Flight Attendant Throws Blanket At Father, Tells Him To ‘Help His Breastfeeding Wife Out’

ByAshley Austrew

mom-with-sleeping-baby-on-airplaneSocial media is abuzz this morning after yet another mom was shamed for breastfeeding in public. Kristen Hilderman tweeted that she was on a United Airlines flight breastfeeding her five-month-old when a flight attendant named Keith approached her husband and asked if he and Hilderman were together. When her husband responded in the affirmative, Hilderman says the flight attendant rudely tossed a blanket at him and snapped, “Then here, help her out.”

Hilderman wrote on Twitter that she was mortified and demanded to know what exactly the flight attendant thought she needed help with, but he ignored her and walked away. She didn’t want to cause a scene and end up thrown off the plane, so she sat back down and continued feeding her son. She writes:

“I felt so completely embarrassed, uncomfortable, and self-conscious for the rest of the flight. A few passengers approached me to let me know that the flight attendant’s behavior was completely out of line, and they didn’t even know that I was breastfeeding my baby until he tried to make an example out of me.”

Hilderman also says her flight was unable to land due to heavy fog and was diverted to Seattle instead. When passengers were finally able to re-board the plane Hilderman walked to her seat to find a folded blanket waiting for her. None of the other seats had blankets on them.

Hilderman’s initial tweet about the incident has been retweeted 110 times as of this writing and both the United Twitter account and Facebook page are being flooded with angry comments:

It’s outrageous to me that in 2015 with breastfeeding shame in the news seemingly every other day we are still fighting this battle and there are still people who think it’s okay to humiliate breastfeeding moms. Hilderman was obviously being discreet, but even if she wasn’t this would still be an outrageous situation.

Not only did the flight attendant shame Hilderman for breastfeeding, but he also refused to even engage with her, instead interacting solely with her husband as though Hilderman were a piece of property. His actions were both ignorant and sexist, and I would have been enraged if I’d been in Hilderman’s shoes.

Breastfeeding is not a lewd act and no mom should be made to feel ashamed about feeding her child. United Airlines reached out to Hilderman via Twitter this morning asking for more information about her flight. Let’s hope this results in them updating their breastfeeding policy and investing in some sensitivity training for their employees because this sort of behavior is completely unacceptable.

(Photo: Shutterstock)

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