Woman behind military breastfeeding photo gets fired

Earlier this month, a photograph of two National Guardswomen breastfeeding their babies in military uniform went viral. The photograph was taken for Mom2Mom, a breastfeeding support group, as a promotional image for August's World Breastfeeding Week, Reuters reported. Military officials then stirred more controversy by publicly complaining about the images.  

Washington National Guard spokesman Keith Kosik said that the the problem is not with the breastfeeding, but with the military uniforms. "Our issue is not, and has never been about breastfeeding," he told Reuters. "Our issue is that the uniform was used by an outside entity to further their cause." He added that the women in the photograph would not lose their jobs.

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However, another woman involved with the photograph did get fired from her civilian job. Crystal Scott, an Army veteran and a program director for Mom2Mom, was fired from her job at Schryver Medical, Yahoo news reported today. Scott's lawyer maintains that she was unfairly fired because of the media controversy her photograph generated, and for "speaking out on gender equality and women's rights."

However, Schryver Medical's president, Jay Schryver gave Yahoo a different account of the firing: "Schryver Medical can certainly understand the excitement Ms. Scott experienced in being courted by the media…That said, those circumstances simply do not excuse her from violating the reasonable expectations of her employer."

Meanwhile, Mom2Mom is also unhappy with the military's view that its images were viewed as purely promotional material: "The military photographs were NEVER meant to exploit, promote or to use the military uniform to help our group," Mom2Mom posted on Facebook, according to Jezebel.