Rights of children in relation to breastfeeding in child protection cases

Social workers have a responsibility to protect and uphold the human rights of their clients. For those individuals and organisations involved in child protection, the rights of children, as outlined in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC), provide essential guidance. The UNCRC supports the proposition that children have rights in relation to breastfeeding. This means that child protection workers and authorities have a responsibility to ensure that their interventions support and do not undermine mothers in breastfeeding their children. Furthermore, the impact of early cessation of breastfeeding in increasing health inequities and risk of child neglect only adds to the imperative for child protection interventions to support breastfeeding continuance. Two case studies are presented in which child protection authorities had interactions with a breastfeeding mother and child. In the first case, the child protection intervention resulted in the early and permanent cessation of breastfeeding. In the second case, active advocacy allowed breastfeeding to continue. However, in both cases, the mothers' insistence that breastfeeding was important to their children and should continue was pathologised. Recommendations are made for policies and training for child protection authorities to support the breastfeeding rights of children.