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 *********************************************** The LACTNET mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned LISTSERV(R) list management software together with L-Soft's LSMTP(TM) mailer for lightning fast mail delivery. 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