Young mum asked to leave her local swimming pool for breast feeding

[Jazzy]

A young mum has hit back after a life guard at her local swimming pool asked her to stop feeding her 4-month-old baby as it was ‘unhygienic’.

21-year-old Holly Mayes was at The Venue swimming pool at Billing Aquadrome, in Northampton, last Sunday when the incident took place.

She explained that she had moved to a quiet corner at the shallow end of the pool to nurse her son, and was immediately approached by a female life guard who asked her to stop.

Holly explained: ‘This lifeguard came right over and told me to go to a changing room or round the back of the pool, because what I was doing was unhygienic and making other lifeguards and people feel uncomfortable.’

A spokesman for Billing Aquadrome commented: ‘Mums have every right to feed their babies when they need to so do and our operating practices are to encourage breastfeeding in a safe and comfortable environment for both the mother and child.’

Hitting back at critics who claimed that breastfeeding in the pool could be dangerous, Holly countered: ‘Half my body was out of the pool anyway so there was no danger of getting any in the pool.’

Source

Who was in the right here? The young mum or the female life guard? Please explain your choice.

 

[Smiley]

I can see where both of them were coming from. Technically, the life guard did the right thing, for the reasons she mentioned, but at the same time, I can't help but wonder; what's so unhygienic about breastfeeding in the swimming pool? What's the problem? The possibility of some breast milk accidentally getting into the water? :unsure2: So what if it did? It's a breast milk, not poison.

Sure, the resulting emulsion might not look pretty, but what harm would it present for everyone? Not to mention the minuscule amount of milk would barely make a proverbial dent in such large amount of water.

As for people feeling uncomfortable around a woman breastfeeding her baby... I don't know. Personally, I wouldn't mind, but I guess some people don't like it.

 

[Jazzy]

Holly explained: ‘This lifeguard came right over and told me to go to a changing room or round the back of the pool, because what I was doing was unhygienic and making other lifeguards and people feel uncomfortable.’

I'm siding with the lifeguard on this one. While I disagree about it being unhygienic, she was making other people feel uncomfortable. She was offered other alternatives but refused to use them. I'm not against breastfeeding but there's a time and place for everything. Not to mention this is probably a public pool and the lifeguards have a right to enforce rules making sure everyone is safe and feels comfortable.

 

[~KAGE-008]

I'm siding with the lifeguard on this one. While I disagree about it being unhygienic, she was making other people feel uncomfortable. She was offered other alternatives but refused to use them. I'm not against breastfeeding but there's a time and place for everything. Not to mention this is probably a public pool and the lifeguards have a right to enforce rules making sure everyone is safe and feels comfortable.

I have to agree with this. Breastfeeding is a natural thing, but doing that in public is uncomfortable to most people, at least in my country. Bringing a bottle with extracted breast milk or formula is an alternative there.

 

[DrLeftover]

IN the pool was a bit much, but still.

There is a way to be discrete with what is an intimate moment between mother and baby, and I'm not sure than in a public pool is it.

But the other people being "uncomfortable" about it says a hell of lot more about them and how uptight they are than it does about her using poor judgement.

 

[Nebulous]

Why do it IN the pool? Couldn't she have excused herself and at least wrapped a towel around herself and the baby outside the pool?

 

[+paradox]

not sure why you must feed your child in the pool in the first place, use common sense mums...

 

[WHO IS SERAFIN]

I can see where both of them were coming from. Technically, the life guard did the right thing, for the reasons she mentioned, but at the same time, I can't help but wonder; what's so unhygienic about breastfeeding in the swimming pool? What's the problem? The possibility of some breast milk accidentally getting into the water? :unsure2: So what if it did? It's a breast milk, not poison.

Sure, the resulting emulsion might not look pretty, but what harm would it present for everyone? Not to mention the minuscule amount of milk would barely make a proverbial dent in such large amount of water.

As for people feeling uncomfortable around a woman breastfeeding her baby... I don't know. Personally, I wouldn't mind, but I guess some people don't like it.

When I ran the maintenance department for several high end apartment complexes I once had one of my supervisors call me that a pool health inspector showed up and someone had one of those tiny little dogs sitting in a baby carriage with them while laying out in the pool. Not in the water just inside the pool fenced in perimeter. The health inspector shut down the pool and made us drain it completely and refill the pool. That is expensive to use that much water! So it depends on the laws and which health inspector you get if he or she is going to be a dick or not. Out of the water it is all fine and dandy she is feeding her child but I agree with the life guard if she was doing it in the pool.