a mum was asked to leave local swimming pool because she was breastfeeding. Is this allowed?

[chocolateorange]

just back from pool with my 2 dd. A woman and her friend were there with their babies who were about 5mo.

One of the women discreetly (wouldn't care if she wasn't tbh), began to bf. She was half in pool half out, in the very shallow end.

After about 5mins she was told to stop at once or leave. 2 men had complained, reasons given were

their children would see her breast and be offended.
their children would ask questions. wtf!
it's "disgusting"
there are germs in the water and she shouldn't do it there.

this was all echoed by the manager (a man) who then asked her to leave.

I am absolutely furious.

Can they do this?

tia

Sally those plasticy breast pads (called lilypads I think) should probably do the trick.

Thanks!

I think I remember reading about a similar case in the US, where a woman was asked to cease and desist/leave for BF her baby while sitting on the edge of the pool (I think), and the reason given was that her boobs might leak a bodily fluid into the water. The nice, clean, hygenic water that absolutely nobody else had released any bodily fluids into.

Utterly absurd, anyway. Clearly if someone objects on spurious grounds to BF in this environment, they're going to find excuses to fit their 'policies' one way or another.

But why worry about leaky breasts in the pool in the first place? The water is treated with chlorine precisely to minimise any bacteria that are present in sweat, pee, breastmilk, etc.

Oh, and my baby never threw up after a feed - he barely possetted at all, in fact!

Iggi999 "Smac it's really not important whether any of us would have fed in that situation or not - she had a perfect right to be doing it"
You see that is where I disagree she didn't absolutely have to feed her child then and there did she? I feel that women who make a big fuss about their right to breastfeed anywhere don't really help the image of breastfeeding in general. I have breastfed countless time in the swimming pool cafeteria or a couple of times in the changing facilities there is no need to feed poolside, breast, bottle, chocolate buttons whatever.

Well said Smac,feeding elsewhere in a centre is no problem at all but actually in the pool is a different matter,also the staff have to take into consideration the feelings of other members of the public,a lot of men,especially of the older generation would feel very uneasy about this,they shouldent I know,but they do.

It is against the law to prevent a woman from breastfeeding in public - Sex Descrimination Act 1978, ammended 2002, I believe

But I dont think she was actually being prevented,just being asked to move to a more suitable area.

Err, reading the OP and her subsequent posts heronsfly, I think the woman was actually told to leave the pool altogether. So yes, she was being prevented from feeding her child.

"staff have to take into consideration the feelings of other members of the public"

No they don't. Not all the time.

Not if those 'feelings' are bigoted and unreasonable. You wouldn't ask a black person to leave the pool if their presence made a racist uncomfortable. You would recognise exactly who was being unreasonable, and who was vulnerable and needed their rights protecting.

You would offer the unreasonable person the opportunity to remove themselves from the presence of whatever offended them. But you should protect the innocent party.

Think about it.

I think it is very telling that it was men who complained, they obv don't like to see breasts used for their natural purpose, although I bet they would be happy to ogle a naked woman poolside!

True Sandcastles, but as this thread has shown, there are women who facilitate those sorts of attitudes. It's an awful shame.

littlecarrott has it spot on imo.

I second that.

'She was half in pool half out, in the very shallow end'

You shouldn't eat or drink in pools. Period.

It makes me feel a bit ugh about breastmilk or any kind of drink dripping into the pool. Lots of babies do posset after feeds--both mine did.

but urine's OK?

My baby has never posseted after a feed and my boobs never leaked. Ha, thinking about that can you imagine? Another thing for b/feeding mothers to feel shit about, another thing to possibly prevent them taking part in normal life.

I breastfed my baby in our apartment's swimming pool in Singapore frequently. We did get some looks but no one dared challenge me. It was in the kids pool. I was lazy and couldn't be arsed to get out!

oh yes cos if your boobs leak you are unclean!! No bodily fluids worse than bm eh??

In situations like these I think often the person thinks the breastfeeder is being uppity, selfish and obstreperous. But nothing could be further from the truth. It takes quite a selfless person to stop what they are doing in a very public place and breastfeed a baby because its demands have come there and then.

But no, people think public bfs are just doing it to annoy them/make a political statement.

Exactly SPB
If we can cope with peoples bodily hair, flaky skin, saliva, urinie, fecal particles, even snotty noses, then what's a bit of breastmilk for goodness sake.

I love that the posters who are ugh about breastmilk in the pool arent considering the far worse bodily fluids in the pools. Breastmilk has got to be the least of their problems!

I did it at the weekend. It occurred to me to go into the changing room, but it's cold in there, no comfy sunloungers in there, and I wanted to watch DD1 swimming with DH.
I doubt anyone even knew what I was doing.

I find it quite bizarre (and very sad) that people actually "feel a bit ugh about breastmilk... dripping into the pool". By that train of thought, a bfing mother shouldn't be in the pool at all (with or without her baby), just in case her milk accidently leaked into the pool

If you are in the pool with other children it makes perfect sense to simply feed the child there and then rather than dragging everyone out of the pool and to the side.