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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
- 903 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 5:43 PM
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he didn't ask her to go behind the line her asked her to go to the bathroom
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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- by on Jul. 4, 2009 at 5:46 PM
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I agree with you.
I live in Ga. and we have Lake Lanier Islands WaterPark; and no coolers are allowed passed the gates; everyone line's them up in a shaded area and when they need theirs they have to eat outside the gates. But if you are breastfeeding or are carrying bottles that's ok as long as it's not in the water.
Feeding in the water is dangerous anyways; I would be afaird of dropping the baby. I think the best state I've gone to for breastfeeding was Florida. The people there are so helpful and nice about it. There restroom places have rooms especially for us; rocking chairs and more.
And some mom's don't have enough milk to pump. I didn't I had to feed straight off or it screwed my milk supply up.
Quoting RMCookie:
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 5:54 PM
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I'm near you!! About 30 minutes from Lake Lanier Island.
Quoting F_Stathouse:
I agree with you.
I live in Ga. and we have Lake Lanier Islands WaterPark; and no coolers are allowed passed the gates; everyone line's them up in a shaded area and when they need theirs they have to eat outside the gates. But if you are breastfeeding or are carrying bottles that's ok as long as it's not in the water.
Feeding in the water is dangerous anyways; I would be afaird of dropping the baby. I think the best state I've gone to for breastfeeding was Florida. The people there are so helpful and nice about it. There restroom places have rooms especially for us; rocking chairs and more.
And some mom's don't have enough milk to pump. I didn't I had to feed straight off or it screwed my milk supply up.
Quoting RMCookie:
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 5:57 PM
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Quoting mommam58122:
ok i have some questions here:
1. what if she was preggo and leaking would they have told her she couldnt swim because she was lactating?Just like if a woman was swimming and was on her period... and it started leaking into the water
2.she was under a damn cover its not like it was out in the open and everyone could see her tit I agree
3.can u really spread hiv and hepatitis through breastmilk if so i never knew that It's a body fluid
4.if she had gone into the bathroom to bf and something happend to her other child the pool would have prolly been sued for the lifeguard being more worried about her bfing then watching the swimmers The child, I am sure, would have gone with her... what mom leaves a 2 year old by themselves in a pool?
Breastfeeding in public shouldn't be a big deal; most moms are discrete and polite to the general public. I think the lifeguard should have requested she be behind the blue line, but not to ask her to go to the building. Nice to see a protest... and it's a good cause.
But body fluids (blood, urine, breast milk, and fecal matter) should be kept out of the water and behind 'safety lines'. Although breast milk isn't exactly a HORRIBLE thing... it is still falls under that category.
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- by on Jul. 4, 2009 at 5:58 PM
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Why do BF mothers think rules dont apply to them...stay behind the line!!
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- by on Jul. 4, 2009 at 6:02 PM
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But it does need a host to live and cant stay alive outside the body for long.
Quoting Brooke501:
Quoting mommam58122:
ok i have some questions here:
1. what if she was preggo and leaking would they have told her she couldnt swim because she was lactating?
2.she was under a damn cover its not like it was out in the open and everyone could see her tit
3.can u really spread hiv and hepatitis through breastmilk if so i never knew that
4.if she had gone into the bathroom to bf and something happend to her other child the pool would have prolly been sued for the lifeguard being more worried about her bfing then watching the swimmers
I always thought that once the HIV virus hit the air it died???
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- by on Jul. 4, 2009 at 6:27 PM
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I think she had a right to breast feed, its not like a bunch of milk would be poured into the pool. but Oregon Law says a Mother can Breastfeed in Public and then Oregon's Pool Law says that no food or drinks in the pool or to the line... So the question is Breastmilk considered a Drink Or Food? that would fall under that law. I think the Law needs to state that!!! Hello Oregon Mommy's
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- by on Jul. 4, 2009 at 6:51 PM
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It is sustenance for an infant...IMO, yes it is a food AND a bodily fluid.
I guess it's up to the 'Pool Laws' to define what breast milk is considered. I'm sure after this, it will be sorted (voted) out.
Quoting Codysmommy639:
I think she had a right to breast feed, its not like a bunch of milk would be poured into the pool. but Oregon Law says a Mother can Breastfeed in Public and then Oregon's Pool Law says that no food or drinks in the pool or to the line... So the question is Breastmilk considered a Drink Or Food? that would fall under that law. I think the Law needs to state that!!! Hello Oregon Mommy's
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- by on Jul. 4, 2009 at 7:04 PM
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Quoting ArmyGal:
I wouldn't swim if I was leaking, just me. And yes you can spread HIV,HEP, and AIDS through Breastmilk.
LOL. Not to some kid swimming in a chlorinated pool. I guarantee you you can't get it from swimming in a pool where someone else swims, and I also am willing to bet you have gone swimming with someone who is HIV positive if you've ever been in a pool. People and their lack of education astound me, most the idiotic woman who made the comment in the article. And hepatitis infected women are encouraged to breastfeed, as are HIV infected mothers if they breastfeed for less than 6 months.
"...Only the doing of justice is a good enough excuse to be born."
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- by on Jul. 4, 2009 at 7:08 PM
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As an Oregonian.
I say.
Stay behind the blue line and you're fine.
Communicable diseases can be spread through breast milk..
The rule is in place for public safety and it needs to stay that way..
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