'Incredibly embarrassing': Breastfeeding mom told to leave Lush store in Montreal-area mall

A Montreal-area mother is speaking out after she was asked to leave a Lush cosmetics store last week for breastfeeding her son.

"It was incredibly embarrassing for me," said Aella Morad, the mother of two young children as she recounts what happened.

While waiting for a prepaid pick-up order at the Lush cosmetics store in the Fairview Pointe-Claire shopping mall, Morad started nursing her 10-month-old boy, Alexander.

The store manager interrupted her breastfeeding, Morad said.

"The manager just came up to me and said, 'You can’t do this here, there are designated areas,'" she said.

She was shocked and claimed it was discrimination.

"I'm a breastfeeding mom and I'm a registered nurse at the CLSC breastfeeding clinic in Pierrefonds," said Morad, explaining that she knows her rights.

The mother shared her experience on the West Island Moms Facebook group and received lots of supportive feedback. She also reported the event to the mall service centre and was offered an apology and gift certificate.

In 2014, a similar event happened at another store within Fairview Pointe-Claire.

Fairview Pointe-Claire has a dedicated room on-site with security for mothers to breastfeed.

The mall's general manager Laurent Bruneau said, however, that breastfeeding parents can do so wherever they like.

"Cadillac-Fairview has full support of a woman's personal choice to breastfeed. We recognize that there are many moms and caregivers who visit our centre that require convenient and welcoming spaces to be able to care and feed their children. So, while we have dedicated breastfeeding rooms, any common area of the shopping centre deemed comfortable enough is an option that we fully support," he said.

The manager from the Lush store who had asked her to leave also called Morad on the phone and apologized.

"He said he wasn’t aware of the law," said Morad, who also said he admitted he "shouldn’t have reacted that way."

In a statement, Lush brand director for North America Wendy Kubota wrote: "As a company, we are deeply apologetic and stand by a women’s right to breastfeed anywhere and any time....we are looking at our training programs across retail to ensure that all customers feel welcome."

Morad wants people to know that nursing parents are allowed to care for their children when and where the need arises, including in a store.

"Unfortunately this whole experience… I don’t need a $20 gift certificate, I need respect and you can’t put a price on that," she said.

Morad encouraged other mothers to speak up if something like this happens to them.