Should This Mother Have Been Allowed To Breast Feed Her Child In A Swimming Pool?

[anotheoldgit]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2392654/No-petting-bombing--breastfeeding-New-mother-ordered-stop-feeding-son-waist-deep-swimming-pool.html

[sherrardk]

You wouldn't feed a toddler a sandwich in a pool so I don't think you should breast feed in a pool. Anywhere else, fine - but not actually in the water.

[Mamyalynne]

I am a great defender of the right to Breastfeed anywhere, but I think on this occasion the Mum should have got out of the pool and sat by the side.

[stewey]

"Breast-feeding is the most natural thing in the World". Well, so are: urinating, defecating, masturbating, and fornicating; so, let us all get busy and get our smiling faces posted in a newspaper.

[Mamyalynne]

Stewey , good point - but doing any of those in public will break some law or other.

[Sqad]

Brave New World.......some women can't resist it......"Look, I am a woman, I have fulfilled our female potential, I have had a baby and this is how and when a baby is nurtured"

God! forbid, how did previous generations "nurture" offspring without getting their t1ts out in public?

[Mamyalynne]

Depends which generation you mean really , many years back nursing mothers hardly left the house.

I managed to breastfeed my two and still get out and about and never 'wapped' them out or offended anyone.

[jackthehat]

///God! forbid, how did previous generations "nurture" offspring without getting their t1ts out in public? ///

But they did.....

It's only been in fairly recent times that other people's sensibilities have become so delicate that the sight of a mother feeding her baby can induce outrage/a fit of the vapours (delete as appropriate).

[cazzz1975]

I think she should have got out, especially in the interests of cleanliness as feeding time can be fraught with all sorts of messy incidents. I wouldnt have harmed the baby waiting a few mins for food.

[cazzz1975]

I = it

[Mamyalynne]

I have never quite understood the supposed concept that a nursing mother has to actually "Get her t1ts out", the child is taken to the nipple, the breast is not laid out on a platter.

[Sqad]

JTH...I still can only understand 20% of your posts...........you reiterated exactly what i had written.........what have i misunderstood this time?

[ferryman]

From my point of view no she shouldn't have done. Many years ago when breast feeding was the done thing, no self respecting mother fed her baby in public. I think it's a private thing between mother and child an I don't care if you say times have changed! Why should we have to view body parts in public? Privacy counts and I hate to see such things like this in when i am out, it's my opinion and one I feel very strongly about.

[stewey]

Just to introduce a little titillating levity:
"Anything Goes"

In olden days a glimpse of stocking
Was looked on as something shocking
Now heaven knows, anything goes

Good authors too who once knew better words
Now only use four letter words writing prose, anything goes

The world has gone mad today and good's bad today
And black's white today and day's night today
When most guys today that women prize today
Are just silly gigolos

[jackthehat]

I can explain it to you, but I'm afraid I am unable to understand it for you....

Since the evolution of man, mothers have breastfed their off-spring. It is only in 'recent times' that this most natural of acts appears to have made on-lookers uncomfortable.....and has resulted in cries for it to be carried out away from 'decent people' as if it were something shameful.

[Sqad]

Ah!.....you see that you CAN do it.

I should have made it clear that "previous generations" was meant to refer to the past 2 or 3 generations, those generations that i have experienced, but i take your very relevant point about the "evolution of man."

[ferryman]

Jack no one is disputing its a natural act but we hope because of what it is it is done without view of the public, it would not have been considered right to do such a thing years ago. Is there no scruples now?

[hc4361]

My wife breastfed our daughter for more than 2 years 30 years ago. She fed her on the bus, at the bus stop, on long coach trips, in cafes and restaurants, in the park, at the zoo - anywhere and everywhere, except whilst in a swimming pool.

And you know what - it was very rare anyone noticed. Big tshirts, the judicious use of light shawls all helped her to do it discretely. And never, ever in a public loo.

[dave50]

A mother with a chip on her shoulder trying to prove a point.

[ummmm]

Calm down ferryman...you can't even see anything!!

[andy-hughes]

I fully support breastfeeding, and a woman's right to breastfeed her baby, but -

that does not give the mother the right to feed her baby wherever and whenever she pleases.

By the same token, I appreciate potty training, having assisted directly in one lot, and assisted with four others - but that doesn't mean I would appreciate a potty plonked on the table next to me in a restaurant.

I do believe the pendulum has swung too far the other way - a woman's right to breastfeed is not the same as taking it for granted that anywhere and everywhere is appropriate in terms of time or place - and this is the issue.

So no, this woman should not be allowed to breastfeed in a swimming pool, not because breastfeeding is in any way wrong, but because it is not an appropriate place - and we must not lose sight of the fact that however encouraging we want to be, not every place and time is right for every activity, however 'free' we want to be.

I am free to burp, fart, spit and vomit anywhere I choose, but there are times and places where I would not do any of those things willingly - and in the prescence of any other member of the human race is my default position.

All that said, i think the staff handled the issue badly - there is a need for discretion and consideration in these circumstances - a quiet word by a mature female member of staff would have dealt with things far more appropriately.