Hi all
I have been called by a mother with an 11 month old breastfed baby
and 3 1/2 year old girl. She is separated from her husband, and is
currently going through the family court to arrange joint custody of
the children. The husband is asking to keep both children from
Thursday afternoon to Sunday afternoon every week.
Baby feeds 6 or more times in 24 hours, including one or two feeds at
night, and partially sleeps with mother. Mother says baby is very
unsettled and feeds all night after visiting father for 8 hours
during the day. The court is trying to decide if she should wean the
baby at age 12 months to enable these 3 day visits.
 I have already
read the LLL pages on legal matters, and have looked through the
lactnet archives for related material. The mother's lawyer has Liz
Baldwin's contact number as well,  but have a question for your wise
minds. The father has asked that the information that LLL has (which
the mother's lawyer tabled as supportive of her case), be
inadmissable as evidence as it was American and therefore didn't have
any relationship to his child in Australia!!!
I have been asked to put in an affidavit to support the woman, and
mostly the rights of her child to continue breastfeeding. Does anyone
know where I can find some succinct information on maternal-infant
bonding, and the upset there might be to a child of this age by being
forcibly weaned and having to stay with his father (who he does not
know very well) for 3 days each week??? I have lots of info already
on the nutritional and other benefits of continuing breastfeeding,
but not so much on the emotional side of things.
 It seems very
strange when a court system which is supposed to make decisions which
are in the best interests of the child is contemplating this course
of action. Anyone with any helpful suggestions can email me. I will
be nomail for the rest of the week as I am off to NMAA's
International Breastfeeding Conference in Sydney (2000 plus
kilometres from here), so maybe a private response would be better.
TIA

Fiona




Fiona Coombes MBBS IBCLC               [log in to unmask]
Lactation Consultant, Family Physician
Perth Western Australia