17 February 2023 , 16:22
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A mum was left shocked when she was asked to leave a swimming pool after she breastfed her child.
Marguerite Sinnott was in the University College Dublin (UCD) swimming pool on Wednesday with her kids when the youngest became hungry. Thinking nothing of it, she went to the side of the pool to breastfeed her child.
But soon after she fed her tot, a member of staff from the pool came over to her and said she should leave the pool if she was going to feed her child again, DublinLive reported.
The staff from the pool have since apologised for their treatment of the woman.
The University College Dublin gym have apologised (UCD CONSUS)Marguerite said: "Yesterday, I was at the pool in UCD with my three children - a six-year-old, a four-year-old and a seven-month-old. We were in the toddler pool and my smallest guy started giving out a bit.
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"So I sat up at the toddler pool to breastfeed him. That was fine and after a couple of minutes we got back into the pool and he was happy again.
"A few minutes later, a UCD staff member arrived at the toddler pool and asked me to get out of the pool and talk to her that they needed to address something with me. She stated that she had been made aware that I was breastfeeding in the toddler pool. I said that is correct, I was breastfeeding my seven-month-old baby in the pool.
"She said, 'you can't do that, if you want to feed your child, you'll have to go to a cubicle in the changing room'. I was shocked to be confronted with this on the University grounds in the 21st century in Ireland.
"I said, 'are you seriously asking me to leave the pool to breastfeed my child?' and she said, 'yes, it is not safe for your child, it is not sanitary, it is against health and safety so you'll have to leave the pool if you want to breastfeed him'.
"Me giving a feed to my baby wasn't posing any health and safety risk to anyone in the pool. And then she said if the baby vomited, she would have to close the pool."
The law clearly outlines a mother can feed their child anywhere they want or need to. UCD Sport and Fitness apologised to Marguerite on Twitter for the incident.
They said: "Please accept our sincerest apologies. Rather than approach you, the member of staff should have explained to the individuals who complained that breastfeeding is rightfully permitted in all public places.
"We have taken the necessary steps to ensure all of our staff are fully aware of this going forward."