Mother sues for £20k for being discouraged from bf while the wave machine was on

[sizeofalentil]

Daily Mirror link to the story here.

I'm totally for breastfeeding wherever and whenever, but I wouldn't want to eat my sandwiches in a swimming pool - they are so germy, like a human soup, so not sure a swimming pool with a wave machine on would be the best place to bf. Plus, obviously in this case there was the waves.

I realise that getting out of the water, especially if she had other kids, with a hungry baby would be a massive faff, but wouldn't the wave machine splash the baby and make it choke?

Serious question: AIBU to think this? Is bf in a swimming pool a done thing? Genuinely curious.

How could it possibly be anything to do with safety?

How do you know ow it wasn't?

Wave pools that don't have signs posted forbidding children under a certain age

You've not been to many wave pools have you?

Most don't let people who are not strong swimmers in the pool while the machine is on.
As a teenager i used to get bruises from our local wave machine.

If there was a safety issue then no babies would have been allowed.

you don't know who else was in the pool. Where have these other babies come from?

^During waves and rapids all weak swimmers and children wearing

armbands must stay in the paddling section^

I don't know about you but being on a chair is much more comfortable than kneeling / squatting / sitting in the shallow bit of a pool.

Mathanxiety I agree with 95% of what you have written, but I think the discrimination of new mums/ pregnant women and the 'behind closed doors' mentality isn't just about breastfeeding. Until women stand together despite their choices the issues won't be solved.

The swimming pool/ wave machine argument isn't discrimination in my opinion. You are not allowed to eat in a swimming pool, a mum would not be allowed to ff in a swimming pool. A breastfeeding baby is at mother's chest height, taking any young baby into a wave machine is odd.

The case is also nonsense as you can only sue for personal loss and there isnt any as far as I can see.

There's probably a sign up in the pool now, saying life guards are allowed to offer chairs.

I feel sorry for the chair in this story, I'm not assamed to say it. It must be feeling really usless now.

It might even be questioning it's life choices.

people will walk past it, not really noticing one lonely chair dripping wet at the pool side. Condensation they will cry, but we will know it's tears, tears of lonelyness.

Maybe the chair could sue?

Wave pools that don't have signs posted forbidding children under a certain age
Have you ever been to a wave pool?
I have never been to a wave pool that DIDN'T have signs up to warn people of the risks and explain that the waves are very powerful so suitable for strong swimmers only. I remember going to one and I was holding my son who was about 8. The lifeguard asked to see him swim before he was allowed in when the waves were on.
I suspect that the lifeguard regularly has to tell people to move as it is not safe for them.

There is a photo of the wave pool further up thread.
Who in their right mind would think that this was a suitable environment to feed a baby?
If I did take a baby into that pool, I wouldn't be cradling them in a feeding position, I would be holding them upright so I could easily lift them out of the water - not something you can do when you are breastfeeding.
Sitting in the shallow end, those waves can knock you over so easily. People often underestimate how strong they are.

LT, I have indeed been to wave pools.Maybe I was there on particularly bad days, but they were heaving with people of all ages.

If they are that dangerous, then they should be banned. So should swimming in the sea.

If dozens of people were not being turned away from the pool on safety grounds, and since the lifeguard specifically indicated that breastfeeding was the issue when he offered the mother a chair where she could do it, then I have to conclude that it was the lifeguard's limited understanding of breastfeeding that informed his request, and not a safety concern.

I am assuming this woman wouldn't sue unless she has something of a leg to stand on. Unless she is a barrister, unfounded suits could become very expensive for her. So I am assuming there is a context here that includes plenty of people in the wave pool, including plenty of children, and perhaps even pregnant women, all of which would indicate that safety was not the lifeguard's number one concern when he offered the chair.

Tobysmum -- I agree all women need to support all other women when it comes to choices wrt breastfeeding (and breast vs bottle, etc), but that includes standing behind women who breastfeed in places where we as individuals might not choose to breastfeed. I personally would not try it with a distractable baby in a busy food court but I wouldn't tut tut at another woman exercising her right to do that.

I personally would not try it with a distractable baby in a busy food court but I wouldn't tut tut at another woman exercising her right to do that.

Well neither would I but while the wave machine is on in a swimming pool is surely a step above that?

It isn't just the feeding malarky it also pisses me off the way that pregnant women are everyone's property. Oohh should you do this/ that shite.

But equally women can behave like twats while pregnant and breast/bottle feeding and I fear this falls under that heading unfortunately.

I am assuming this woman wouldn't sue unless she has something of a leg to stand on.

Well she seems as a 'lactavist' seem to find lots of issues with all sorts of companies.

Unless she is a barrister, unfounded suits could become very expensive for her

No win no fee it's all publicity for her

I am sure she finds lots of issues with other companies/venues. I am sure there are lots of issues with different companies/venues. Public breastfeeding is a right, but women still have to fight for that right to be recognised, acknowledged, and accepted.

Ultimately, it is people like this woman who will make the western world a place where society understands that boobs are not just for male entertainment, which is apparently a context where exposed boobs are perfectly acceptable.

Lawsuits and any resultant publicity are a form of public education. So are protests like nurse-ins. It's not necessarily publicity for her or for the women banding together to make a political point via breastfeeding.

They force companies/venues to educate themselves and to educate their staff and to change their views. As a result of lawsuits, women can breastfeed in public and don't have to keep a bottle of formula handy for shopping trips, etc. and women can now have access to a room at work to pump breast milk at work, adequate breaks for pumping and not just lunch or toilet breaks, and access to a fridge to store milk in. I can just imagine the muttering against the women who campaigned for that.

Barristers generally don't take on unfounded cases just for the heck of it. Some of them are concerned for their professional reputations.

Ultimately, it is people like this woman who will make the western world a place where society understands that boobs are not just for male entertainment, which is apparently a context where exposed boobs are perfectly acceptable.

Or it is people like this woman who actually do harm to the cause by suing at the drop of a hat because someone dared to offer her a chair.

It's not necessarily publicity for her or for the women banding together to make a political point via breastfeeding.

Not many women go around calling themselves 'lactavists'

But equally women can behave like twats while pregnant and breast/bottle feeding and I fear this falls under that heading unfortunately

Exactly.

There are thousands of self-declared lactivists. Lactivism is a political movement aiming to promote breastfeeding, and to that end the acceptance of public breastfeeding.

She didn't make it up. It's a Thing.

If you ever find yourself breastfeeding in public with nobody asking you to cover up or go get a room, thank a lactivist.

I personally would not try it with a distractable baby in a busy food court but I wouldn't tut tut at another woman exercising her right to do that.

You have 'tut tuted' at anyone who wishes to bf in private.

You have completely twisted this case - a lifeguard OFFERS a chair to a lady, you change it to she was asked to leave. Because it sounds better doesn't it, after all it is law (rightly) that women can breastfeed anywhere. So it now needs to be taken to the next level to keep the argument going - let's make up that a security guard in Primark ripped a feeding baby off a boob, let's write an open letter to Heathrow airport that their security measures should apply to everyone except breastfeeding mothers, let's shame a hospital for daring to spend healthcare money on feeding rooms, let's sue a public swimming pool for offering to make a woman more comfortable.

You keep mentioning the sexual aspect - what relevance this has to do with the lady and the lifeguard I have no idea?

You keep saying she was discrimated against - she really wasn't. It's insulting to even suggest this.

And you have accused women on here of being misogynistic. Please quote exactly where you have read this?

Lawsuits and any resultant publicity are a form of public education. So are protests like nurse-ins. It's not necessarily publicity for her or for the women banding together to make a political point via breastfeeding.
So, say she wins the case. The lifeguard loses his job. Public money is taken to give this woman compensation, money that could fund libraries, health visitors etc. The swimming pool bans young babies as they don't want to risk this happening again. All of that is ok with you because a woman got offered a chair to feed on?

You have 26 pages of posters and I don't see anyone (apart from the convenient first time posters) agreeing with her or you. However I know nothing I nor anyone else says will resonate with you because for some women breastfeeding has become an all encompassing warpath. There are women in the world who can't even access sanitary protection and we are having to argue against entitled women like this one who thinks she is owed £20k for a bloody chair offering.

I have said that women who think they should spare the sensibilities of others and go to some place like a ladies loo are doing themselves and other women no favours, and I stand over that.
We do not have to spare other people from the idea that breastfeeding is a natural and healthy thing to do.
We do not have to pander to those who feel that boobs are always sexual and any use of them is a sexual act.

LOL at the DM photo with the breasts and babies' faces pixelated away while the sidebar features women 'flaunting' their 'toned', 'tanned', 'curved', 'assets'.
'Too sheer for TV!! Khloe Kardashian reveals blah blah blah...'
'Sexy Mama! Kristin Cavallari shows off lacy bra through see-through top...'
'Kristen Stewart takes a red carpet risk as she goes braless...'

The chair was outside the pool. She wasn't 'offered a chair'. She was offered a chair out of the water. She was asked to leave the water therefore, and to breastfeed while sitting in the chair.

I do not think this woman misunderstood this incident, or the incident at the hospital where she was asked to go to a private room instead of breastfeeding in the public waiting room.
'Anita Fleming, head of midwifery at East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust, said: 'It's disappointing to hear that our offer of a room to allow Mrs Stocker privacy and comfort was misinterpreted on this occasion and we are sorry for any upset.' '
Anita Fleming needs to read the Equality Act. The 'offer of privacy and comfort' is a request to breastfeed away from other people.

'The lifeguard loses his job' is not a given. There is no need to make things up.

And just because there are women in the world with worse problems doesn't mean women who are told off for public breastfeeding or women who are asked to remove themselves from a place where they may be doing so safely and sit on a chair away from the facility they paid to enter are not experiencing discrimination. We don't have to suck up discrimination because women elsewhere have it worse. It does neither them nor us any good.

If you think I have sock puppets, do report.

'... women who think they should spare the sensibilities of others and go to some place like a ladies loo are doing themselves and other women no favours...'

You can go to a more secluded spot if that is where you personally and your baby too feel most comfortable, but basically apologising for breastfeeding and accepting that the ignorant opinions of others are valid is not a helpful attitude.

Math - maybe they're not worried about 'doing favours' for other women, maybe they're just concentrating on feeding their babies?

The 'offer of privacy and comfort' is a request to breastfeed away from other people.

No it's not.

An offer isn't a request.
To offer something is to put resposibility to refuse onto the person in question.
"would you like to..."
"no thank you"

To request:
"There are seats around back where you will feel more comfortable, follow me."

And yes i've read the Equality Act and used it properly.

Being offered a chair is not being told to leave, just like being offered sugar for your coffee isn't forcing you to have it.

Would you like a biscuit?

No, how dare you, I'm diabetic and that's disability discrimination, you can expect me to sue you and your biscuit shop....

....And your pool full to the brim of mothers cradling their babies while waves design to push people backwards with force crash around them!

.... And the bus which also somehow became full of mothers...

.. and the bus stop where Math banished the breast feeding mother to.

You'll never forget the day you picked on this lonely chair, all of chair kind are now fighting back.