Monday, May 2, 2016

Breast ‘ban’ mum sues swimming pool for £20k after claiming staff broke law by stopping her feeding baby son

Patrick EXCL: MILKING THE SYSTEM. A MUM is suing a leisure centre for £20,000 after claiming staff stopped her breastfeeding in a swimming pool. Concerned lifeguards spotted Abbie Stocker feeding son Eric in the water while waves - created by a wave machine - crashed around them. The The 27-year-old was offered a chair at the side of the pool following fears for their safety but Abbie refused ⿿ and claimed she had been prevented from her feeding child.


A MUM is suing a leisure centre for £20,000 after claiming staff stopped her breastfeeding her baby son in a swimming pool.

Concerned lifeguards saw Abbie Stocker feeding eight-month-old Eric in the water while waves created by a machine crashed around them.

Abbie, 27, was offered a poolside chair but refused, claiming she had been prevented from feeding her son.

Onlookers said she shouted at a manager before storming off to changing rooms. Weeks later bosses at Pendle Wavelengths in Nelson, Lancs, were hit with legal action.

Pendle Wavelengths, Nelson, Lancs
Abbie has been at the centre of a breastfeeding storm before after she was asked to leave a hospital waiting room in Burnley
Patrick EXCL: MILKING THE SYSTEM. A MUM is suing a leisure centre for £20,000 after claiming staff stopped her breastfeeding in a swimming pool. Concerned lifeguards spotted Abbie Stocker feeding son Eric in the water while waves - created by a wave machine - crashed around them.

Equality laws make it illegal to ask a breastfeeding woman to leave a public place.

Last night Abbie confirmed she was suing Wavelengths, saying: “The way they handled it was not positive.”

A source said: “A lifeguard saw a mum feeding her baby in the pool and thought she’d be more comfortable in a chair. The wave machine was on and can get pretty strong.

“The staff member thought the baby may become upset and was only trying to help.”

The source added: “Abbie then began saying it was against the law to stop a mum breastfeeding in public.

“That was never the case. The centre welcomes and supports breastfeeding mums.”

Signs backing breastfeeding are displayed throughout the complex.

One bemused member said: “It’s is ridiculous to think breastfeeding a child in a swimming pool is a sensible idea.

“If the baby had been sick, the pool would have had to be closed, drained and it would have been shut for days.

“It would have cost thousands and centre bosses have to consider the health and safety of other users, too.”
Patrick EXCL: MILKING THE SYSTEM. A MUM is suing a leisure centre for £20,000 after claiming staff stopped her breastfeeding in a swimming pool. Concerned lifeguards spotted Abbie Stocker feeding son Eric in the water while waves - created by a wave machine - crashed around them. The The 27-year-old was offered a chair at the side of the pool following fears for their safety but Abbie refused ⿿ and claimed she had been prevented from her feeding child.
Patrick EXCL: MILKING THE SYSTEM. A MUM is suing a leisure centre for £20,000 after claiming staff stopped her breastfeeding in a swimming pool. Concerned lifeguards spotted Abbie Stocker feeding son Eric in the water while waves - created by a wave machine - crashed around them. The The 27-year-old was offered a chair at the side of the pool following fears for their safety but Abbie refused ⿿ and claimed she had been prevented from her feeding child.
Pic Neil Jones. 07970 790893. Picture date 27th April 2016. Pic shows; Abbie Stocker who is suing a leisure centre after claiming staff stopped her breastfeeding while sat in a swimming pool.
Patrick EXCL: MILKING THE SYSTEM. A MUM is suing a leisure centre for £20,000 after claiming staff stopped her breastfeeding in a swimming pool. Concerned lifeguards spotted Abbie Stocker feeding son Eric in the water while waves - created by a wave machine - crashed around them. The The 27-year-old was offered a chair at the side of the pool following fears for their safety but Abbie refused ⿿ and claimed she had been prevented from her feeding child.
Pendle Leisure Trust, which runs the centre, confirmed they faced action.

Abbie, who still breastfeeds daughter Millie, three, received an apology from Burnley General Hospital two years after she was asked to leave a waiting area and breastfeed in another room.

She said at the time she “felt humiliated, like a naughty schoolgirl who had been made to wait outside the headteacher’s office.”

A spokesman for East Lancs Hospitals NHS Trust said it was “disappointing to hear that our offer of a room to allow Mrs Stocker privacy and comfort was misinterpreted on this occasion and we are sorry for any upset.”

Abbie said: “Breastfeeding women are no different to a disabled person or a person of a different nationality in the way you can’t discriminate against them.”

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