YMCA bf'ing policy. - Page 2

[Love Wins]

I signed!

[phathui5]

Signed.

[mamadelbosque]

Signed. I used to like the YMCA till I was told something similar while taking a lifeguarding class of all things ("cause what if one of these teenage boys went home and told their mothers that they saw your boob?" - remember these are *LIFEGUARDS IN TRAINING*!!!!! ). YMCA's have a serious issue with bfing that I do *NOT* get. I wrote them a letter explaing Ohios law and all, and you know what they did? They wrote me back and said basicly 'yeah, but we're private, so we can do whatever the f' we want - screw you'. I've not been back, needless to say.

[LionessMom]

wow. i signed it. i have never had a problem bfing at my ymca. i have been a member for almost a year and i love it. i am sorry that this happened to someone. my local ymca is awesome. the ladies who do most of the work in the day care are ap mommas and nursed their babies for awhile. i have never had anyone say anything to me about it. well except a good for you. i nurse in the day care regularly in front of the other children. i am one of 4 mommas (that i know of) who nurse there. i support every babies right to breastmilk form the source!

[Kristine233]

I'm actually really surprised by this! I'm a program coordinator for the YMCA where I live and I love my job BECAUSE of the mom and breastfeeding support! I can walk into the offices throughout the week and at any given time there is often 1 or more staff member with a nursing baby sitting at her computer or in a meeting. While the majority of those working are female, we do have males on our staff too and they are totally ok with it. I've never heard a complaint and we just love having the babies and kids there! I'm generally with at least one of mine in tow as well.

As far as members go I've seen dozens nursing at our facility. At one event I overheard a mom telling her husband she wanted to find a place to nurse. I stopped her and told her we had some benches by the pool window (pretty public, lol. the area with chairs was totally jam packed with people ATM, so was trying to find somewhere she could sit comfortably!) or if she wanted someplace more private I'd find her an office. (some people aren't as comfortable themselves) She said she would actually prefer some place more private because it was super busy during the event that was happening there, so I set her up in our conference room. No one has even batted an eye to nursing moms in the lobby or at the table either.

Of course, our Y is just plain awesome to begin with, lol. We even have a home school open gym time where the home school families come in to play, hang out and use the equipment.

I hope the Y involved in the OP's issue figures out quick that they are fighting a losing battle on that!

[Kristine233]

PS, I think I might mention this at work and see if anyone might be able to find me something about the Y's official policy (which I'm sure *hoping* is supportive of it, but perhaps its not defined? Frustrating!). In order for a facility to keep the Y affiliation they have to follow the policies and keep up to date on all that. If they refuse they risk losing that.

[annettemarie]

The thing is, though, if you google YMCA and Breastfeeding, it's a pretty farspread problem. That's what's mind boggling to me.

[Kristine233]

Originally Posted by annettemarie

The thing is, though, if you google YMCA and Breastfeeding, it's a pretty farspread problem. That's what's mind boggling to me.

That's a huge bummer! My only experience has been at my YMCA where I work, the next closest is over an hour away. I'm definitely going to talk to our marketing person and see if they might be willing to publicly displaying something showing we are BFing friendly and see if I can find the official policy that ALL the Ys should be adhering to. I'm gonna dig and see if I can find that info? It would be nice to see what that is because if they aren't even following their own policies that can be pointed out too. (besides the obvious LAWS involved that state moms can to begin with!)

Like I said, ours is amazing and I'm really bummed not all of them are like ours!! I do a lot of staff training for my department and if I heard of any of them treating a nursing mom like that I would be livid!

The only thing I'd take issue with is being in the fitness area (weight/equipment room) anyone under like 14(?) isn't allowed in that room at ours... It wouldn't be related to breastfeeding at all though because baby wouldn't be there to begin with. Ours is a small area and crowed and not idea for youngsters. But anywhere a mom could possibly have kids or baby it would be fine.

[mrsgrasty]

i signed, and so did my husband. we are members at our local y. i have nursed there a couple of times and never had an issue. i am very thankful for that, because unfortunately in my state of virginia, we do not have the "nurse anywhere" law. we are exempt from the public indecency laws, however.

so i'm not sure how that would play out. in my mind, the only complaint people could possibly have against public nursing is indecency, so if it is exempt, that should cover it. but i doubt its actually interpreted that way.

i hate that our state doesn't have more protection for nursing mothers. it occasionally makes me nervous to nip in certain places, knowing that if there is a problem, i don't have as much legal protection as i would like.

[mamacassafrass]

signed and thank you

[earthmommy2]

I signed, and I'm a bit nervous, we are moving to Ocean Springs, MS in Nov....You might hear about me on the news!! lol