Nursing Mom Told to Leave Public Pool at YMCA

A mother of three says she filed a complaint with the human rights commission on Monday after a lifeguard at the Scarborough (Ontario) YMCA asked her to move from the pool deck where she was breastfeeding her baby.

Carolynn Prior, a midwife, said the incident occurred on Sept. 1 when she was nursing her 5-month-old son while watching her older children, ages 7 and 9, take swimming lessons. According to Prior, a lifeguard approached her, suggested she would be more comfortable in the childcare facility and said "this is a family place and it might offend someone."

Steven Heipel, vice-president of communications of the YMCA of Greater Toronto, acknowledged that the incident occurred and called it "an error in judgment" by the lifeguard and the supervisor she consulted.

I see a lot of stories about this kind of thing while trolling the news and I always feel incredibly relieved that I live in Canada. Nine times out of ten, these stories are about the States. In fact, it seems that this comes up almost every day, to the point it’s not really news. I would assume it happens everywhere everyday. We only tend to hear about it when someone decides to publicly stand up for themselves and their babies. (As an aside, I wonder if it happens more often in Canada too but perhaps we aren’t as vocal about it?)

My son just turned two (today, in fact) and we are still nursing. In my experience, I really could breastfeed anytime, anywhere. I never had any problems. Now that my son is older, can talk and understand more and is eating and drinking other foods, I often do ask him to wait until we are at home or at least in a place that’s more convenient, simply because it’s easier. It is getting a bit more interesting now that he’s older and people have opinions about how old is too old to nurse, but I can honestly say that I’ve never been made to feel bad because I was nursing, in public or otherwise. And for this, I am so grateful for not being American.

It’s easy for Canadians to list all of the ways that we are not like our southern neighbours and the rest of the world giggles at us, because in many ways our cultures are homogenous. But thankfully, we are different in some very important ways. In my work on breastfeeding and birth culture, I’m consistently relieved to be Canadian and saddened at the state of affairs in the United States.

I would like to believe that this incident in Ontario is an isolated event but perhaps, the problem is more widespread than I think?

Please share your breastfeeding experiences with us. I’d love to have your comments. In your experience breastfeeding, how supportive was the atmosphere in Canada? Or in America?

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