Sheena,
The situation with breastfeeding foster babies very much depends on where
you are and who is in charge. Certainly some foster mothers have breastfed
babies in their care with official sanction.....many more have done so
without and some have had children removed or the threat of children being
removed for breastfeeding. People have dobbed them in. In other cases
authorities have turned a blind eye and pretned they don't know because it's
easier. Many social workers etc are as unsure of what to do as foster
mothers.   Foster parents do not have any legal rights when it comes to
children placed in their care. It is unfortunate that breastfeeding is not
viewed as a normal part of child care :-(
So...the situation is dicey. It is often not a case of legal or illegal but
people's biases about breastfeeding.
I have a case study of a mother who breastfed a medically fragile foster
baby that has been accepted for publication in JHL. This paper also includes
a discussion of the social, emotional and health issues surrounding the
breastfeeding of foster children. Hopefully it should be in the next issue.
I hope that it might be helpful to those who wish to advocate for vulnerable
children and babies in foster care to be given care that is not essentially
deficient.
She may wish to check out the adotpive breastfeeding resource website which
has a BB with a section for foster mothers.
You mention that the mother is also breastfeeding the toddler. Darillyn and
I are still sending out surveys to mothers who have attempted to breastfeed
adopted children adopted at 4 months or older. If this mum feels comfortable
contacting me (and I recognise that she may not wish to do so at this stage)
it would be wonderful to have another participant in the study.
Karleen Gribble
Australia


 So legally speaking can DHS remove this baby from her care for
> breastfeeding?  Has this happened before? In talking more with the the
> foster mom she states that the state removed the newborn and that there
will
> be no chance of reconciliation.
>

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