Breastfeeding protest at Northwoods Mall Hollister

About a dozen women staged a “nurse-in” outside the Hollister clothing store in the Northwoods Mall in North Charleston Saturday afternoon to advocate for women’s right to breastfeed in public.

The demonstration was prompted by a report last week that the manager of a Hollister store in a Houston, Tex. mall told a shopper that she could not breastfeed her child in or near the store entrance.

Elizabeth Hair-Estrella, who works as an analyst for a food distributor from her home in Hanahan, brought her 2-year-old daughter, Savannah, to participate in the child’s “first protest.”

Hair-Estrella, 31, said the idea of Saturday’s 3 p.m. nurse-in was to raise awareness about breastfeeding, both women’s need to do it anywhere they are and the health benefits to babies.

“We would like to peacefully create change,” she said.

Some passersby smiled and spoke softly to each other as they looked on, while others seemed confused or quickened their pace. It was hard to find anyone who didn’t support the breastfeeding mothers’ position.

Inside the teen clothing store, fast-paced music pounded in the dim. Assistant manager Whitney Clark seemed unfazed by the action outside.

“No big deal,” she said, referring questions about the substance of the debate to Hollister’s corporate public relations. “We just have to go about business, so that’s our priority.”

For more, see Sunday’s editions of The Post and Courier.

Reach Brendan Kearney at 937-5906 and follow him on Twitter at @kearney_brendan.