A judge has ordered an American mother to stop breastfeeding her 6-month-old daughter because it interferes with her ex-husband's relationship with their children.
The Washington Post reports that Arleta Ramirez has been breastfeeding her daughter since she was born in July. She also breastfed her two-year-old son.
In late November, a Prince William County judge told the paper that Ramirez "must do everything she can to put the child on a feeding schedule and use a bottle".
The judge's decision gave Mike Ridgway, the children's father, four days of visitation and overnight stays starting this month.
Ridgway said his daughter's feeding times interfered with his visits, but Ramirez, who has had trouble expressing milk in the past, agrees with some experts that "breast is best".
She is gathering evidence from breastfeeding experts and a letter from her child's doctor for a hearing in April.
"Why are they making me stop breastfeeding my child?" she told the Washington Post. "Isn't that what she said? Isn't that what she's supposed to do?
Ridgway said he had given Ramirez "space to both breastfeed and pump so that I could bottle feed our daughter while she is in my care".
"After our daughter is 6 months old, I will continue to support breastfeeding and bottle-feeding as much as possible and will only give her formula if absolutely necessary," he said.
Ridgway's lawyer, Tara Steinnerd, said Ramirez was using breastfeeding as a "weapon" to try to save a relationship that was already over.
"They come up with a lot of different reasons," she said. It's about using breastfeeding as a way to keep people from coming to see the baby.
Stephanie Bodak Nicholson, president of the La Leche League USA Council, said she gets at least one call a year about breastfeeding during custody battles.
"We get calls about it," she said. We keep an eye on it because it happens often enough," she told the newspaper.
La Leche is a nonprofit organisation that helps new mothers learn to breastfeed and provides emotional support and tips, but not legal advice.
Meghan Boone, an associate professor at Wake Forest University School of Law who studies pregnancy and parental rights, said the idea that only women can care for young children has been 'debunked' and can be seen as 'gender discrimination' by men seeking custody.
"The tender years doctrine shouldn't be used anymore," Boone said.
"If we're talking about a child needing to be with mum and not dad, that sounds like a sign that the child is still young."