Mom says lifeguard at public pool asked her to leave while breastfeeding

CINCINNATI, Ohio -- A breastfeeding mother never imagined she'd be kicked out of a community pool for doing something perfectly legal.

Ohio mom Cimarra Pierman was breastfeeding her son when she says a lifeguard approached her and asked her to leave, WCPO reports.

"Then that's when all of a sudden it became a spectacle, like, why are you feeding your child?" Pierman said.

Pierman adds she was protected by Ohio law, but the lifeguard said she was breaking pool rules.

"It's 90 degrees outside. This is the only way he gets any nutrition, any liquid all day," she said.

When the lifeguard proceeded to call a manager, he discovered he was wrong about the policy. By that time it was too late as Pierman had already packed up her things to leave.

"But I still feel awkward because he had the entire pool, all the staff looking at me and then it makes it look like I'm causing a scene when I'm doing something normal," Pierman said.

Law in the tristate area: Kentucky, Indiana or Ohio says the same thing. If you're in a public place, you can breastfeed whenever and wherever you want.

The Cincinnati recreation commission said they follow Ohio State law, and the situation with Pierman was a misunderstanding.

But the commission also acknowledges it hasn't trained employees about the law because a situation has not come up, until now.

The training is something Pierman says should be done.

"I definitely feel like they should be getting trained on it. I mean the guy was very confident," she said.

For her, education is what it's all about so other moms don't go through the same thing.

"I don't see why it should be a problem for us to feed our children."

Cincinnati public pools say they have decided to add a new policy to clarify the laws surrounding breastfeeding.