the right to breastfeed upheld

Back at the end of September I translated an article in 新京报/The Beijing News about a woman suing her estranged husband and demanding the right to breastfeed their child. It seems, judging by this article in today’s TBN, that the woman was successful and her right to breastfeed has been upheld by the court. Roughly half the article is a recap of the story already told, so I’ll just excerpt the juicy bits:

父抱走孩子 母讨要哺乳权

Father took child away, mother demands right to breastfeed

母亲获法院支持，此案系本市首例

Mother wins court’s support, this case first example in this city

昨日，本市首例“母亲讨要哺乳权”案在怀柔法院一审落槌，法院认为，孩子尚处于哺乳期，应同母亲生活。

Yesterday, this city’s first case of a mother demanding the right to breastfeed was ruled on in the first instance in Huairou Court. The court considers that as the child is still in the breastfeeding period, it should live with its mother.

Uh, yeah “一审落槌“, I could use some help de-uglifying my hopeless translation of that. And I always disliked using ‘it’ as the pronoun for a child of undetermined gender, but that is technically correct, the word ‘child’ being neuter. Anyway:

昨日，刘某在法庭门口看见有记者，转身要走，被法官劝回。他认为“妻子没钱养孩子”。但法院认为，考虑到孩子尚处于哺乳期，从利于健康成长的原则出发，法院支持母亲的请求。

Yesterday, Mr Liu, on seeing reporters at the court entrance, turned around and tried to leave, but was encouraged to go back out by the judge. He thinks “My wife has no money to raise the child”. But the court believes that considering the child is still in the breastfeeding period, and starting from the principle of benefitting the child’s healthy growth, the court supports the mother’s demands.

Seems to me that the judge came down pretty firmly on the mother’s side.

It’s also interesting that in this latest report, the names of the parents were given only as 李某 and 刘某, Ms Li and Mr Liu, with no further identification, but in that first report from the end of September full names were given. And yet it’s the same reporter, Zhu Yan, in both cases.