angeles. “The hypocrisy is so overwhelming in this case, because women’s breasts and butts are everywhere, so the idea that someone told her to cover up is just outrageous.’’

Some nursing mothers are as attached to the breast milk they produce as they are to their own babies. Yesterday, the news out of Cedar Rapids, Iowa was about a nursing mom offering 100 ounces of her breast milk for $200 -- or best offer. She claims she's making too much for her four-month-old to eat, and hubby is threatening to throw out the frozen supplies in the freezer.

I jumped on Craigslist to see if this overabundance of breastmilk is an issue here in L.A. Sure enough, Amber in the San Fernando Valley is advertising her milk too. She is offering to donate it, for the exact same reason as the Iowa woman: hubby wants to dump the frozen liquid gold because it's taken over the freezer.

Well, guess what? Turns out there are breast milk banks that will take the milk of mothers' hands and usually sell it to hospitals for sick babies. Some will pick up the milk, but they don't pay for it. There don't seem to be that many banks around, so you may have to ship it. Here are a few that I did find:

Milkin' Mamas Breast Milk Bank in Seal Beach
Mother's Milk Bank in San Jose