Today I went to court to help a mother whose breastfed 4-month old has been
placed in "protective" foster care. She can only see and breastfeed him
under court-ordered supervision, twice a week for an hour each time. Here's
the story: two months ago, looking for reliable child care for the baby and
her two other children, she allowed a male friend (she described him as her
"significant other" but not the baby's dad) to care for her children while
she worked nights as a nurse in a large medical center. Two weeks after this
arrangement began, she got a call at work notifying her that the baby had
broken his leg. She rushed to the hospital to see her son, who had a spiral
fracture of the femur. When x-rays also showed other, older hairline
fractures of the baby's ribs and other leg, Children's Services (CS) placed
all three of her children in protective foster care.
The man is being charged with child abuse, of course. The spiral fracture
could not possibly have involved the mother, and it's highly probable that
he is responsible for the other injuries. However, CS has not (yet) been
able to rule out the mother's involvement in the earlier injuries which were
10-14 days old at the time of the femur fracture, exactly correlating with
the time he began to provide care. She had no idea that the baby had been
injured prior to the spiral break, since the baby had been acting normal and
thriving. Now she is pumping her milk, and the baby nurses with great sighs
of relief when she does get to see him. Recently the foster mother
complained that the baby cries for hours after her visits, and CS tried to
tell the mother that "it is too traumatizing for you to keep breastfeeding
and then to send the child to the foster mother." They told her "it is more
beneficial and in the baby's best interest that you stop BF because that
will reduce his separation anxiety."
This is where I came into the picture. The mother and her lawyer knew that
CS was spinning a tale without substance, and asked me to testify on behalf
of the mom continuing to breastfeed for all the reasons that we know. At
today's shelter care hearing, the mother's lawyer used the information I
provided, and I didn't have to take the stand. The judge ordered a DNA test
of the baby's saliva to check for Osteogenesis Imperfecta, and agreed to
increase the moms' visits to 4 per week, although still supervised and only
an hour long each.
I don't know whether I'll be called again to help this mother. If so, I'll
post an update. Meanwhile, if any of you have insights on any of this,
please reply to me privately (as well as anything you post to the list)
because I'll be out of town for a few days and may not be able to get
Lactnet mail.
Linda J. Smith, BSE, FACCE, IBCLC
Bright Future Lactation Resource Centre www.bflrc.com
6540 Cedarview Ct., Dayton, OH 45459-1214 USA
(937) 438-9458 email [log in to unmask]
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