Bit weird...

I'm all for breastfeeding but yes I find this odd. What if the baby had been sick after the feed? Hardly an uncommon occurrence!

Same.

This pool complex has a massive array of seating around it. There would be nothing to stop her getting out (maybe along with her other child - were they there?) and taking a seat for 20 mins. Even if that would still be technically against the rules, I doubt it would have drawn any attention in the first place.

Completely weird! Why would you do it in the pool?

I am 100% for mothers breastfeeding in public but I would have got out of the pool and done it at the side.

However, I feel I should point out it's very very hard to schedule going out around feeds, mothers are advised to feed on demand rather than on a schedule and if a baby's hungry he's hungry. You can feed a baby and then he might not want another feed for four hours, or he might be hungry again in half an hour. Her baby is only 4 months old.

I think I would support any mother feeding her baby in a place where bottlefeeding would be allowed and/or where eating in general is allowed, but a swimming pool doesn't seem the best place, mainly for safety if nothing else. I wouldn't like to try and feed a wriggling baby in water, I'd drop him.

Completely agree..very odd. Why wouldn't you get out of the pool?!

Weird! Also the chemicals from the pool would be all over her, then she's putting that in her baby's mouth?

I am all for the freedom to Breast feed in public but surely there are times when you would rather go somewhere more private? The story at the bottom of the article for example. If I was one on one with an unknown male in a meeting about my benifits, I am sure I would rather not be breast feeding, I guess I would feel uncomfortable, let alone the man,

* I nether have a child nor have I had a benifit meeting, just guessing

Me too. But I have a feeling that this kind of publicity is only negative, and gives off an inappropriate sense of entitlement (for want of a better word).

The way I see it is, you wouldnt give your 2 year old a yoghurt while they were in the swimming pool, so why breastfeed a baby in there? She should have got out and sat at the side.

Can imagine people rocking up at swimming pools with picnics now, and whipping out a ham sandwich at the top of the slide, then a packet of Doritos* on the wave machine. ?

*other brands are available.

This is an excellent way to think about it actually.

Whilst I am completely for women being able to breastfeed in public I am slightly inclined to think there is a time and a place? I'm not thinking they should be shut away but as Meltdown was saying, I think sat in a one on one situation would be 'off-putting' (in the concentration sense not the horrible sense)

Why would you want to shove a chlorine covered nipple in your baby's mouth. Can't be very good for it at all. I am all for breastfeeding but not in a pool. Why would you want to? Nothing to wipe up baby sick after with either.

And other people end up swimming in said baby sick...

I do not want to swim in the dribbles of this woman's breast milk. Ever.

And I don't like her "I should be able to feed my baby whenever I want" either.

Gives "normal" breastfeeding mothers a bad name.

I'd be too worried about the poo thing.

plus, as someone who once drank a cocktail in a pool (holiday) I can safely say it did not feel well digested with all the swishy water...

They don't come much more "yay, breastfeeding!" than me, and even I think she was daft. You wouldn't eat your lunch in a pool or give a baby a bottle in there, so why breastfeed?

Exactly this. Woman's a goon.

I think she is trying to be make a point. The backlash over it will fuel her cries of "SEE! EVERYONE HATES BREASTFEEDING MOTHERS!"

Ir something like that anyhoo.

I like to read and drink cocktails in the pool, what's to say baby wouldn't like a milktail at the swim up boobie bar. Maybe she was really hot?

ETA - just realised it wasn't a holiday pool, it was just at the centre. Weird.

awkward.

I've bf sitting on the edge of a pool before, BUT, it was a private pool and private swimming lesson with only 4 people there other than the instructor, it was the first time we'd all been and 2 of the babies had a cry and the instructor suggested we bf if we wanted to to calm them down. I'd never feed standing in the middle of a public pool, that's just odd. I'm completely for everyone's right to feed their baby wherever they want/need to, but using a bit of common sense would be a good idea.

(With that said I think the suggestion that the possibility of getting a teeny bit of breast milk in the water would be a health risk/off putting is a bit silly too, it'd be a teeny amount, and pools are filled with grubby bodies and small child wee, it's why they're chlorinated. A coupe of drops of breast milk is neither here nor there in my cabbage.)

HAHAHA! A often orders some milk from the open-all-night Mummy snack bar ?

She's on the Jeremy Vine show soon.

Bet she feeds her baby while she's talking to him.

Oh please. She's on BBC Local News now with other Breast-feeding mothers in a "protest" outside the Swimming Centre. She was in the national paper yesterday. Enjoying publicity much?