An outraged mother writes an open letter to Heathrow Airport's Aviation Security after she forced to dump 14.8 litres of breast milk, leaving her "humiliated" and "defeated".
A US mother takes to Facebook to vent her outrage after she was forced to dump 14.8 litres of breast milk for security reasons at London’s Heathrow Airport.
In an open letter to the airport's Aviation Security, Jessica Coakley Martinez reveals how humiliating the incident was f or her. The mother of two revealed the security made her throw the amount of milk she could have fed her son for nearly two weeks. "You made me dump nearly 500oz of breastmilk in the trash,"she said on Facebook .
Heathrow , according to BBC said the government’s rules regarding carrying liquids on a flight is clear for passengers on its website. Martinez admitted although she should have looked up the rules, the rule that breast milk was not allowed if the mother was travelling without her baby was “incredibly unfair and exclusionary in consideration of all of the other working mothers like me”.
"I travel significantly for work and personal leisure. I have two small children and have breastfed them both, bringing frozen breastmilk on plane after plane after plane, including in countries with strict liquid laws." Martinez writes. "Never have I ever been asked to throw out the milk because it might at some future time become a liquid."
Liquids can only be carried on a plane in 100ml or less containers in a re-sealable, transparent bag, according to the Department for Transport's website. It further adds, exceptions are granted in the case of baby food or milk if the baby is travelling with the passenger.
Martinez concludes she hopes the "next time you encounter another mom just trying to make it work and looking for a little help along the way, you consult your conscience (as well as a physical science textbook) and reconsider your options."
Read Martinez's entire open letter here:
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 "Jessica Coakley Martinez")
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