After some recent discussions I had with some people involved in maternity
protection issues in Australia I inadvertantly found out that adoptive
mothers are not covered in any way by the International Labour
Organisation's conventions on maternity protection for maternity leave
provisions (103 is the old one, 183 the brand new one).

Since I have an interest in adoptive breastfeeding I thought I would ask
them whether adoptive mums who are breastfeeding their adopted child would
be covered for the bits of the convention that cover lactation breaks etc.
The answer I got was "During the discussions, the representative of the
legal adviser of the Office noted that, as drafted, the provisions of the
convention did not confer any substantive rights on adopted children."  I
don't know if there are any players in the international lobbying game here
who might be interested in taking this on because in some cultures eg in
some parts of Papua New Guinea both adoption and adoptive BF are common.
Even in the situation of maternal death where a relative has induced
lactation to save the life of a child you would think that the convention
should cover the 'mother' for breastfeeding.

It annoys me intensely. Obviously adoptive mothers are not real mothers!
and adopted kids don't deserve to be BF.

Karleen Gribble
Australia
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