Mother forced to leave court for publicly breastfeeding baby during custody hearing

A Michigan law passed last year gave women the right to breastfeed in areas open to the public.

Last year, a Michigan law passed giving women rights to breastfeed in public areas or venues. However, a recent incident happened involving a 25 year-old mother who was not able to exercise her right to breastfeed in a public area. It was during a custody hearing when the mother was commanded to refrain from breastfeeding, while in court.

MUNTINLUPA, PHILIPPINES (Catholic Online) - Kylee Dickinson, a mother of three from Lansing, Michigan, reported how demeaned and discredited she felt when, during a custody hearing, she was told to stop breastfeeding her six-month-old infant. Eventually, Dickinson was finally asked to leave court. At the Ingham County Friend of the Court about two dozen women want to protest by also breastfeeding their babies at the court.

Prior to the hearing, Dickinson explained that she was given a notice that requested her not to bring any of her children in court. But since Dickinson's two other children were at school, the circumstance left her with no choice but to bring along her baby daughter, especially because the baby, she claimed, needed to be breastfed. She was then told she could only keep the baby in the courtroom as long as the baby behaved, as Dickinson explained in her post on Facebook.

However, after a few minutes, Dickinson's baby started to fuss, giving her the signal that the baby was hungry and tired, so she started preparing to breastfeed the infant.

Dickinson wrote on Facebook, "Although I was covered the referee took notice and interrupted my ex from talking to say 'Uh, Ma'am you need to leave the room if you're going to do that.'"

Afterwards, the Referee, Dean Winnie, asked her if she was going to breastfeed the baby.  He then proceeded to say, "If you are going to breastfed you need to leave," and that, "You cannot breastfeed in here... This is an official hearing, you cannot."

Because the baby was making a noise, the mother tried to calm her but to no avail. The referee then, turned to her and said, "Thank you for coming Ma'am, you are dismissed."

Also written on her post was, "As soon as I opened the doors tears poured down my face," and "I felt so ashamed and frustrated. Now I would have no part in the hearing and not know the outcome until I received any change statements in the mail."

Kylee Dickinson's ex-husband denied child support, according to the Detroit Free Press, and so the hearing was conducted. The staff told her that she should not have brought the six-moth-old baby, but she defended her actions by reiterating her desire to breastfeed.

Dickinson got in touch with local breastfeeding groups to demand awareness toward her rights and received a reply that she was allowed to breastfeed in public areas and the local groups helped her to file a complaint.

Chief Circuit Court Judge Janelle Lawless expressed that the 25 year-old mother was asked to leave the hearing because her baby was causing a disturbance and not because of anything else.

"We absolutely at the Friend of the Court support and endorse nursing mothers,"  the Chief Circuit Judge said.

"By nursing our babies together at FOC, we hope to bring attention to the discrepancy between what the law says and the training/attitudes that stewards of the law actually practice," a group of mothers claimed, as they planned to feed their babies in court as a proactive response.

Dickinson also claimed further that, "This man (and possibly the whole office) needs to be made aware of the law. No breastfeeding mother should be made as ashamed as they made me feel. I do not want to see/hear of this happening there again!"

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