At the risk of losing my anonymity (anyone who remembers what my FT job is will be able to narrow me down to one of three names on my department'a web page) this is a thing that happened at my place of employment:
https://www.wfmz.com/news/news-regional-lehighvalley/Judge-orders-Northampton-Co-mother-to-stop-breastfeeding/-/132502/22880612/-/t3dwj2/-/index.htmlSeriously, they couldn't just wait awhile on the overnight visits??? It's a damn good thing this article doesn't identify which judge this is (and that my department has little contact with courts, so I think I'd only actually recognize about two judges on the common pleas level, i mostly deal with district judges) because if I saw him or her, I don't think I'd be able to keep my mouth shut. :-/
Re: Ugh, this makes me feel all kinds of rage
Editted to remove judge's name info about my job because I just realized this thread shows up on a Google search. Eep!
DS1: Quinn - 10.22.10 and DS2: Cole - 01.18.13
Yeah, I definitely can't audit this dude anymore. Also, I really, really hope the Lehigh Valley chaper of Le Leche League gets wind of this story and stages a nurse-in in his courtroom.
I was talking to my coworkers about this and they were all like "What about the rights of te father?". Um, this isn't about the rights of the father. Hell, it isn't even about the rights of the mother. It's about what's BEST FOR THE BABY. Even if the mother deliberately did not introduce a bottle to the baby until it was too late for her to accept it, there is no sense in punishing the baby, which is what this arrangement will probably do.
The mother is likely telling the truth when she says she can't pump enough. I know that despite massive oversupply at first, I now have to pump 2-3 times to get one bottle, so there's no way in hell I could pump a full 48 hours worth. It's a common issue with babies this age. And 48 hours of not enough milk being removed from her breasts will signal for her body to make less milk. Doing that every single weak will probably kill her supply and end the nursing relationship altogether. The fact that the judge failed to take this into consideration and is FORCING the motheri give this baby formula (because if she can't pump enough milk, that's what he's doing, even if she has the option to pump) is appalling. Can you imagine if a judge ordered a mother to breastfeed even though she didn't want to? It absolutely wouldn't fly.