It seems sanity and justice have prevailed in Sydney today. The Family Court has overturned an order by a Federal Court Judge which prevented a mother from breastfeeding her child.
Justice Matthew Myer’s order related to the 20 year old woman’s new tattoos which he concluded posed an unacceptable risk to her 11 month old child.
“It is the view of the court that it is not in the best interests of the child that the mother continue to breastfeed the child, and in those circumstances the court will make the order sought by the father, that is, that the mother be prevented from breastfeeding the child,” he said.
Ms Jackson had her finger and foot tattooed in early May but didn’t inform the tattooist that she was breastfeeding. Whilst she has since tested negative to HIV, at the time the judge granted the injunction because there was still chance a positive test could eventuate.
The case came before a court in Newcastle earlier this month in an acrimonious parenting dispute. Unsurprisingly, the prohibition of breastfeeding shocked some in the community.
“I think if it were reasonable then we would have very, very many women in Australia who would be quite horrified and perhaps child protection authorities should be taking action because many mothers who are breastfeeding get tattoos — very often of their children’s names,” the ABC reported that breastfeeding advocate Dr Karleen Gribble from the University of Western Sydney as saying.
Three Family Court judges, Robert Aldridge, Judith Ryan and Hilary Hannan, found there was insufficient evidence and granted the mother access to her baby.
“(So) she was taking medication for post partum depression,” Justice Ryan told the father’s defence lawyer in court. “Well there’s no evidentiary foundation. (His) next idea is that she smoked cannabis on a single occasion. That falls away. The next idea is that she should stop breastfeeding because she got a tattoo.”