Is it OK for a woman to breastfeed her baby inside a church while service is going on?
Annie Peguero, a 42-year-old mother from Dumfries, Virginia, thinks so, and she did just that last week inside Summit Church in Springfield.
In an emotional Facebook Live video, Peguero described to her social media followers what happened when she decided to breastfeed her 19-month-old daughter Autumn at the sanctuary inside the church.
She said the church workers who saw her nursing her baby appeared scandalized by what they saw and tried to find ways to cover her up.
Peguero said a woman came over to cover up her daughter with a fleece blanket.
The woman then allegedly told her that the church does not allow breast-feeding without a cover because it could make men, teenagers or new churchgoers "uncomfortable."
Peguero said she was also told that the sermon was being live-streamed and that the church would not want her to be seen breast-feeding.
She claimed that she was shamed for breastfeeding without a cover, according to Faithwire.
A law passed in Virginia in 2015 gave mothers the right to breast-feed their children anywhere in the state that they have a legal right to be, including inside a church, according to the Washington Post.
After the church workers pressed Peguero to stop nursing the baby, the mother of two said she left her seat in the back of the church and fled, embarrassed and in shock.
Peguero is now asking church leaders to issue a statement and change their approach to the breast-feeding of children inside the church.
"I feel like my rights as a mom have been violated," she said.
The Washington Post sought the church's comment on the incident. Executive pastor Tony Trayers said the church was not aware of the law that allows breast-feeding everywhere, including churches, in Virginia.
Peguero, a personal trainer and fitness and nutrition specialist, said before she was forced to leave the church that Sunday, she never had a problem nursing in public.
"I have breast-fed in a few different countries. I have breast-fed all over the place," she said. "No one has ever said anything to me."
Virginia was one of the last states in America to pass a law that protects a woman's right to breast-feed in public.
Before the law was passed in the state, women only had the right to nurse their babies on state-owned property, but not in restaurants and other privately owned businesses that were open to the public.
