Heather,

Nursing Matters had a recent contact from a young mother who's 
exclusively breastfed baby had been taken off her in the streets, by 
Social Services - they'd literally pulled the baby out of her arms and 
jumped into a car with it.

There was an involved legal issue, about the Child Protection Register, 
which I won't go into, but which prevented anyone but a lawyer and the 
local MP from getting involved (the baby was not at risk, but the 
paperwork was in place regardless).  However, the truly shocking part of 
this, is that when the mother finally got access to the baby a few days 
later - at Social Services - she was asked not to breast feed the baby 
as it had only started taking the bottle, and they didn't want the 
breastfeeding to confuse the baby.  She refused this request, and fed 
the baby, and continued to do so for every access visit, and to pump to 
maintain supply.  But within six weeks, the baby was refusing the 
breast.  It was clear that Social Services didn't approve of this young 
mother breastfeeding and bed sharing, and they did all they could, 
including removing the child, in order to accomplish weaning. There was 
a minor victory, as Social Services had to pay out for pump hire to 
maintain supply, once enough breastfeeding support agencies had piled in 
to protest, but with the baby in care and only seeing Mum 4 days out of 
7.... breast refusal was almost inevitable after a few weeks.  She was 
not an asylum mother - just a normal everyday teenage Mum who had 
authority issues.

I'm still so angry I could spit.. but I keep it out of my head, and my 
heart, as much as I can.

Morgan Gallagher
www.nursingmatters.org.uk

heather wrote:
> Thank for clarifying the details of this for us, Jake.
>
> Occasionally, this issue comes up in the UK, and I have supported - by 
> email - a handful of mothers who needed to inform their legal advisers 
> of the realities of bf.
>
> However, I am uncomfortable with a situation that has a mother saying 
> 'my ex-partner cannot have contact with our child because I am 
> breastfeeding' which of course prompts the other side into saying 
> 'well, you have to wean'.
>
> This makes breastfeeding the centre of the discussion, rather than the 
> overall needs of the child. A mother might be ordered to wean, in 
> order to somehow 'permit' contact - when we all know that 
> breastfeeding hardly ever has to stop when mum and baby are separated.
>
> Weaning in order to 'permit' extended contact with the absent parent 
> (who maybe something of a stranger to the child) or to 'facilitate' 
> absence from the mother is not good - but gradually building up 
> contact with the absent parent is better for any child, breastfeeding 
> or not. And bf can, and should, continue alongside this.
>
> Breastfeeding can be used as a stick for the 'other side' to beat the 
> mother with, and that cannot be good.
>
> Heather Welford Neil
> NCT bfc, tutor, UK
>

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