BFing likened to 'peeing in pool' at Manchester Aquatics Centre, BF Flash mob tomorrow morning!

[OhWhatAPalaver]

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For anyone in Manchester tomorrow morning, get down to this!

Apologies if this has already been posted but thought I should share here.

Vivien, why would it have been more sensible to sit at the side? And I think she offered to do that anyway but the member of staff told her that wasn't acceptable either.

I think bf flash mobs make you look a bit ridiculous tbh.

Oh.

I feel like a total freak now.

I bf in the pool. Have done with all three. Did so just two days ago.
Never long feeds, just a couple of minutes when DC rooting and about to yell.

Can honestly say have never given it a second thought til this thread.
Not from any angle. I feed on demand pretty much wherever I am as
most people prefer the bf to the screaming.

I have never ever had looks or comments in pools in UK or Europe.
Either I am far more discreet than I give myself credit for or the reality
is that noone gave a shit as we are all practically naked anyway...

...certainly not the teens eating each others' faces off.

I have had more hassle in restaurants than when swimming. As to why
I choose to bf in pool, it never felt unnatural, guess it's second nature/an unconscious thing as opposed to A Statement or A Decision I made nor do I leak particularly.

Have never had anything but cooing. Am in Europe but don't think it's a cultural thing. Don't think it's A Thing.

As to getting out to bf it honestly has never occurred to me to as we are not talking 20 minute sessions on both sides, just a quick top-up and so would be freezing my tits off unneccessarily.

Am not in UK -but not sure I would have wanted to flash mytits mob even though I know Oxford Road very well...

a) Photo in the Manchester evening news on a slow news day - my photos get vetoed by me vain cah that I am

b) Tis one rude woman - name and shame with superiors if her attitude was horrible.

c) Vote with feet! Gorton Ashton Stockport - never had attitude from anyone about anything in these pools.

Question re swimming nappies - little nippers etc - I am lucky, none of my kids have ever pooed while swimming. Maybe the water, temperature, distraction doesn't evoke bowel movements.

But if they wee how would I know? The nappies are wet through when they come out anyway and obviously contain no drying agents as these would leak into water like jelly so what do these nappies actually do?

Wasn't she sitting at the side feeding whilst supervising a toddler?
Also, she was told to go to a changing room or the loos, not told to sit at the side.

Why on earth should she take her toddler out of the pool and bundle them out to a changing room or loo (that is probably more germ ridden than the pool) because a few other people are offended by the sight of a mother feeding her baby - that's all it boils down to.

Mother feeding her baby in pool = no health risk whatsoever to onlookers.
Mother feeding her baby in pool = no more health risk to baby than swimming in said pool.
Mother feeding her baby in pool = no militance, no attention seeking, simply doing something that she barely thought about before doing it, feeding her baby.

Beyonce - if you're a freak, then so am I!
I fed one of mine in a pool as my toddler played. The baby cried, I fed her, she stopped. That was it.

From reading some of these posts, I expect some of you will think that I had an agenda to make sure people saw me making an exhibition of myself, but no, I really didn't think about anything at all apart from giving dd a quick feed to stop her crying.

I think it should be treated in much the same way that eating anywhere that isnt normally allowed is. I dont see a problem with breast exposure to the extent that is necessary for any particular woman to feed her baby in an accepted feeding place. The argument many women use when asked to feed in a toilet is 'would you eat your lunch in a toilet'? So if this comparison can be made, then surely breastfeeding is comparable to eating solids.

If we are to normalise breastfeeding, it should surely comply with the other social norms of eating. Singling it out to have rule of its own and basically saying it can be done anywhere no matter how ridiculous does nothing to normalise bf in our society

I go to this aquatic centre once a week for DS' s swimming lessons. I've seen mums breastfeeding in the pool a couple of times without a problem. It's not something I'd do ( even though I'm pro bfing, still bfing my 3yr old) but there is nothing wrong in it. But I won't be joining in a flash mob because they are ineffective and embarrassing and does no good to the cause.

I wouldn't use the line about "would you eat your lunch in the toilet" as an argument if it was suggested to me that I should bf there. I would just say no. I don't think that bf is exactly like eating and I don't think that the same rules should apply. I do wish that bf could be normalised in society, but I still can't understand why anyone would be perturbed by someone bf in a pool. It just doesn't bother me and I can't see it as a problem. It isn't unpleasant, indecent, unhygienic. It might not be what some people think is a norm but that is not a reason to say that it shouldn't be allowed.

I'm very pro breast feeding but breast feeding in a public swimming pool is not just wrong but totally unnecessary for all the reasons stated above and all a flash mob will do, in this case, is make you look like militant, single minded obsessives.

Fwiw, I don't think a flash mob is the right approach. I agree that it will give an unhelpful image of pro-bf supporters. However, bf in a swimming pool is not wrong or unnecessary for the reasons outlined previously.

Sorry, I was wrong to put "wrong" , i should have said it was something i wouldn't do, but I stand by unnecessary. I've never had to, not even considered it.

Totally agree with HelpMePleaseImConfused, also if it acceptable to bf in a public pool, then is has to be okay to bottle feed babies too.

Breastfeeding is often more than 'eating lunch', as is bottle feeding.

Both are often used to calm a fractious, anxious baby.

It's fine for mothers to use either breast or bottle if she is in the pool - bf is certainly more convenient, 'cos she is unlikely to actually bring the bottle down to the pool with her. She might bring a dummy though, to pop in if the baby is needs calming. The mother in this particular scenario used the bf as a calming strategy - it would be bonkers to expect her to get out the pool and do it elsewhere, and then bring the baby back to the pool again.

We are talking about babies, who get upset, and who need the comfort and security of sucking/feeding sometimes.

I just don't know why anyone would object to this....there's no hygiene or safety issue, the law is on the side of the mother's entitlement to bf wherever she and her baby happen to be, no one needs to be bothered by it, and it is mystifying to me why some people think it's not acceptable.

Same here tiktok I would quite like some people to explain what is so wrong about it?

On the other thread it was said it was 'inconsiderate'... Not sure why tho?!

I feed my baby in the most comfortable and convenient place available to me. At home it's a comfy chair, in a restaurant it's at the table, not in my bath or in a public toilet for example.
sits on fence
If that was the best place for her then fine, that's what I defend, even though personally I wouldn't feed in the pool.

Who gives a shit if it is more than lunch? If it's her legal right it's her legal right and it should not have been made an issue of. This doesn't mean women who support being have to like it or agree with either it or a bunch of women using their breasts and babies to make a cheap political point that could be made just as effectively without exhibitionism. All this faux horror as to why any human might not want a visual reminder that all swimming pools involve far more sharing of bodily fluids than we might care to consider. I'm not squeamish about swimming in traces of my own dandruff/dead skin/breast milk/sweat/urine etc but I'd rather not think about swimming in someone else's even if I do. I don't really care that much and I wouldn't make a fuss but hey, we are all entitled to our own boundaries.

A BF flash mob, in a pool, is just a bit well, ridiculous. I can't see how it will do anything but make make the anti-BF brigade think how sill it all is.

FWIW I'm v pro BF but just don't understand why you'd do it in a pool. I certainly wouldn't have given my FF babies a bottle in the pool.

There's bigger battles in this whole thing than feeding in a pool.

I still fail completely to understand why taking 2 minutes to latch a baby onto a breast, then unlatch, is considered something worthy of comment in the first place.

I've done it in swimming pools, in school meetings, in the playground, in the street. It's no big deal.

Manchester leisure centre made it into a massive deal.
Then the media did
I don't think a flashmob is the answer,

just carrying on doing it as and when required should suffice, really. I certainly never imagined that anyone might object to it.

Lugging a bottle about, mind, sounds a lot more messy and difficult to organise...I'd be more concerned about where to PUT the bottle, how to hold it and the baby, whether it might be tripped over on the side of the pool.

No one can trip over your boobs, there's always been a lot less spillage from a boob than a bottle in my own limited experience.

Not saying people should not feed from bottles in a pool - either is completely acceptable imo, because it is a BABY, and babies need to latch on and off randomly at that age and there's frankly no reason not to.

I suppose that in my mind, breastfeeding is something that puts neither you nor the baby alone. You are becoming one unit when you do this.

Often at 4mo a baby is only JUST beginning to realise that it is a separate being from you. When it is feeding from you, you are connected in a way that isn't all that far from when you are pregnant with the baby.

It is different to bottle feeding in that respect and in others (mainly that bottles tend to give longer lasting fullness, or so I am told)

Bottle feeding is less intimate, it is less of a physical connection. A tiny baby being breastfed is a tiny baby that is acting almost autonomously, in itself, you are a part of it, you are its source and its food source combined. It believes that you are part of its own body.

That, is why I feel so strongly that breastfeeding an infant anywhere should be considered so normal as not to be noticed, let alone commented on. It is like breathing, almost, for the baby - like moving a limb, sucking a thumb, walking.

The mother is only an extension of the baby's own self.

An older child still maintains this connection to a degree, though it becomes more of a silken thread than a hefty great shackle or a thick rope. The connection is still there, until they stop.

The law is clear that a baby can be breastfed anywhere the mother and baby are allowed to be. The pool is already accepting baby slobber and the risk of babies puking and mothers leaking milk, however much we might prefer not to think about it, so bfing isn't going to make any difference to the content of the pool.

Personally I can't get out of a pool without both arms and sometimes assistance, so getting out to feed would involve plonking the baby on the side first, then five minutes of effort, then rearranging towels and baby, all with the baby screaming their head off. Those who say they don't want to look at breastfeeding - I'm sure you don't want to listen to screams echoing round the pool either!

Having said that, I think a flashmob would be counterproductive.

I have been unfortunate enough to witness one of these breastfeeding flashmobs a few years ago.

It was bloody awful, the women were all sitting there, some children were happy enough and feeding away others didn't want to be fed and the Mums were basically forcing them, holding their heads in place and ignoring their distress and cries. Some of them were shouting at people who were walking past shaking their heads. They did no favours promoting breast feeding that day at all.

There are ways to go about expressing concern and anger about things that don't involve this type of protest.

Imo it just makes the people doing it look silly and does nothing to make bf look like a positive thing. Had I witnessed it before I had my children I would have probably thought twice about bf my children.

Yes it should not be used as a weapon.

I did wonder how exactly people were intending to feed at a certain time, anyway...I haven't ever had much of a say in it!

I am pro breast feeding but also pro common sense. A way to make breast feeding less accepted as the norm, take part in a breast feeding mob and everyone will think look at those complete idiots. That's my opinion.

Did it go ahead?