A case has recently been reported that states that the Madrid Institute for Minors and the Family prohibits breastfeeding children older than one year.
It really cost me to assimilate the news. Habiba it is the supposed name under which the drama of a young immigrant woman is hidden has lost her 15-month-old daughter, being the main reason that she refused to wean her as she denounces the Roots Foundation.
I had asked for help from the Services of the Madrid Institute for Children and the Family and lived in a foster home for mothers until a few days ago her daughter was withdrawn for not fulfilling the objectives of a maternal skills program for reasons that are not clear and have not been, for the information you have, decided by any judge, but provisionally at the discretion of their "educators."
The complaint of Dr. Ibone Olza and the Raíces Foundation
The Raíces e Ibone Olza Foundation, a medical psychiatrist, told us about it a few days ago, who has treated the young mother, when, desperately, she sought help to be able to meet her little girl. The news has jumped to the entire universe of parenting blogs as an unstoppable wave. We are all Habiba!They scream and shout with them.
The most serious thing is that it is being reported that the Madrid Institute for Children and the Family, who have withdrawn the girl, have done so because she refused to wean her daughter. The Roots Foundation explains the reasons they were given, in the first instance, for having separated mother and daughter. Dr. Ibone Olza explained her knowledge of the case and the mother in this way:
I met this mother last Wednesday, at the request of the Roots Foundation. She had not seen her child for two days and her breasts were congested. I issued a report that was taken to the Guard Court. On Friday I attended him again. Given the immobility of the successive courts on duty to resolve the situation and the seriousness of the case, we decided to make it public yesterday. For reasons of mother's safety, we cannot reveal her identity, but the Ombudsman has all the information.
And continues:
I attest to the veracity of the information. I have spoken with a person from the IMMF in charge of the case that has confirmed to me that custody has been withdrawn for things like “breastfeeding chaotically” and “refusing to suppress breastfeeding” and that has also assured me that minors under guardianship they cannot be breastfed in any case. When I have expressed to this person the enormous contradiction that this measure supposes with the advice given by health professionals that encourage mothers to feed on demand and for at least two years I have been answered that “if we would allow children in the centers that their mothers came to breastfeed them would go crazy. ”
That is to say, Habiba is not allowed to see her daughter or breastfeed her, which is, without a doubt, a serious damage for the little girl, who has lost not only her mother's milk, but being with her, her fundamental attachment figure so far.
The Roots Foundation corroborated what Dr. Olza explained in this way:
From the IMMF we were informed that the withdrawal occurred because of not carrying out the program they had planned for her and for the girl who, fundamentally, consisted in suspending breastfeeding because she considered it 'chaotic and harmful for boys and girls.
Does the Madrid Institute for Children and the Family prohibit breastfeeding children?
I cannot understand that a woman who asks for help is separated from her baby for not wanting to wean her. I can't understand what happened. I find it hard to believe it but I trust those who are reporting the case. And I'm very worried that the Madrid Institute for Children and the Family, who should ensure the interests of the children, can put a mother in the decision to wean or lose her child.
My tears skip at the thought of that baby who has been torn from her mother's arms and prevented from being with her. Habiba can only see her daughter one hour a week. Of course, the girl has been weaned by force, although, with help, she is trying to get her mother's milk to continue extracting.
The most worrying thing is that it is not the first time that they have told me that mothers who come to ask for help from Social Services and enter foster homes receive pressure to wean their children when they turn one year old, they are prevented from breastfeeding on demand, the colecho or a breeding of attachment.
What are “maternal skills” according to the Madrid Institute for Children and the Family?
Apparently there are some professionals, from whom I have not been able to find out their qualification or access the protocols that follow, which teach courses "Maternal skills" It seems to me that they are very disrespectful of the rights of women to choose an attachment upbringing, neither with natural breastfeeding nor with the needs of babies.
The truth, yes, I had already heard about this, of women who were imposed on taking medications to remove milk under the threat of losing their children because they were harming them with an excessive and unhealthy attachment. I had heard it, but I had a hard time believing it. But I can hardly believe it.
I cannot assure you that everything you have told me is true, but I assure you that I am going to try to gather all the information about these maternal skills courses and about whether it is true that lactophobia is practiced in the foster homes. I want to read the action protocols They follow.
The right to breastfeeding and natural upbringing
I think we all have the right to know what is done to help these moms in distress and if it is true that they are imposed a behavioral upbringing and are prevented from sleeping with their children or breastfeeding. I have the right, as a mother and as a citizen, to know what to expect, not to ask for help if I need it and to warn other women to be careful because they can separate them from their children if they breastfeed too much or too long according to absurd and harmful criteria on parenting, like those who imposed on young women in that horrible program called Teenage Mothers.
We have right to prolonged breastfeeding and natural upbringing. No one has the right to tell a mother to forbid her to breastfeed her child. Neither with a month, nor with a year, nor with two nor with six. Breastfeeding is natural.
The defense of the Madrid Institute for Children and the Family
And if now, before the media pressure, el Madrid Institute for Children and Family denies what happened and accuses the mother of losing her temper, of being a bad mother, in a statement sent to the media and that it is not signed.
They argue that the mother had aggressive behavior, did not attend to the girl as she should, had little neatness and presented mental instability and lack of family support. All this has been said after the complaints, denying that the reason for the separation is its resistance to weaning.
Was it really Habiba, a bad mother, and her little one has been taken away for that and not for refusing to wean her as she says? I do not know, I can not say that the statement collects the whole truth, but I have many doubts. And I want to know more, to be sure that this Dr. Olza He has uncovered and that it is a clamor, it is not true and that there were really real problems that have made this mother stop being able to be with her son.
What would you do if they threaten to take your daughter off if you breastfeed on demand?
A mother, even if she has problems, must be helped, because for her and her baby, being together is essential. Was it really dangerous for her little daughter? Or he did not want to enter the parenting rules that others imposed on him. Because if I had been forbidden to breastfeed my one-year-old son, sleep with him, not force him to eat or behave as others did, he would have also had many problems. Many problems.
I wonder How would any mother be if they ripped your son out of his arms for refusing to wean him?
We can follow everything that has happened in detail in many blogs, but I highlight the work that Louma has done in Maternal Love, and especially in the Facebook group created with the purpose of helping this woman called That the IMMF allow Habiba to breastfeed her girl ALREADY.
In this group the information is daily, almost every hour, and the mobilization to support this woman and return her with her daughter, also making public this case that has come to qualify as institutional abuse and getting to the bottom of the matter. Does the Madrid Institute for Children and the Family prohibit breastfeeding children?
Save the Children is positioned
In addition, to the social concern of the case and the requirement of clear explanations, the Save the Children Association has now been added, which clearly explains its general opinion on these problems and requires clarification of the case.
We have contacted the lawyers of the young mother, as well as the authorities of the Community of Madrid and the Prosecutor's Office.
In this context, and while confirming all the extremes of the case, from Save the Children we remember that:
Any administrative or judicial decision regarding the protection of minors must be based on the search of their best interests and be sufficiently motivated according to criteria in accordance with the Convention on the Rights of the Child and other international standards of child protection, in in particular the Guidelines on alternative modalities of child care.
The most appropriate and beneficial means for the growth, well-being and protection of children is the family itself, which is why efforts to protect children are aimed at providing maximum support to fathers and mothers in their caretaking role. The decision to separate a child from their biological parents must always be taken as a measure of last resort.
Economic and material poverty should never be the main justification for separating a child from parental care, but should be considered as an indication of the need to provide the family with appropriate support.
The transfer of a child to an alternative foster care environment must be carried out with maximum sensitivity and in a manner adapted to the needs of the child, in particular with the intervention of specially trained and non-uniformed personnel.
When a child has been received in alternative care, the contact with his mother should be encouraged and facilitated, in the best interest of the child.
We are all Habiba
The Facebook group That the IMMF allows Habiba to breastfeed her child is ALREADY still the most up-to-date information on the case, and from it, her administrator, ask us for calm, because in addition to the complaint on the Internet is being given to Habiba professional and legal help to get the case solved by the appropriate institutional channels. I hope to tell you soon that Habiba is with her little daughter again.
We will continue to pay attention to this very painful case, which also makes us consider a very important question about the way in which child protection decisions are made without judicial decision and to what extent prejudices and ideology about parenting weigh in them, and Of course, if families are being at risk of social exclusion and economic problems, it really helps them to take care of their children or decisions are made to separate them without real need.
We are all Habiba It has become a popular clamor in parenting blogs and in many breastfeeding and attachment parenting associations, which are not going to leave this mother abandoned and are going to demand explanations and that she be allowed to meet her little girl, without weaning her and without violating the rights of mothers and children. And I still want to be able to find out if there are protocols in the maternal skills courses that make the Madrid Institute for Children and the Family prohibit breastfeeding children on demand.
