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In more news that sounds like a joke, a UK woman was stopped from breastfeeding her 11-week-old son at a public pool.
Laura Whotton was at the John Carroll Leisure Centre in Nottingham and started to breastfeed her infant near the pool while her 4-year-old son swam. She was stopped by a staff member, who cited the food and drink ban.
Sure, the infant was technically “eating”. But I doubt that was the actual reasoning behind the rebuke.
People in bikinis were showing more skin and breast than I was.
Nottingham officials blame confusion for the mishap and have already drafted rules to make it clear that breastfeeding is quite allowable.
Nottingham City Council actively encourages and supports nursing mothers to breastfeed in all our centres and was one of the first local authorities to provide guidance in support of a mother’s right to breastfeed. We have clarified the policy at our leisure centres to make it absolutely clear that someone breastfeeding should not be treated the same as someone who is eating and drinking in the swimming pool areas.
City officials have apologized to Whotton.
Image: Daquella manera on Flickr under a Creative Commons License.
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I cannot even think of something appropriately scathing to say…
See, here’s one of those cases where our argument came back to bite us in the ass. Moms who want to nurse in public (instead of the bathroom) say that breastfeeding is food, and unless we’re going to send everyone to eat in the bathroom, then nursing doesn’t belong there either.
So, I guess, if I were a lawyer arguing the case, that’s the argument I’d use. “But the lactivists say it’s food! If you’re allowed to eat here, so is my baby!”
Of course, I think what this pool employee did was ridiculous. You know what a lactivist I am. I’m just saying, I suppose they’d have an argument if they really wanted one. I’m glad the authorities made a clear statement on it. So often they never do. This kind of thing could easily happen in the US and the government would probably side with the pool employee, and issue a ticket to the mother. Us poor stupid Americans.
I feel sorry for them but may be that is the only way to save her child. I wish the government give a hand to those who really need her in problems like this