Sorry, just couldn't stop myself from using that subject line.  As I said in
my previous post, last year I was asked not to nurse my one and a half year
old son in one of our city swimming pools.  Before I continue with my story,
I have a request for the help of LACTNET members.  I am in the process of
gathering stories about the difficulties and/or discomfort women have had
breastfeeding in public, which will be incorporated into a report I'm
writing and posted if at all possible on the web (see below).  Anonymity
will be respected where requested, obviously.  I do have the stories and
articles which have been written up in Breastfeeding.com and on the LLLI
website already --  I would be seeking other examples which might be harder
to locate.  Obviously web and email
addresses would be very helpful where they exist; ditto for follow-up
information.  I have a list of web
addresses which is loosely structured around the idea "Breastfeeding and
Culture" which I can email to anyone who is interested in what I have
already gathered.  Back to my story . . .

In short order after my "incident" at the city pool, I found that many other
women breastfeeding their children had been asked to stop nursing or exit
the swimming pool.  The pool administration also
admitted to me that women breastfeeding were asked to cover up or move to
the change room if another patron complained.  This, in a location where
scantily clad young women are the norm!  Thinking she would shock me into
agreeing with their position, the lifeguard also told me, "Do you know there
was a lady breastfeeding a 5 year old here last week?!!"  Of course my
response was, "So?"

What ensued was the formation of a breastfeeding advocacy "committee" and
the submission of a 38 page report (containing 106 footnotes and many more
references; about half of it is appendices) by the committee to the city.
This report outlined the problem as we saw it and looked at the issue from a
number of different perspectives, including the nursing mother's, the
baby's, and a lactation consultant's, as well as the legal and cultural
perspectives.  It also
contained information from a number of different sources,
including the Red Cross, the YMCA, the American Academy of Pediatrics, and
the CDC, on swimming safety and infection control issues (yes, the
"breastmilk fouling the pool" thing is bogus).  This was followed
by a complete capitulation on the city's part.

In a three page letter (which my husband calls the Terms of Surrender), the
city revoked their written policy regarding breastfeeding.  The first part
of the city policy
had called for absolutely no breastfeeding in the water and cited concerns
for the child's health if it ingested pool water.  The second part outlined
a procedure for dealing with complaints from patrons about women
breastfeeding on the pool deck.  The procedure entailed suggesting to the
woman
nursing that she cover up and might want to go to the changing room to
finish feeding.  The city's response to our report made it clear that
breastfeeding could occur without restriction in these facilities, and that
any complaints received from patrons would be resolved without approaching
the nursing woman.  Needless to say we were very pleased, and our new group
went on to have a very successful World Breastfeeding Week event, a nurse-in
at city hall, which was well covered by local media.

All seemed well until this spring, when I received a call from a woman who
had just been told to exit one of the YMCA pools in the city while
breastfeeding her daughter.  Among a number of specious reasons she was
given for this request was that her breastmilk might contaminate the pool
and she wasn't properly supervising her 5 year old while breastfeeding her
other daughter.  A
female staff member also told her that other women had the decency to
breastfeed discreetly - there's that word again - and that she could use the
facilities if she kept in mind that other people might be offended if she
was "not covering herself properly". In the mom's words, she refused to
agree to "shroud" herself and informed the staff member that it was
inappropriate for her to ask her to do so.  Hooray for uppity women!

Members of our committee and this woman met with the YMCA CEO, who
apologized for the incident and reassured us that it would not happen again.
He would not put a new policy in writing, unfortunately.  However, Tuesday
July 9th we held a press conference at city hall, in which we congratulated
both the city and the YMCA for their progressive (new)
policies welcoming breastfeeding women and their families to their
facilities.  The event was well attended by the media and lots of
breastfeeding moms and their families were featured prominently with
voice-overs by news readers, including a shot of one of our committee
members with her 6 month old twins in a double sling, one of them nursing at
the time.  With this kind of attention, we are hoping mothers will be
emboldened and pool staff more, shall I say, *discreet*, in the future.  We
are planning another nurse-in for World Breastfeeding Week (peculiarly
scheduled to occur in October here in Canada -- makes planning outdoor
nurse-ins a
bit problematic).

Our group, the Breastfeeding Action Committee of Edmonton (BACE), has a
newborn website, temporarily being cared for at
http://www.mediaworkswest.com/BACE/index.html.  The site has pictures of
last weeks' media event and other information, including our news release
and an excerpt from a
work-in-progress titled "Breastfeeding at Municipal Pools in Canada", using
some of the information gathered for our first report.  Yes, I know it
sounds esoteric; it's not really.  It is this report in which I would like
to incorporate as many stories about breastfeeding in public as I can.
Breastfeeding at Municipal Pools just might turn into Breastfeeding in
Public Places Everywhere.  The full report will be posted on our website
when ready.

Today the city, tomorrow the nation, the next day the world?

OK, I'm getting carried away here.  Please do send me your stories.  Thanks.

Barb Strange

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