Breastfeeding Rights of unmarried and divorced mothers threatened

[BellaRose0212]

Please contact AAP, WHO, and ABM about establishing protocol documents for family courts who are considering breastfeeding as a factor in visitation or custody hearings. I have included my brief letter to ABM, please improve upon it and send one yourself, altering it where needed for AAP and WHO. We need more than one person alerting the powers that be of this issue.

http://www.bfmed.org/Resources/Protocols.aspx
Email for Academy of Breastfeeding Medicine: [e-mail]
Snail mail (I also plan to send physical letters):
Academy of Breastfeeding Medicine
140 Huguenot Street, 3rd floor
New Rochelle, New York 10801

The American Academy of Pediatrics has a policy statement for breastfeeding and the use of human milk under the committee on nutrition:
http://aappolicy.aappublications.org...rics;115/2/496. I cannot find a direct email for the committee on nutrition and the AAP has many different contact emails, here is a list (you can also find snail mail addresses here): http://www.aap.org/visit/contact.htm. I chose to email [e-mail], on their breastfeeding initiatives website and [e-mail] for the division of state and government affairs. I altered the previous text to reflect the wish to include breastfeeding in the policy statement.

Here is the World Health Organization's snailmail address:
World Health Organization
Avenue Appia 20
1211 Geneva 27
Switzerland

All of their email addresses seem to be geared toward technical issues with the website or publications, but you can find them here http://www.who.int/about/contacthq/en/index.html. I believe this situation should be addressed in WHO's section on "BreastFeeding in exceptionally difficult circumstances," found here http://www.who.int/nutrition/topics/.../en/index.html.

Increasingly, unmarried and divorced mothers are facing challenges during visitation and custody hearings due to the family court's lack of knowledge regarding breastfeeding. Often, overnight visits are mandated for fathers of breastfed babies under one-year-old who live great distances away. I believe there is little or no protocol for such situations in the courts which may result in rulings based on the mistaken view that formula is equal to human milk. Most courts also do not realize how separation and use of a bottle can undermine the breastfeeding relationship, especially during the first six months of the child's life in which exclusive breastfeeding is recommended. I would like to suggest that you prepare a document of protocol (here you could say, add to your protocol list or add to your section on "Breastfeeding in exceptional circumstances" or add to your policy statement on breastfeeding and human milk, etc) to simply but scientifically explain the importance and mechanics of breastfeeding, and why prolonged, especially overnight, separation of mothers and their babies can cause insurmountable hurdles to normal, healthy child-feeding. This document could be specifically aimed at judges, lawyers, psychologists, social workers, and other professionals in the family court system. Please understand that my goal in this request is not to undermine the importance of the relationship between children and their fathers but simply to underline the paramountcy of the nursing relationship so that courts may find suitable arrangements in the interest all the family members, but especially the child, based on the specifics of each case.

Thank you very much for your consideration.

Respectfully,
Name
Lactation Activist
personal contact information

Thanks everyone. Please post if you have an improved letter to share, I know there is a lot to be desired in mine.

[BellaRose0212]

Here is how I edited it for the AAP:

I would like to suggest that you prepare a document to simply but scientifically explain the importance and mechanics of breastfeeding, and why prolonged, especially overnight, separation of mothers and their babies can cause insurmountable hurdles to normal, healthy child-feeding. This document could be specifically aimed at judges, lawyers, psychologists, social workers, and other professionals in the family court system. I also suggest you add recommendations regarding protocol in visitation and custody situations to your policy statement on breastfeeding and the use of human milk (PEDIATRICS Vol. 115 No. 2 February 2005, pp. 496-506).

[MaryJaneLouise]

The US Breastfeeding Committee has a brief blurb about family law in one of their existing publications. Maybe they could be persuaded to make up an entire separate document on this:

http://www.usbreastfeeding.org/About...0/Default.aspx