Wal-Mart apologizes for not printing breastfeeding photo

Wal-Mart has apologized to an Edmonton-area woman after staff at the Spruce Grove department store refusedher husband's request to print a photo of her breastfeeding.

Kayla Andres husbandwanted to give the picture to her for Mother's Day, but Wal-Mart staff argued it violated their photo policy against reproducing photos with nudity.

Andrehad planned tohold a mass breastfeeding event at the store on Thursday in protest, but she received a call from Wal-Marts Canadian head office on Tuesday, admitting that staff made a mistake.

"Lots of people were saying, 'You cant do anything, its Wal-Mart. Nothings going to change,'" Andre said.

"Im actually really, really pleased and shocked and surprised that someone from head office contacted me and remedied the situation."

Corporate affairs director Alex Roberton, the Wal-Mart Canada official who called Andre, said the company became aware ofhersituationafter her husband posted a comment on Facebook.

"When we look at the policy, I can understand how the associates in the photo centre a lot of them are new, a lot of them are young and they're trying to follow procedure," Roberton said.

"In this particular case, we hadn't done a very good job of making sure that procedure was crystal clear."

Roberton said Wal-Mart sent a note to stores across the country on Tuesday to clarify thatbreastfeeding photographs are acceptable and do not contravene store policy.