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What Do you Think About this...Found it in my Local Paper!!
posted to Newcomers Club - Active discussion
in The CafeMom Newcomers Club
on Jul. 4, 2009 at 4:33 PM
- 47 Replies
- 901 Total Views
Pool staff's action fires up mothers
Lifeguard, manager forbid breast-feeding, prompting a nurse-in
By KATHY ANEY
The East Oregonian
Public protest comes in many forms, but Friday's "nurse-in" at Milton-Freewater's Aquatic Center was anything but typical.
Several women, all nursing mothers, sat poolside and nursed their babies, protesting an incident last weekend when a lifeguard asked a woman to leave the pool area and breastfeed in the locker room instead.
It happened as Christine Magnaghi sat in about an inch of water at the shallow end of the kiddie pool. As she kept one eye on her 2-year-old son Jerome, splashing in the water, she fed baby Levi under a nursing cover.
"I was almost done when I felt a tap on the shoulder," Magnaghi said.
After asking Magnaghi if she was breastfeeding, a lifeguard directed her inside the building. Magnaghi, of Walla Walla, protested.
"State law protects my right to breastfeed in public," she said.
The lifeguard left to retrieve pool manager, Karen Shelton.
Magnaghi asked Shelton, "How would you like to eat your lunch in the bathroom?"
Shelton, Magnaghi said, cited a different segment of Oregon pool law, saying state code requires all food and drink at public pools to stay behind a blue line that marks a four-foot perimeter from pool's edge.
Magnaghi wasn't sure what to think.
Oregon is one of 43 states that allow breastfeeding in any public or private location. If one considers lactation as food and drink, the two laws seem to clash.
Magnaghi went home and logged on the Internet to study the laws, before warning her Facebook friends not to try nursing at the M-F pool. Many joined in her outrage, she said, and advised her to stage a "nurse in."
Friday, Magnaghi and a few others did just that, though most other patrons probably missed the whole low-key poolside affair.
Though she isn't a breastfeeding mom, Cindy Armenta drove from Hermiston to support her sister Kim Alger and the others who participated in the nurse in.
"I felt like it was harassment," she said. "It is society's idea of what breasts are for that caused them to say something to a woman who was breastfeeding."
"I was outraged that they would ask her to go into the bathroom," said Alger, who nursed her son Isaiah. "Their discomfort should not make policy - I have the right to nurse and they have the option not to look."
As they talked, a woman approached Magnaghi, who sat nursing Levi.
Wendy Harris, a Milton-Freewater resident with a season pool pass to the swim center, hotly told Magnaghi that she'd seen Saturday's friction between her and the pool manager. Magnaghi, she said, had treated Shelton rudely and needed to observe the state's food and beverage laws for pools.
"The designated eating area is behind the blue line," she said.
Magnaghi kept her composure during the exchange, but looked slightly shaken as Harris stormed off. Her husband Kevin, she said, had warned her it could get ugly
Later, Harris, who said she breastfed her own children, talked about her main objection - the chance of breastmilk mixing with pool water and possibly exposing swimmers to HIV and hepatitis C.
"Her breastmilk may be pristine, but not everybody's is," she said.
Nurse-in participants stayed well back from the blue line on Friday and pool staff seemed to pay them no mind.
Shelton, the pool manager, declined to further weigh in on the controversy, referring inquiries to Milton-Freewater City Manager Linda Hall. Since city offices were closed Friday, Hall was unavailable for comment.
Magnaghi stayed composed, but adamant, as she nursed Levi under the shade of an umbrella.
"I don't want to be a vigilante or a militant," she said. "I just want people to know the rules."
Replies:
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- by on Jul. 4, 2009 at 5:07 PM
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i think the issue here is she wasn't asked to go behind the blue line. she was asked to inside the bathroom to breastfeed instead of just going behind blue line. honestly i think its stupid to ask a a women breastfeeding to go behind blue line cuz it not really food or whatever. but rules are rules. the guy should have asked her to go behind blue line not to the bathroom. more of a breastfeeding issue instead of food and drink issue i think. thats the way i read it anyways.
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- by on Jul. 4, 2009 at 5:09 PM
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Quoting CrozCryz:
From what I've read in online study results, you can spread HIV through breastmilk... luckily for mother's that are HIV positive, doctor's do have a way to take that breastmilk and sterilize it so that baby can still be fed the breastmilk. What confuses me though is that even when baby is not feeding, this woman still has 'food/drink' in her breasts that can easily leak out at anytime, does that mean her walking past the blue line with 'food/drink' in her breasts is considered breaking that specific pool 'rule'?
Yep that means she would not be able to go into the pool at all or pass the blue line.
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- by on Jul. 4, 2009 at 5:13 PM
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Quoting savannahnhi:
Why can't BF mother just pump before going out. BF working mom pump for their kids when they are at work. I was the library and this women was feeding her child and her whole breast was there so everyone can see it. at least do it discreetly.
It's very common for BF babies to refuse artificial nipples on bottles and pacifiers.
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- by on Jul. 4, 2009 at 5:19 PM
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Ok, so I understand that possibly she could have been asked to move behild the blue line, but I don't get the reasoning of passing whatever into the water from the breastmilk.
What about people who are bleeding, on their period, pee in the pool, spit in the pool, blow their nose in the water...that's all a form of bodily fluids that can possibly transmit disease into the water that has nothing to do with eating. Heck even people with VD's still swim...who knows the man next to you swimming laps may have warts for all you know, lol.
I think the excuse they gave is trying to cover up their prejudice towards a breastfeeding mom. Especially since they asked her to go into the locker room.
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- by on Jul. 4, 2009 at 5:22 PM
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I completely support their stand and breastfeeding in public. I'm not so sure I would've breastfed in the pool though. I understand her need to watch her other child and appreciate her being a responsible mom. I think the staff could've handled the situation better. Simply asking her to feed behind the blue lines would've been appropriate.
It's nice to see other Oregon moms here!!
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- by on Jul. 4, 2009 at 5:24 PM
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Quoting sillyone:
Quoting CrozCryz:
From what I've read in online study results, you can spread HIV through breastmilk... luckily for mother's that are HIV positive, doctor's do have a way to take that breastmilk and sterilize it so that baby can still be fed the breastmilk. What confuses me though is that even when baby is not feeding, this woman still has 'food/drink' in her breasts that can easily leak out at anytime, does that mean her walking past the blue line with 'food/drink' in her breasts is considered breaking that specific pool 'rule'?
Yep that means she would not be able to go into the pool at all or pass the blue line.What about all the people who go in the pool with herpes or genital warts or vaginal secretions or semen on their swim suits? Is a couple drops of contaminated breastmilk any more dangerous in a chlorinated public pool than anything else?
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- by on Jul. 4, 2009 at 5:29 PM
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Quoting mnmsmom2008:
Quoting sillyone:
Quoting CrozCryz:
From what I've read in online study results, you can spread HIV through breastmilk... luckily for mother's that are HIV positive, doctor's do have a way to take that breastmilk and sterilize it so that baby can still be fed the breastmilk. What confuses me though is that even when baby is not feeding, this woman still has 'food/drink' in her breasts that can easily leak out at anytime, does that mean her walking past the blue line with 'food/drink' in her breasts is considered breaking that specific pool 'rule'?
Yep that means she would not be able to go into the pool at all or pass the blue line.What about all the people who go in the pool with herpes or genital warts or vaginal secretions or semen on their swim suits? Is a couple drops of contaminated breastmilk any more dangerous in a chlorinated public pool than anything else?
No of course not that is why they add chlorin into the pool. The thing is if they want to use no food pass the blue line then she could not go across it becuase she has food in her breast. this is all just bunch of crap, this kid just freaked out and didn't know what to do. The manger who know what was up hers. lol
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- by on Jul. 4, 2009 at 5:32 PM
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Quoting savannahnhi:
Why can't BF mother just pump before going out. BF working mom pump for their kids when they are at work. I was the library and this women was feeding her child and her whole breast was there so everyone can see it. at least do it discreetly.
Because it's hard to get enough milk from pumping alone. And pumping too much can lead to production issues.
Frankly, I think the lifegaurd was out of line, and the pool manager just came up w/ that "food and drink" reasoning AFTER the lifegaurd went to him. If they want them to stay behind the blue line, fine, but DON'T tell them they have to go inside.
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- by on Jul. 4, 2009 at 5:34 PM
- Let's be realistic here. I don't believe nursing should be done in bathroom - I wouldn't eat in bathroom and I wouldn't expect anyone else to either. But I also wouldn't eat in the pool. If the baby was playing in the water and the two year old wanted to eat, they would all have to leave the water and go to the picnic area. There is an appropriate place for everything.
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- by on Jul. 4, 2009 at 5:42 PM
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Because the lifeguard didnt tell her to sit behind the blue line. The lifeguard told her to go nurse in the LOCKER ROOM. If he had told her to go sit and nurse behind the blue line , then YES she would have been a pain in the ass not to move 6 inches, however if you read the story , the lifeguard directed her to go inside the locker room , therefore she wasnt being a bitch. The blue line wasnt mentioned to her until AFTER the lifeguard got the pool manager, and she explained the food and drink policy to her.
Quoting Leener3:
Oh for gods sake. Get a life lady (the woman in the article not the poster.) You know what... sometimes things have less to do about the right to breast feed and more about just being a f%^& pain in the ass. Why couldn't she have just sat behind the damn blue line and shut up. It was probably a teenage lifeguard and pool manager not much older than that. So instead of watching out so no child drowns these lifeguards in a fight with this woman. Why in god name couldn't she have just backed up behind the damn blue line. We are talking about 6 lousy INCHES. THAT IS BEING A BITCH>
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