The pool is for 'breast stroke' not 'breast feeding'

Stephanie Wilbey and her son. pic: telegraph.co.uk

I'm all in favour of keeping baby healthy, happy and content. I'm also aware that my opinion on this is going go down like a lead balloon with those of you who think 'boobs' should be 'free-to-air' as and when baby dictates. 

But come on people wise up!  A swimming pool is no place to be breast feed your child. 


This morning, ironically on 'This Morning', I listened to Stephanie Wilby, the British mother who thought it was natural to let her son suckle from her in the middle of the children's pool at the Manchester Aquatics Centre. 

The life-guards on duty correctly carried out their job when they told Miss Wilby that she could not continue to feed her child while she was in the water. They asked her to vacate the pool and use the changing rooms or the seating area beside the pool if she wished to continue feeding her child.

First of all, I'm not a prude and a breast-feeding mother is not an uncomfortable situation that is going to get my blood boiling. But if I was the lifeguard I would have made the same request. Your child could quite easily have brought back up some of his feed, and that would be hard to stop from hitting the water.

So wise up Stephanie! take the few steps out of the pool, sit on a comfortable chair and feed away! 
A pool is for swimming with your baby and not for feeding your baby. 

Recently a woman was asked to stop feeding her child in her seat, whilst on an airplane. In this case she had very little options for the provision of her child's 'in-flight meal'. Stephanie Wilby, however wasn't faced with such restrictions.

YES, I salute the campaigners / breast-feeding mothers who are trying to remove the stigma around this natural act, but believe it or not, the last thing most men (and women) want to see in an actual swimming pool is a bare breast, as it would put them off their stroke.

Yes your baby has requirements and needs, but so does the rest of the general public who paid to use the 'swimming pool' to swim, not to breast feed their child.

It's all about location, location, location.

---