A Manhattan woman is suing her nanny for $10,000 in damages for feeding her newborn baby formula instead of waking her up to breastfeed the infant.
Lynn Wojton, 37, prefers to breastfeed her newborn daughter, believing it to be the healthiest approach, according to Daily Mail. She is the owner of a cosmetic practice and a registered cosmetic nurse.
But her nanny and doula, Marcia Chase-Marshall, fed the infant baby formula because it was less work and she didn’t want to help the new mother with the longer process of breastfeeding, preferring instead to sleep, according to court documents.
“I was very upset,” Wojton told The Post. “This is not what I wanted—this is not what I want—for my baby.”
New mom sues her nanny for $10,000.
Because nanny gave baby formula instead of breast milk.
One time.#HighCrimesAndMisdemeanors #Nanny #Lawsuits #SundayMorninghttps://t.co/vQN1wECox4— Beverly A. Pekala (@PekalaLaw) March 10, 2019
The new mom breastfed her daughter Wilder on the first two nights after returning home from Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City where she gave birth in September, according to Wojton’s lawsuit in Manhattan Supreme Court.
Chase-Marshall slept in the same room as Wilder and would wake Wojton whenever the baby needed milk.
On the third night, however, the nanny fed Wilder baby formula instead of waking up Wojton to breastfeed.
Wojton told The Post she was very upset. “I cried for an hour, honestly.”
Chase-Marshall initially said she did it because she believed baby formula was better than breast milk, Wojton said. But the mother claims the nanny later admitted she had deliberately defied her instructions because it was less work and she wanted to sleep instead.
Wojton says she paid the doula $4,200 before confronting her about the formula, after which Chase-Marshall allegedly fled the Manhattan apartment.
“I have nothing to say,” Chase-Marshall told The Post before hanging up, according to the site.
“Your instincts do kick in,” Wojton said. “It was the last straw—the way she was behaving and the way she was speaking to me.”
Wojton said Chase-Marshall was overly critical of everything the new mom did, from changing Wilder’s diapers to bathing the baby.
“If I didn’t change the diaper the way she thought was best, she would criticize me the whole time,” Wojton said. “It makes you second-guess yourself. You’re a new mother and this is all very new.”
Wojton’s lawyer Brett Gallaway told The Post his client didn’t want to upset the doula while being in a vulnerable position.
“Lynn obviously didn’t want to cross a stranger who had direct access to her baby, to her home and belongings at such an important and potentially volatile time,” said her lawyer Brett Gallaway.
Wojton has since hired a new nanny and says she and her daughter are doing well.
“I’m in a good place now, but I still get upset,” Wojton said.
Day Care Provider Nurses Client’s Baby
Another mother in the United States was horrified when she found her babysitter breastfeeding her adopted daughter after she had instructed the woman to feed her formula only.
Writing to Slate’s advice column Dear Prudence, the mother explained she was not nursing herself and couldn’t feed the newborn. The woman she hired has two children of her own, one of which was close to her own daughter’s age—the one she was breastfeeding.
“The only bump in the road was on the first day when I pulled out the formula and bottles, and she wrinkled her nose and said, ‘You feed her that slop?’” she wrote. “I ignored the barb (I’m used to it), gave a quick rundown, and went on my way.”
Two months after hiring the woman, who had been taking care of children out of her own home, the mother caught her breastfeeding her daughter when she arrived early to pick her up one day, reported Daily Mail.
“When I got to the area of the house where my daughter was, I about fell over. The day care provider was NURSING MY BABY!,” the mother wrote.
She confronted the babysitter immediately. “I marched over, took the baby from her arms, and asked her if she was crazy.”
The mother said the babysitter claimed she was “saving the baby from chemicals.” She said she was no longer going to be bringing her daughter to the same daycare.
