As many new moms can relate to, Audrey Castro was seriously looking forward to the chance to get her hair cut and colored. As a new mom to a baby boy, she desperately needed a "me" day and decided to make the time during a recent trip to Florida. The mom from Colorado went to a salon in Miami on Thursday and because she breastfeeds, her baby came with her. But what was supposed to be a relaxing morning of pampering allegedly turned into mommy-shaming that resulted in her stylist being fired on the spot — for having this mom's back.
Castro brought her 8-month-old with her to Bliss Intoxicating Beauty in South Miami.
"Apparently the owner of Bliss Intoxicating Beauty doesn't agree with a breastfeeding mama getting all made up. This salon does the star Shakira's hair. The same Shakira that promotes breastfeeding through La Leche League Canada," she wrote on Facebook. "I'm sure Shakira has no idea of what really goes on there."
According to Castro, her son was watching cartoons on his tablet from the stroller and only cried when he got hungry — which she quickly fixed by breastfeeding him. "He wasn't running around and being a distraction," she tells CafeMom. "Some women in the salon thought he was adorable and even told me he was so well behaved and they held him and played with him. He didn't cry much because whenever he became fussy, I would breastfeed."
However, the owner apparently had a problem with her breastfeeding in public -- and fired the stylist over it.
According to Castro, the owner stopped her stylist, Janessa, when she was almost done and fired her on the spot. "She, the owner, didn't even look at me. She pulled the stylist to the side towards the end of my service and complained about my being there," Castro says. "I was almost done. I don't know when the owner became so annoyed that she felt she didn't want the stylist to finish and just wanted me out."
Castro tells CafeMom that other women in the salon who overheard the conversation later told her that the owner was complaining about her crying baby and her breastfeeding in the salon. Her stylist then discreetly pulled her to the side, to try avoiding a bigger scene, and let her know that she had just been fired and had to pack up her things on the spot so she couldn't complete her style.
"I was completely appalled with the attitude of the owner Marmar Hooshmand to out right pull the stylist aside in order to reprimand her because I was there with my 8-month-old and breastfeeding," she wrote. "I'm sorry Janessa that you were fired but I'm proud of you and appreciate you standing up for us mothers. It's not easy breastfeeding and sometimes having to do it in public is embarrassing as well as ones baby crying even for a moment. To be shamed in this way was not OK."
Now, Castro is standing up for the stylist who stood up for her and her baby's right to breastfeed.
Castro admits that she was so shocked in the moment that she didn't say anything to the owner. She simply paid so that it wouldn't have to come out of Janessa's pocket and walked out.
"I did not know where to stick myself when Janessa couldn't finish my style because she had to pack her belonging because my son was apparently not welcomed nor was his breastfeeding mama," she wrote. "Not OK Marmar Hooshmand."
Castro regrets not saying more at the time but is speaking up now to let the owner know it isn't acceptable to treat moms or her employees that way. "I don't like injustice and I feel it's not fair what happened to the stylist," she says. "Breastfeeding is natural and should not have been an issue in this case or any, and if the owner does have a problem with children being there, she should make her salon an adult only facility and this would have never happened."
She also hopes this raises awareness for what nursing moms go through and that no matter where they are, they're constantly judged. "I hope those that read this somehow see that breastfeeding is a natural thing but it's hard. I feel so bad sometimes when my son is hungry and I have to run to a bathroom or my car to feed him because I don't want to offend anyone," she says. "Society expects us to be considerate of those around and I try to be. I guess since I was surrounded with other women and moms, I somehow felt like I was in a 'safe' place."
FEATURED VIDEO: WHAT IF EVERYONE HAD TO EAT LIKE WE EXPECT BABIES TO BREASTFEED ?
