No Nursing With 'Distracting' Breasts At YMCA Pool

The Associated Press ^ | January 27, 2006 | AP

[Westlander]

ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- The lifeguards find bare breasts distracting.

That's one of the reasons officials at the Ann Arbor, Mich., YMCA said they've banned breast-feeding at the pool.

But nursing moms counter that's no excuse.

The breast-feeding mothers plan a nurse-in at the Y Saturday to protest the ban.

However, Krista Dragun, one of the protest organizers, said they'll be nursing their babies in the lobby, not the pool area. She said they want the Y to adopt a more mother-baby friendly policy for the pool.

Y officials note there's no eating or drinking allowed at the pool for anyone and nursing can be distracting for lifeguards. But they add mothers are welcome to nurse their babies in other areas of the facility.

[Westlander]

Typical for Ann Arbor, Mi. It's a Dimocrat city.

[Triggerhippie]

I get that there is a no eating or drinking policy at the pool, but babies don't seem to care about policies when they get hungry.

I am still scratching my head wondering what NON-Distracting breasts look like. (Please, Dear GOD, no pics!!!)

[Triggerhippie]

And CERTAINLY no pics of Helen Thomas!

[GretchenM]

they add mothers are welcome to nurse their babies in other areas of the facility.

Sounds reasonable to me.

[Paleo Conservative]

Thanks for keeping Free Republic abreast of this issue.

[Pro-Bush]

Don't want to distract the lifeguards!!

[TheCrusader]

"The breast-feeding exibitionist mothers plan a nurse-in at the Y Saturday to protest the ban show off their boobs while they're at their biggest."

[woofie]

All this frolicking is distracting too

[fieldmarshaldj]

[Hexenhammer]

I can only hope that the protesters don't go overboard and throw the babies out with the pool water.

[DakotaRed]

Whatever happened to breast feeding Moms descreetly covering their feeding child with a baby blanket?

[MissouriConservative]

"But they add mothers are welcome to nurse their babies in other areas of the facility."

Sounds as if it's an "in your face" thing and not really about mothers being allowed to nurse. In the old days women used to descreet about such things. Heck, why not let guys "hang out" at the pool if the mothers wish to breast feed?

[Mojave]

Can they change diapers by the pool?

[de Buillion]

I would like to see a man nursing his child. That would be totally distracting to me.

[newzjunkey]

Just Say No To Public Breastfeeding.

Have some consideration, modesty and decorum!

Collect. Store. Freeze. that breastmilk:

[Marie]

Whatever happened to breast feeding Moms descreetly covering their feeding child with a baby blanket?

When I had my daughter I was 21. When I had my son I was 23. Whenever I nursed my babies, I covered myself and their heads and did everything I could think of to be discrete.

Now I'm 35. If I were to have another baby now... Well, let's just say that, at this age, I don't see the point of suffocating my child so somebody else doesn't feel weird. As I've "matured" I just can't quite bring myself to care quite as much what other people think of me.

Maybe that's why God's stopped giving me children.

He was afraid for the lifeguards.

[newzjunkey]

They will get in your face. They'll complain the baby will pull the blanket off, will scream and tell you to try to eat with a blanket over *your* head.

Seriously. They're unhinged like the "Breasts not Bombs" or "Choice" types.

[BobS]

Are those MILFs?

[newzjunkey]

As I've "matured" I just can't quite bring myself to care quite as much what other people think of me.

As you've devolved with the coarsening of society, you don't care about silly things like decorum and civility. Everyone else be damned! You've aged, not matured, mam.

Are you sure you're on the right website? Maybe you'd be better off here?

[Triggerhippie]

That is totally wrong, Dude! LOL!

[Triggerhippie]

Those might be MYLFs, they certainly aren't MILFs!

It's all in the eye of the beholder, I suppose.

[newzjunkey]

One supposes there are changing tables in the male and female restrooms and sometimes there are separate rooms for changing diapers.

[PalestrinaGal0317]

Funny, I have yet to see a baby who, when hungry, would give a darn about anything except Food. Now. A blanket over his or her head (so long as the temperature isn't miserably hot where this is occuring) will seldom be noticed by a hungry baby. Sure, there are the kids who would love nothing more than to pull the blanket down and leave Mom exposed. This is the point at which ingenuity comes in: try using a baby wrap (one that goes over one shoulder and under the other with a piece of material to cover the nursing baby). Works great.
No, that isn't the voice of experience-just the voice of observation.

[Nam Vet]

I need to see some of these 'distracting breasts' in order to make an informed opinion.

Nam Vet

[newzjunkey]

I would like to see a man nursing his child. That would be totally distracting to me.

Leave it to the Japanese...

[de Buillion]

This is one strange dude! (Looks like he's got at least a gallon of milk there)

[Guyin4Os]

Breasts are no biggy. Ya seen one, ya seen em both.

[Triggerhippie]

As you've devolved with the coarsening of society, you don't care about silly things like decorum and civility. Everyone else be damned! You've aged, not matured, mam.

Before too long she might even start making ad hominem attacks, huh?

[Nam Vet]

Agree with the attitude and your tagline. Actually, I was taught that breastfeeding was natural and that it was proper just not to stare or to direct your attention to the breast area. Hell, when a baby is feeding the nipple is totally gone! It's just fine to carry on a conversation with mom, but eye contact is the proper manner in which to do so. Most of the idiots that complain seem to look at nothing but the exposed area of the breast. Face it everyone, with today's clothes more breast is exposed than a breastfeeding mother does.

Nam Vet

[Marie]

I've yet to meet an older woman who's not come to terms with the realities of "life". Perhaps it's because my people are farm folk, but we don't see anything *dirty* about feeding a baby. And we never have. For four generations (in my memory) our women have fed our children with the breast and it has *always* been considered a natural, perfect, God-sanctioned way of doing things. If the mother's milk failed, we turned to the goat.

Don't you lecture *me* on how coarse it is for a mother to nurse her own child. By *my* people's standards, bottle feeding a baby is the most unhealthy, unGodly, unnatural way to feed a developing child that there is.

And men who couldn't see that a breast was meant for babies were simply reduced to pigs in our minds. (And the mind of our men. *NO* man in my family looked at a nursing mother otherwise.)

And these are God-fearing Christian folk with IQ's between 125 and 150. Probably because of their shamelessly nursing mothers.

[Triggerhippie]

We can't look at breasts! They're filthy!

They are sin-bags and need to be kept under burkhas, apparently.

[Triggerhippie]

If the mother's milk failed, we turned to the goat.

Now that WOULD be distracting to see at the pool!

[Marie]

Now that WOULD be distracting to see at the pool!

Thank you for that! I'll be able to go to sleep with a big grin thank to that post! LMAO!!!

[Nam Vet]

Just adding one of my side comments comparing now with my younger years. There is more complaining now about breast feeding in public than I ever heard in the late 60s about super mini-skirts. Heck, in Australia 1/4 to 1/3 of the girls didn't even wear panties under them! When I got back to the states, I discovered the American girls had a little more decorum but were adventurous

Nam Vet

[Sally'sConcerns]

Hmmm! Taking a look at S.H.A.D.O.'s posting history and noob staus, I'm sniffing a bit of Pepe Le Pew.

[Marie]

Trust me. When a woman is breast feeding, she's not thinking about a man. ;-)

[rfreedom4u]

Someone should show up at the "nurse-in" with a video camera since it is a public place and post videos on the net. I'm not against nursing but this is kind of ridiculous. There is a spot for them to nurse so why the big fuss?

[unspun]

If the feminists had their way, I suppose breasts would be bared in the "YPA."

[Nam Vet]

Actually, I think a mother breastfeeding her child is the perfect picture of total love. I would watch my kids and the look in their eyes from day one expressed that love.

Nam Vet

[Triggerhippie]

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1566710/posts

S.H.A.D.O. is a DUmbass troll. (Yet, strangely, correct on this issue.) Even a broken clock is right twice a day...

ZOT time!

[Triggerhippie]

That was quick!

[Marie]

You're right. I remember nursing my daughter with that feeling of perfect love and harmony. And prayer. I prayed more when I was nursing than at any other time in my life. There's something about that connection between mother and child and God that is honestly perfect while nursing. From my body to her body. Unselfish giving. There's nothing like it.

[woofie]

Being young and innocent(or simply stupid) I had to google MILF...Im still not sure what it stands for but I get the idea

[taxesareforever]

I wonder if the lifeguards also find women's butts in bikinis distracting. Okay, get rid of those bikinis.

[MississippiMan]

Whatever happened to breast feeding Moms descreetly covering their feeding child with a baby blanket?

Amen.

MM

[Sally'sConcerns]

(Yet, strangely, correct on this issue.) Even a broken clock is right twice a day...

Which issue was the banished noob right about? Breast comment? Talon news? Yawning at obligatory French joke? or?

Granted the noob was rather subtle until the their posts were lumped together.

Back on topic though. I don't find a nursing mother offensive as some do on this thread. I nursed my son until he started to teeth and weaned him in self defense.

He was born in '76 and at the time there wasn't much support to be found for nursing Mom's that I could find. Thankfully his pediatrician had also been my pediatrician and when I'd start to feel discouraged, he'd encourage me to continue. I dealt with in-laws who would sneakily feed my son cereal mixed with cow's milk when the opportunity arose.

I don't have any problem with the YMCA banning poolside feedings though. Its not as if they haven't provided other accommodations for nursing mom's. If the mom's have actually been in the pool prior to nursing I'd think they might want to do a bit of cleaning up before they'd let the baby nurse. Seems to me the mom's are placing quite a bit of trust in the chlorination of the pool to kill any lurking germs or bacteria.

There were a few times when I had to nurse my son in a public place but I'd find a way to be discrete and always used a blanket for cover. Most of the time though hubby and I didn't go out in public together. He'd watch our son when I'd go grocery shopping or had errands to run.

[D-fendr]

Undistracting breasts, however, can nurse freely at the pool.

[lastchance]

Most women who nurse still do that. So either the women in this case are not doing that or the lifeguards are making a pretty determined effort to see as much as possible.

[Drammach]

As you've devolved with the coarsening of society, you don't care about silly things like decorum and civility. Everyone else be damned! You've aged, not matured, mam.

Being damn near 60 years old, I feel I am entitled to say you are full of it, up to your eyebrows.

I grew up in a time when breast feeding was the norm..
I know the difference between breast feeding and Porn, breast feeding and Tittilation.. ( no pun intended ) ...

Today's society (and obviously you) are so "immature" that the simple act of feeding a child has you (and others) crapping themselves over the "overt sexual overtones"..
Are you so insecure in your own sexuality and self control that a simple breast is likely to cause mental breakdown??
Will it cause you to lose self-control and savagely ravage the next woman you see??
Why don't you people grow up?

Stop staring obsessively, mind your own business, and respect the mother and child engaging in an act that is more than a Million Years Old..
Next, you'll have us covering cow's udders, landscaping breast-shaped hills, destroying breast-shaped architecture, all because it offends your victorian values..