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.

^She was offered a chair.
She refused the offer.
Fine, her prerogative.

Had she been told to get out of the pool, then that is clearly different.

It really isn't difficult to see the difference^

This. Do we know the answer?

Math, why would an otherwise pro-breastfeeding swimming pool pick on one person?

There have been no previous complaints, in fact, posters on this thread who have actually frequented this pool have said that this sort of this would never happen.

Actually given your last post I doubt you have read this thread properly.

Which is surprising given your strong opinions.

This thread reminds me of the wrestling quote by George Bernard Shaw. And for that reason I will doff my cap and be on my way.

Here is the answer:

'The 25m swimming pool at Pendle Wavelengths has a gently sloping beach which edges into the warm water, ideal for young children and a nice place to sit and watch them play'

There is no need for a chair when a nice gently sloping beach area exists for parents and small children and presumably babies.

The only purpose a chair would serve is to segregate a breastfeeding woman from other pool patrons.

I have read the thread from start to finish. I am gobsmacked at it. The sheer illogical nonsense (to quote Screenshotting) of so many posters is truly astonishing. One poster even provided a photo of a different pool to make her point .

Who says the pool is pro breastfeeding?
The pool management?
How do we know it is pro breastfeeding in practice?
Is it because someone has put up a sign saying that? There are posters here who think that.

Not only have I read the whole thread, I have looked at many photos of the pool and I have read the brochure, and provided links and photos and a passage from the brochure describing the shallow area designed for sitting with babies and small children and even watch them play, and how there is also an intermediate area of the pool where people carrying babies and small children can adjust to the force of the water before you get into the wave area proper.

But don't let the facts about this pool and its different zones get in the way of insisting that the only alternative to full on bobbing like a cork in giant waves was sitting in a chair out of the water at the side where other patrons would be spared the sight of your exposed boob.

I am happy for you, Jason, that you have never encountered anyone who showed any discomfort with public breastfeeding you may have engaged in. However, if it's not too much of a stretch of your imagination, you should accept that that happy circumstance is not one that all women report.

Again this isn't about "Women" it's about this one woman. This woman who bullid a 15 year old over a comment he made at age 10 or 11.

Who says the pool is pro breastfeeding? How do we know it is pro breastfeeding in practice?
Becuase people who have been to the pool and breastfed there have confirmed it.

here other patrons would be spared the sight of your exposed boob.

We all know once you are in a swimming pool the area around the edge is totally invisible and "out of the way". So much so that parebnts sit there to watch their children.

Yet again you bring up how everyone hates the sight of breasts, which has nothing to do with the story.

I am gobsmacked as to how this thread has gone on for so long with so few actual facts to go on.

1. Sitting on a chair at the pool side wouldn't have pushed her out of site of anyone in the pool.
   If she was so close to the edge that she was out of the water, as you claim. Then she was pratically at the pool side, a chair is better than sitting on a damp floor. She woudl have been in the same location.

2. offering a chair to someone isn't against any law, Even if they are babyfeeding.

I am gobsmacked as to how this thread has gone on for so long with so few actual facts to go on.

Well we had pages from the life guard point of veiw, the mothers and I even provided the chairs view on the situation, which all helps fill up pages.

If it's still around on Monday we could have a 2 week birthday party with a cake shaped like breasts.

Will milk spurt out the nipple when you make an incision?

Gotta be a lactivist cake you see

:O but isn't cutting it a clear poorly disgused anti breast statement... If you get them out we cut them off?

Ah your right Jason

Someone in the legal profession has done the necessary paperwork to set a suit in motion, so I very much doubt this was all made up

A lawyer is not a prerequisite for legal action, it's easy to do it yourself. Many people bring cases that are entirely without merit. Like this one. The only conceivable "loss" would be the cost of entry to the pool, as she left (in a strop) without getting her money's worth. There is no way that a polite offer (easily refused with the words "no thank you") would result in £20k damages. She's a chancer

The only conceivable "loss" would be the cost of entry to the pool, as she left (in a strop) without getting her money's worth.

There is also potentially the counselling she needs after such a distressing experience. Obviously that's the business to be in if it comes to 20k

Being offered a chair most certainly is not just a courtesy. It's a request to take your boobs and your baby elsewhere.
I just can't even begin to comprehend this at all. It's attitudes like this that must strike fear into anyone trying to be supportive of breastfeeding mothers.

There are lots of women who buy into the argument that women's breasts should never be exposed while breastfeeding in public and preferably should separate themselves from other people to do so.
But most people don't. And this venue doesn't think that. The lifeguard in question didn't think that. There was never any suggestion that she should cover up or hide away.

It is thanks to lactivists that women have rooms in workplaces to pump milk in , and breaks for pumping
I completely disagree. I refuse to give the credit to women like this one for the work that has been done by the law and perfectly reasonable women presenting their case in a rational manner.

It seems breastfeeding in public pushes people's buttons, wouldn't you say?
No I wouldn't. It's far more rare now that women are genuinely discriminated against and there is huge public support for them when they are. It's odd cases like this, when a women sues without reasonable grounds, that pisses people off. As a breastfeeding mother, this behaviour does not support me. I don't want people terrified of offering me a chair.

By your argument it's irrelevant where she was sitting, she should be allowed to breastfeed whilst treading water in the middle of the wave pool if she wants to, and the lifeguard should have no authority to suggest that she wasn't being safe. I want the responsibility for safety to remain with the lifeguard who is best qualified to make those assessments.

math

You have no idea whether she was singled out.

I expect the lifeguard has suggested safer and more comfortable ways of doing things to lots of different people, over the years

It is not up to the lifeguard to suggest more comfortable ways to breastfeed. A lifeguard should assume a breastfeeding mother is well able to find a comfortable spot all by her big old grown up self.

How old was the lifeguard -- seventeen and a half?

Safer ways -- of course, that is a lifeguard's job. But if this woman was not out in the waves, and was in one of the two zones where the brochure says small children and inexperienced users of the wave pool could be safe, then the lifeguard was not concerned with safety but was concerned at partial nudity. (If others can bring up other alleged unhappy encounters this woman has had with individuals in the past, I can point out that as far as I can see from photos online she tends to peel off her clothing on whatever side she is nursing on. Believe it or not, she can legally feed her baby and small child with a whole breast, or even two breasts exposed.)

And again from LT come references to the 'offering' of a chair, when clearly this particular mother was comfortable where she was, or she wouldn't have sued.

The point about this woman sticking up for all women is valid, Jason.
If a breastfeeding woman needs to find a more comfortable spot, then what might hold her back from asking someone to direct her to one? Are you saying that breastfeeding women are too stupid to find someone to ask, if they see no comfortable place where they can breastfeed?

Can we trust women who are breastfeeding to find a spot that works for them? Or are shop assistants and restaurant managers and midwives in waiting rooms and lifeguards allowed to patronise them, or assume they would have sought out a more secluded spot or asked to be directed to one -- because after all, nobody should want to feed her baby right out there in full view of everyone else.. There is nothing about breastfeeding that makes you unable to ask for directions to a more secluded or more comfortable spot if you need directions.

We all know once you are in a swimming pool the area around the edge is totally invisible and "out of the way". So much so that parents sit there to watch their children.
'We all know...' This is just a weird assumption.
Also, this particular pool, the one being sued, has a zone right in the pool where parents and small children can sit together in the water with parents watching their children playing. This woman is only suing this one pool, a pool that has different zones for people to sit, get comfortable in the water, and ride the waves. There is simply no need for a chair when you can sit right there in the water. Even if the lifeguard was offering her a chair in preference to being out in the big waves, he could have suggested the less choppy water or the very shallow zone.

I really don't understand how people can't see that the 'offer' is a euphemism for 'you can't breastfeed here, dear'.

Because we are not bitter people looking to find a slight against us at every opportunity?

And this very statement just shows there is really no point continuing a conversation with you as you have absolutely no understanding of discrimination, you use insulting language and you have no interest in even trying to consider another point of view. Trying to shoe horn sexual ideas and men owning the world into this woman's pathetic complaint is on another level. There is so much more I want to say to you but it's clearly a waste of time, and not one SINGLE thing you have said I can understand or relate to.

So, if you are in fact this lady, good luck with the court case you will need it

Dictionary definition of offer :

to present for acceptance orrejection; proffer:

Don't see any mention of force or rejection or sex or anything there!!!

How old was the lifeguard -- seventeen and a half?
Where the hell did you pull that one from?
He's a qualified lifeguard, that's all that matters.

Believe it or not, she can legally feed her baby and small child with a whole breast, or even two breasts exposed.
You are the only one on this thread who seems obsessed with women's boobs! No-one else cares. I am happy to see numerous women openly breastfeeding pretty much anywhere. I am also happy if other people want to offer them a chair in the same public space that they are currently in or offered use of a more private space if they want it. She has every right to say no thank you. A woman should never be told to move away or cover up unless there is a justifiable reason.

I'm not sure if this has already been posted, but here's a picture of the pool (I think). www.pendleleisuretrust.co.uk/images/news/thumbnails/51.jpg

Depending on where you were sitting there would be a definite risk of being knocked over by the waves.

Believe it or not, she can legally feed her baby and small child with a whole breast, or even two breasts exposed.

Forgive me for saying but you don't seem to even know what you are supporting or arguing about. You keep going back to this random point.

This little fact has nothing to do with this story. Please stop bringing it up in every post, the whole of mumsnet is awear that it's legal to breastfeed in public, not one person on this forum, in the mirror story or at that pool has said otherwise. The pool fully support this right, this has been confirmed by people who have been there.

You are the only one who is hung up on the fact breast were involved, You keep saying horrible men are obsessed with breast but look at your posts.

The story is about a lifeguard suggesting a chair next to the pool to prevent possible wave machine related danger. Something he has not only the the right to do, but a duty of care to do.

I'm still pretty why a mother would to bf in a pool... it's just indulgent. Then argument against having to go bf in a toilet etc is always met with the retort 'would you eat your lunch in a toilet?' Absolutely correct response too, but would she sit in the pool and have a sandwich? I think not. She can't have it both ways. And I speak as someone who is bfing my 7mo ds. Bloody lentil weaving hippy - anyone who calls themselves a lactivist is just a bit of a prat that needs to get another hobby.