Offering a chair constitutes discouraging her from breastfeeding in the pool.
Why would it be necessary for the staff to do this?
Breastfeeding only differs from holding a baby across your body (while sleeping for instance) in the small detail of your nipple being in the baby's mouth. If they weren't offering chairs to all the mothers holding babies or toddlers in the same position when they might not be breastfeeding, then they are singling out someone just for breastfeeding, and I can't understand what makes breastfeeding more of a danger to anyone than holding the same baby across your body ten minutes later in the wave pool.
I can't understand how breastfeeding a baby might be more dangerous than allowing a pregnant women at about 38 weeks into the wave pool, where she might be tipped over and a horrible accident might happen. Were there rules about pregnant women entering the wave pool? Being heavily pregnant affects your ability to balance after all...
If you weren't topless or exposing a whole boob while breastfeeding, a lifeguard might not even suspect you were breastfeeding. How would he or she know how dangerous your situation was?
What is the huge change in the situation that happens due to breastfeeding as opposed to holding a baby across your chest in the wave pool?
If she had another child or a toddler with her -- I am sure there were lots of parents juggling two children in the wave pool and possibly finding it tough. I don't see how having one attached to you at the nipple would have made a difference. If one of the offspring with you was a baby and one a toddler, then you would most likely hang onto the baby with one arm, and clasping him or her across your body in breastfeeding position might well be the best way to do that, while using the other arm to hold onto the other small child. Not too much different from holding a baby while breastfeeding and also wrangling a toddler.
Were there other patrons of the pool who were not breastfeeding who were being asked to reconsider their decision to enter the water with a baby and a toddler or small child in tow if it looked as if they were struggling?
If the lifeguard is male 'and has no idea about breastfeeding' then he needs to be educated about it. A male's misconceptions about breastfeeding are not reason enough to ask a woman to leave the or anywhere else for that matter.
I don't think it's a given that it would be awkward to breastfeed in a wave pool.
(I'll tell you where it's really awkward to breastfeed -- in a cubicle in a public loo, where women used to have to go along with their toddlers or other children, in the bad old days before men and a lot of women too got used to the idea that boobs are for feeding babies).
Women don't just lose their balance or struggle in water they are standing in because of breastfeeding. Just holding onto a baby or a toddler or both in a wave pool can lead to falling over. It is far more likely that a lifeguard would have seen that happen, given that many people try to do that, while very few indeed might try breastfeeding in a wave pool. Was the lifeguard asking people to only hold one child or baby in the pool? Were there any signs posted asking for each baby or child to be accompanied by one dedicated adult? There is nothing about breastfeeding that makes it inherently more likely that you would be knocked over in a wave pool as opposed to the likelihood of being knocked over while just holding a baby or toddler or even an older child. If they had no rules about children under a certain age needing one adult each with them in the pool and asked the woman to sit down for 'safety reasons' then they were wrong.
I do not know how they would think offering a chair would make her feel welcome. She paid to get into the water and enjoy the waves, not sit on a chair at the side.
Do you really think this woman or any woman would pay for a day's outing without considering whether it was safe for a baby she intended to take along?
Should women have to take into account the ignorance of lifeguards/ shop staff/ waiters when making their decisions about taking their breastfeeding babies out? Should they have to accept those ignorant opinions?
So society is becoming more litigious. I don't see how that is a bad thing. Public breastfeeding became acceptable and legal in the US because women sued for their right to breastfeed in public in tandem with a campaign for increased awareness of the functions of the female body. When lawsuits reached critical mass, businesses started educating their staff. This was a positive development.
LOL @ 'we are turning American'.
It's a very good thing imo to be willing to sue. A lot of good comes of it. There are a lot of arrogant people and businesses who think they have a right to make money that trumps other people's right to dignity, or a right to make others pander to their neuroses. There is nothing like a lawsuit to put an end to that. Don't underestimate the educational value of a court judgement.