Phoenix Mother Says American Airlines Flight Attendant Shamed Her For Using Breast Pump In Plane's Bathroom
After being reprimanded by a flight attendant for using an airline bathroom to pump breast milk, a Phoenix resident is now speaking out publicly about the unjust embarrassment she was made to endure.
Mariana Hannaman, a new mother, was on a long American Airlines flight between Chicago and Phoenix. She told ABC affiliate KNXV that she pumped before she boarded the flight, but a few hours in, she needed to pump again.
“If I don't pump regularly, my breast milk supply goes down,” she said. And since she is still nursing, Hannaman said that pumping is essential to being able to feed her child.
Before going into the bathroom, Hannaman warned other passengers waiting on line that she would be in the bathroom for a while. After 10 minutes of being in the stall, the flight attendant knocked abruptly on the door, Hannaman said. She alerted the flight attendant to what she was doing in the bathroom, telling her that she was okay. Two minutes later, the flight attendant came back, telling her, “Well you need to stop doing this now.”
Hannaman was then forced to open the bathroom door, in the midst of pumping, at the behest of the flight attendant. She said she felt “diminished” by the experience.
“I opened the door, with the pump still attached to my breasts and she looked down and then said, 'What are you doing, you can't do that here. You're taking too long, there's other passengers,'” Hannaman said.
She took a video of the encounter once out of the bathroom, capturing the flight attendant's short and rude responses.
Since hearing of the way Hannaman was treated, American Airlines issued a personal apology, both by phone and by email to her, saying the flight attendant's behavior was not in line with the company's policy. According to American Airlines' spokeswoman Leslie Scott, the airline supports mothers who are breastfeeding, and their right to use the lavatory to pump or breastfeed their child.
Scott also noted that passengers should alert flight attendants if they will be spending prolonged periods in the bathroom, so that attendants know the passenger is in good health, and there is no cause for alarm. She also says that Hannaman's experience is now being used as an “educational tool” to remind employees how to treat passengers.
To see more, watch the video above.