Mothers stage ‘nurse-in’

BOSTON —  Charlie Yaker’s enormous blue eyes rolled back in elation and a blissful, drunken-sailor expression settled on his face. The 6-month-old had just finished breast-feeding Tuesday morning near the Delta Air Lines ticket counter at Logan International Airport, unperturbed by the frenzy of holiday-season travelers.

“We’re here to show people how natural and healthy breast-feeding is,” said Charlie’s mother, 28-year-old Alison Yaker of Braintree, Mass. “And to remind Delta Air Lines of that fact too.”

The dozen or so lactating mothers and their babies who gathered at Terminal A were part of a national “nurse-in” staged at more than 30 airports. The mothers said they were outraged that Delta had ejected a woman from a flight in Vermont last month because she was breast-feeding her baby.

Emily Gillette, 27, was ordered off the plane Oct. 13 after a flight attendant -- saying, “You are offending me” -- handed her a blanket and told her to cover up while she was nursing her 1-year-old daughter. Gillette refused.

The flight attendant has been reprimanded, a Delta spokesperson said. “Delta fully supports a woman’s right to breast-feed her baby on board our aircraft,” Delta’s Gina Laughlin said Tuesday. “Delta regrets that this incident happened and is disappointed with the flight attendant’s decision to remove Ms. Gillette from Flight 6160.”

Gillette has filed a complaint with the Vermont Human Rights Commission, which oversees discrimination allegations in that state. Her attorney, Elizabeth A. Boepple, said Tuesday that she had not ruled out the possibility of further legal action.

Indignation over Gillette’s experience spread across websites frequented by breast-feeding advocates, known colloquially as “lactivists.” All but 12 states have laws allowing women to nurse their children in public.

The breast-feeding supporters who converged on airports Tuesday urged passage of pending federal civil rights protection for breast-feeding. The activists also said airlines should adopt consistent policies to permit breast-feeding on planes.

“I think I’m the first one to get kicked off a plane. But I’m certainly not the first to be harassed,” said Gillette, who joined a protest Tuesday at the Albuquerque airport, not far from her home in Espanola, N.M.

Gillette said she was overwhelmed by the show of solidarity. “I was hoping somebody else would be interested,” she said. “But there was no way I was expecting this.”

At Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport -- Delta’s hub and the busiest airport in the world -- about 30 women and children sat cross-legged beside a bustling Delta ticket counter Tuesday. The mothers formed a circle around their diaper bags, toy trucks, My Little Pony toys and Baggies filled with Graham crackers.

As travelers rushed past the ticket counter, Kaina Spring, 42, lifted her pink sweater to nurse her 19-month-old son, Jacob.

“I strongly believe all babies have a right to breast milk,” said Spring, a mother of three from Woodstock, Ga. “And I don’t think mothers should have to go to the bathroom and cover up.”

Spring drove for more than an hour to join the other mothers at Hartsfield. She said she had been asked to leave the Atlanta zoo four years ago while nursing her daughter.

“I’ve nursed all my children on airlines,” she said. “When this happened to Emily, it was another sign that people aren’t aware of mothers’ rights.”

Mara Lockard, 39, of Newnan, Ga., dressed her 3-year-old son, Xander, in a “Got breastmilk?” T-shirt and her 6-year-old daughter, Gabrielle, in a pink T-shirt that said “Smart, Cute and Healthy ... Thanks to Mom’s Milk.” Both children were breast-fed, Lockard said.

“It really surprised me, in this day and age when we’re all worried about terrorism, that people are upset about breast-feeding,” she said.

Travelers at the Atlanta airport seemed unfazed by the nursing mothers.

“It’s a travesty to throw a nursing mother off a plane,” said Keith Stroud, 43, a logistics planner from McDonough, Ga. He said he thought there should be designated places for breast-feeding, particularly on airlines.

“It doesn’t bother me none,” said L.A. Cain, 40, a computer repairman for the U.S. Army who was at the airport picking up his son. “A baby’s got to eat.”

elizabeth.mehren@latimes.com

jenny.jarvie@latimes.com

Mehren reported from Boston and Jarvie from Atlanta.