For everyone who signed the petition for a Breastfeeding Bill similar to that in force in Scotland........

[lackaDAISYcal]

I had a response today with the Government's statement on the petition attached.

here

It doesn't really address the issue does it? and still leaves women feeding babies over six months old vulnerable to being evicted from cafes

[AnyFuleKno]

Agreed - it's very frustrating, presumably they think that if the baby's more than six months it can have a bottle, since bfing is not important after that age?

[morocco]

what a load of crap, particularly about the 'up to 6 months' part of it

[lackaDAISYcal]

They seemed to have missed the fact that one of the points of the petition was to protect women who have babies over six months.
...and whilst it's admirable that they are doing lots of other things to address BFing rates, I really can't see why a similar bill to the Scottish one isn't seen as a viable option.

[anneme]

I can't believe the "up to 6 months " bit - what about the WHO guidelines that say that you should bf up to 2?

[1dilemma]

usual copout not dealing wiht the question
(ie why not same here as Scotland)

Confused about it only being sex discrimination up to 6 months, wish I'd known I could have got dh to take over then

[lackaDAISYcal]

lol 1dilemma

Thankfully I never had any negativity, but there are so many women who do.

Re the why is it different, I would've thought Goggsy, with his Scottish roots and young children, would have been all for it!

[slinkiemalinki]

I just read this in the Sunday Times yesterday and was going to post when I found this - it's outrageous and disgraceful! When 6 months is recommended as the MINIMUM time a baby should be breastfed for, why aren't we entitled to legal protection if we want to do better than the minimum for our babies? It's an absolute disgrace.

[wonderstuff]

What pants! Typical that rather than seize an opportunity to enrich peoples lives they decide its not important enough, but when they want to lock people up/ erode out civil liberties any amount of government time can be spared. Makes me want to vote bloody tory

[edam]

Answer is just not good enough but the idea that suppliers of goods and services would be guilt of direct sex discrimination for telling a b/f mother to stop or leave is an interesting one.

[KashaSarrasin]

There is a Downing St petition to "Make breastfeeding in public legally acceptable for all babies and children" - not just up to six months (!), more details and sign up here if you agree :

petitions.pm.gov.uk/breastfedright/

[SirDigbyChickenCaesar]

i just don't get how this in enforcable.
do you have to show proof that your baby is under 6 months? i had a big baby. he always looked older than he was, would i have been vulnerable?
very dodgy IMO. the government is so clueless.

[theSuburbanDryad]

The really interesting thing is that they have introduced this without any consultation at all! Mike Brady from Baby Milk Action and Morgan Gallagher from Nursing Matters have been on the case - I will try to find a link to explain it better.

[theSuburbanDryad]

here you go.

"Part of the problem is the bill put out to consultation did not mention breastfeeding at all."

[lackaDAISYcal]

thanks for that link UD

and I have signed the other petition, for all the good it will probably do

[Tinkerisdead]

i've signed too :-)