"If adults get hungry at the mall, they eat," said 24-year-old Lindsay J. Turner. "My child needs to eat, and he should be allowed to eat at the mall. Mothers should not be forced to breast-feed children in their homes. The babies need to eat when they get hungry."

The breast-feeding women and other protesters, some carrying signs with slogans such as "I was Breastfed in Public," said the "nurse-in" was a response to a Feb. 17 incident in which guards told Leigh Bellini, 29, of Shillington, to use a blanket or stop nursing her 7-month-old son.

"I am holding back tears," Bellini said before feeding her son at the protest. "I can’t believe how much support I have here. I wasn’t expecting this at all."

Supporters also signed a petition calling for a change in state law to guarantee mothers the right to nurse in public. Jake Marcus, an attorney for Birth Without Boundaries in Harrisburg, who helped organize the protest, said Pennsylvania is one of 14 states without such legislation.

Mall officials said last week that public nursing should be done discreetly, and they will review how to handle such situations.

Shoppers crowded around as the women nursed, and some said they were there to show support. Mark D. Lazarony, 27, of Wernersville, said he attended on behalf of his wife, Melissa, who is nursing the couple’s 2 1/2-month-old son, Myles.

"It concerns me that we live in a society that allows the stores in the mall to put up scantily clad women but doesn’t approve of breast-feeding," Lazarony said.

Via Richmonds Times-Dispach