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

heronsfly, I think it's really sad that you think the kneejerk 'yuck' reaction some ill-informed people have to b/f should be enforced by pool attendants.

Comparing b/m to food and drink is ridiculous. And if you want to start talking about health & safety, perhaps you should talk to the Health and Safety Executive first? My guess is they will tell you not to be so daft - and certainly not to take their name in vain.

If you work for a local authority or any other public body, I think you'd better refer up to make sure you and your colleagues aren't contravening council policies or the law - which obliges public bodies to actively promote equality, not merely obey the equality legislation.

The govt. is amending/updating the Sex Discrimination Act and was planning to state firmly that preventing a woman from b/f is unlawful - not sure what stage it is at, but again, if you work for a public body, you need to be aware your current practice will be unlawful very soon. Perhaps you could contact whoever at your employers is responsible for complying with equalities legislation?

If you work for a private company, you also need to be aware of forthcoming changes in legislation which will apply to everyone, not merely public bodies.

I do agree with anniemac , would prefer not to feed in a pool and would never choose to do it, but don't care if someone else chooses too (as long as they're not in the deep end )

That's a really bad joke but I did .

Now a woman doing backstroke with a nursing baby on board, that I would like to see! I would buy that woman a drink.

I have fed poolside very recently, yet I would describe myself as a discreet bf-er.

I chose not to haul my other child out of the pool to shiver in the changing rooms (when they were enjoying themselves) and slung a towel over my shoulder.

As far as I noticed, no-one cared and if they did it was their problem. I am not a militant tits-out-wherever for me, but I do think that we reserve the right to feed our children when they need it...babies can't understand when you tell them that they have to wait because other people might be offended by their feeding equipment (do I??!!)

I always wonder who these 'militant tits-out' women are....

I am with Anniemac. Most pools insist on a 1:1 ratio for very young children anyway so it's unlikely you would have a baby and another child to keep an eye on.

I think that feeding a baby in a swimming pool is quite odd personally.

lol puzzle

I have a 4yo and a baby. I've never bf in a pool yet but I can now see doing so. Typically I am alone with both children and dd1 is v happy in the pool if in shallow water or with wings in the deep end. I can see dd2 getting hungry and dd1 not ready to get out. DD2 could tolerate waiting for dd1 a bit more with a quick feed.

This sort of thread always reveals a lot of how other posters subconsciously regard breast feeding. And how ignorant and bigoted the public at large is about breast milk.

My post wasn't about breast feeding, it was about feeding. I also would find it odd if someone gave their baby a bottle of formula in a swimming pool.

It is very different to give formula in a pool. For a start where would you have the bottle, who would hand it to you, where would you put if afterwards?? If you needed to formula feed a baby in a pool you can hand it over to the person who would be doing all the aforementioned jobs.

It isn't something I've ever tried Hercules I disagree with the reasons given but still think it's strange. As much as anything surely you would have to get out of the pool to wrap the baby in a towel or the baby would get cold as it wouldn't be in the water? So in answer to your question I guess you could leave the bottle of formula wrapped in the towel by the side of the pool.

Militancy about any human or civil right is often necessary in order to raise the consciousness of society about that right, even if the right is enshrined in law. It's meek women hiding in the changing rooms and apologising for bfing that makes it possible for the knuckle draggers to give voice to their unreasonable prejudices and essentially bully bfing women out of sight, which makes it easy for pool managers, etc., to ignore the laws.

Here here

Well put mathanxiety

I remembered to fill in my complaint form at the swimming pool yesterday - am interested in what their reply will be.

'always reveals a lot of how other posters subconsciously regard breast feeding'

I don't think so. I'm not very keen on people breast feeding in pools but I'm the daughter of a HV who was well ahead of her time in promoting breast feeding. As a small girl, I helped fold leaflets about the benefits and give them out at baby clinics. I'd read Breast is Best by the time I was 14. At the clinics I was surrounded by women feeding.

It was just something normal in our family.

That's terrible. Stupid weird men. I hope she takes it to the local paper. Why should she get out the pool? Should be her choice. It makes me mad that it's OK to get your tits out for the lads in papers/strip shows etc but if you feed your baby, people are up in arms about it!! Kids have to see tits on display in shops all the time with nuts mags and others where kids can see and on MTV etc, there are surely more awkward questions about that than a mother feeding her baby. I say to my DDs if they ever ask about 'boob jobs' and stuff they hear, 'would you rather use your breasts for pervs (mutilate yourself with implants, have to worry about droopiness etc) or to feed your baby as is what they are there for.'

Why would you bfeed in a swimming pool?

as someone who has breastfed in my apartment's kid's pool, my reason was simply that my 8 week old baby was crying, probably hungry, needed a feed and I prioritized that over getting out of the pool, shuffling wet footed (which could have meant slipping holding a crying wriggling baby) over the marble to get to the sun loungers in the bright sun or up to our flat to make it MORE BLOODY APPROPRIATE!

Or I'm just lazy, weird or militant

Waves to Idris. Let us know what the response is to your complaint love. I personally cannot see what the problem is as others have already said there are far worse thing in swimming pool water than breast milk. I wouldn't want to drag my kids out of the pool and into the "feeding are" which is often in a toilet somewhere so they could stand and shiver whilst I fed the baby. As long as you feed discreetly it really shouldn't matter!

I think the question should be turned around. "Why WOULDN'T you feed in a swimming pool?"

If we base all our quick judgments to feed on whether or not people think it's weird or odd, then we haven't got equality for bfeeding mums.

I also think the term 'discreet' is a bit of a fallacy in these arguments, given one person's definition of what is discreet varies considerably, according to their tastes and their position relative to the feeding.

Again, turn the question around. Why should we have to worry about discretion?

I just can't see why you would need to do that? I wouldn't have thought that an 8week old would be in the pool for more than half an hour anyway and I'd have fed the baby before going in. Even my seemingly continually feeding babies would go half an hour without a feed.
If my baby needed to feed or if it felt it needed comfort from suckling then I would probably have thought it would be more beneficial to take it out of the water.
I wouldn't have found it comfortable to feed like that either. And if I had other younger children who needed supervising I wouldn't feel I was supervising properly if I was juggling a feeding baby while standing in the water.

I agree that bfing in the pool seems a bit odd and unecessary to me and I've bfed when and wherever.
I think that the no food or drink while in the pool is fine. It's no real hardship to feed the baby before you go in.