Fight attendant 'harrasses' breastfeeding mum to cover up

A new mother claims she was harassed by an flight attendant while on a United Airlines flight.

Kristen Hilderman, from Vancouver, said a male United Airlines employee tossed a blanket at her husband, urging her to cover up as she breastfed her five-month-old son.

She was wearing a breastfeeding top at the time.

According to the Daily Mail, Mrs Hilderman was left feeling embarrassed and furious.


"A male flight attendant named Keith walked up to our row and said to my husband (loudly, so that everyone around could hear), 'are you two together?' My husband replied "Yes..." And then the flight attendant tossed a blanket at him (didn't even hand it TO him, but tossed it AT him) and said tersely, 'Then HERE, help her out,'" Hilderman wrote. "I had a blanket under my baby and a blanket draped across my knees and the plane was hot and stuffy... he wanted me to cover myself," she told the paper.

Mrs Hilderman expressed her outrage on Twitter.

She received plenty of support from fellow Twitter users who were equally appalled by what happened.

A representative for United later got in touch with Kristen.

In a statement provided to Yahoo Parenting, United Airlines wrote: "United welcomes nursing mothers on board and we ask that crew members do their best to ensure their comfort and safety as they do with all customers. After we learned of Ms. Hilderman's experience we spoke with her and offered an apology."

However, to make matters even worse, the flight was diverted to Seattle because of dense fog in Vancouver. When passengers reboarded to continue their journey, the same flight attendants were on board and a folded blanket had been placed on Mrs Hilderman's seat. There were no blankets on any of the other seats.

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