Boobies At The Pool

I've been breastfeeding Bean for over two years now. I've never had any insecurities about feeding in public so I've fed her in all kinds of places all over Melbourne and during our family trip to the US. Up until now the verbal response I've had from people, if any, has been overwhelmingly positive and I've been very grateful for that. But of course, mainstream society being where it is currently, I knew that one day I would receive some negativity from someone or other. Well, today was the day! I write that with a slight excitement because, whilst it wasn't exactly a pleasant encounter I feel like I handled it in precisely the way I had always planned. I stood up for myself and for breastfeeding in general (confrontation is really not one of my strengths), and so I feel pretty proud of that. Here's what happened...

I was at our local swimming pool with Bean, a place we go often and where I've breast-fed many times before with no issue. We were in the baby pool and I was sitting in a corner against the wall feeding Bean as discreetly as I could manage, just minding my own business. When Bean had finished and we were back to playing I was approached by a staff member who said "I need to tell you that you're actually not allowed to breastfeed anywhere in this area", I asked her to clarify what she meant and she said "basically you should probably go back to the changing room if you want to breastfeed". I took a breath and informed her that as far as I was aware it was my legal right to breastfeed my child in any public place that I myself was allowed to be, and that I found her request for me to go to the changing room to be very unreasonable. She began to get quite flustered and said that it was just pool policy that I not breastfeed in view of anyone else because, and I quote, "there are a lot of people around and what you're doing will make people feel uncomfortable and it draws too much attention". I went on to reiterate that I was not about to go to the changing room to feed my child, but conceded that I would move to the pool side benches if necessary, and that people had no reason to feel uncomfortable about seeing someone feed a child whether it be from a bottle or from a breast. She responded by trying to put me down, saying "well, if you're comfortable having people look at you and drawing attention to yourself and your child, then I guess that's up to you". I said I was perfectly comfortable with breastfeeding, and if anyone else was uncomfortable then perhaps they should go elsewhere instead? 

About 10 minutes after that conversation another female staff member came to me wanting to clarify what the pool policy on breastfeeding actually was. She said that "we just don't allow breastfeeding in the water because its a bodily fluid, just like we don't let anyone else eat or drink in the pool, but feel free to feed anywhere else you like". Unfortunately right after this was said I spotted two swimming instructors standing in the pool drinking from juice boxes...uh oh, policy fail! ;-) Although personally that seems like a pretty ridiculous policy in the first place...I mean, In a pool thats undoubtedly chock full of toddler urine what exactly do they think breast milk will do? Contaminate people with...Nutrients?

Anyway, I decided whilst getting dressed that I would summon up some more courage and make a formal complaint to the manager, not because I wanted to get the girl in trouble but because I wanted to suggest that perhaps her staff need more training in the policies and legalities surrounding breastfeeding in public and how to appropriately talk to mothers about this. Basically, I didn't want another mum, who might be a new mum or less confident at breastfeeding in public than I, to be put down or made to feel ashamed of their choice or their body by the any of their staff again. The manager was appropriately shocked by what had been said and assured me that she would speak to the girl in question and make sure it didn't happen again, so hopefully I at least brought the issue to her attention.

The way I see it is that at the end of the day - they're just breasts. Every second person in the world has them. We see them splashed all over bill boards and magazines everywhere we go. Oh, sorry I forgot, seeing sexual images of breasts is ok, but seeing someone using those breasts for what they were biologically designed to do...well, that's a whole other story....