Editor’s Note: This article has been updated to include new information and correct inconsistencies within the original article.

After a week of publicity that went national and generated a great deal of fiery debate on social media, Ruha Tacey, the Tanner mom who was asked to breastfeed her daughter in the bathroom by a desk clerk at SportsFit in Athens is still reeling from her experience.

On Sept. 11, she hit the gym for the first time since her daughter was born a year ago. Her daughter got fussy in the childcare center, so Tacey tried to calm her down by nursing her. Her little girl continued to fuss, so they left for the day.

“I didn’t think anything of it,” Tacey said.

Tacey said when she returned the next day, the front desk clerk called her over and suggested she go to the bathroom if she needed to feed her child at the gym in the future.

“Apparently a man had complained that he had seen me breastfeeding through the childcare window while he was walking by, and I had made him uncomfortable,” Tacey said.

“I couldn’t believe what I was hearing,” she added. “My daughter and I have never had anything like this happen before.”

According to Glenni Lorick, an International Board Certified Lactation Consultant and a member of the Alabama Breastfeeding Committee, this sort of thing happens more than it should and is illegal.

Alabama Code Section 22 1-13, passed in 2006, states that a mother may breastfeed her child in any location where the mother is otherwise authorized to be present. The law does not require that mothers cover up when breastfeeding. 

Tacey immediately canceled her gym membership and took to Facebook to relate her experience.

A screenshot submitted by Tacey showed a Facebook post in which SportsFit Athens Fitness Manager Erin Chambless wrote, “We support breastfeeding mothers at our facility. We simply ask that nursing moms be considerate of other gym members and children in the childcare facility by being discreet. Nursing in our childcare room is encouraged as long as discretion is used (i.e., using a blanket or nursing cover) or we have a large changing stall with a comfortable chair in our locker room for more privacy.”

SportsFit Athens has since taken down their Facebook page.

“They received a lot of negative comments, and I think that is probably why they pulled it,” Tacey said.

Tacey’s Facebook page, on the other hand, was inundated with supportive comments. Some even suggested that a group of breastfeeding moms join Tacey at the gym for a peaceful protest of sorts which evolved into a “nurse-in.”

Tacey embraced the idea and left several voicemails with the gym, letting them know that a nurse-in would be taking place in their parking lot on Sept. 13.

“That morning, I finally got a call back from someone who said they were the regional manager for SportsFit,” she said. “He did apologize on behalf of himself and the company but was still defending the front desk worker’s actions, saying he was looking for a compromise that would make everyone happy. I guess I was supposed to be happy nursing my baby in the bathroom.”

“To tell a mother you have to go feed your baby in a bathroom is nasty,” Lorick said. “The idea that someone would say something like that to a breastfeeding mother is unbelievable to me.”

The nurse-in wasn’t as well-attended as Tacey had hoped, but she said she is grateful for the coverage the issue has received.

“If there is a mother out there early on in her breastfeeding journey or is a little bit shy, I hope that my experience will help her be aware that there are laws out there to protect her and she should never be embarrassed by something that is so completely natural.”

“Education and awareness are key to preventing an incident like this from happening again,” Lorick, who also owns A Nurturing Moment, a mom and baby boutique in Huntsville, said. “Businesses need to educate themselves about the law. They need to make sure all of their employees understand the law, that it is a mother’s legal right to breastfeed and they should never say anything negative to her.”