Crime wave sweeps Adelaide
Some people do have serious issues about breastfeeding. So much that this heinous crime occupies the resources of security personnel and police in Adelaide.
Sharleen Salmon was followed by police and security officers through Marion shopping mall then questioned after a complaint over her expressing breast milk in a parents room.
"They told me that a little kid had been running around in the parents room and had briefly seen what I was doing and had complained to its mum,’’
she said.
"The mum then complained to security and the cleaner came in to inspect what I was doing. They told me the complaint was that there was a topless woman eating her lunch in the parents room.
"It’s tough enough that I have to do this during my break, but for a complaint to be made about me doing it, is really upsetting.’’
Breastfeeding Association spokeswoman Tracey Kelly said many people were ignorant about expressing milk:
“This mother was very humiliated and something like this could have seen the end of her expressing milk or working.
“It’s already very stressful and then to have someone complain about it is absolutely traumatising. This centre, like many shopping centres, doesn’t even have a lockable door for mothers to go behind, they just have curtains.’’
Ms Salmon has made a complaint to the Equal Opportunity Commission and is awaiting a response.
Now I would have thought among other things, that:
- the mum who owned the kid who was running around in the parents’ room ought to have known better than to let the kid roam wild in there
- that she would have known that breastfeeding is a natural function and have been able to explain that to her child
- that the cleaner, security and police should have told her to mind her own business and not waste everyone’s time.
