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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Jury service & breastfeeding

87 replies

Catscrat · 09/02/2021 11:05

Posting here for traffic....

I had a letter a couple of weeks ago summoning me for jury service.

I asked to be excused as I’m exclusively breastfeeding (DS is 9 months old). He’s never had formula and we haven’t had any luck with bottles when I’ve tried expressing milk. I’m also not returning to work after mat leave so no childcare lined up, though I didn’t put that on the form.

Just got notification that my request has been rejected Confused and now I’m majorly panicking!

Has anyone got any experience of this?

OP posts:
shouldistop · 10/02/2021 20:38

@NovemberRain2 the slack? Grin how many times have you done jury duty that it's causing you such difficulties?
I am part of the working population btw and don't feel hard done by that a few people are excused from jury duty for childcare reasons.

NovemberRain2 · 10/02/2021 20:47

I'm dying to do it and would love to get called up!

I just think the rules should apply fairly, that's all. And if women keep deterring for childcare reasons, it's not necessarily just a few people is it?

OverTheRubicon · 10/02/2021 20:53

@AStudyinPink

Surely by the time your child is two they can manage without being breastfed while you’re out between 9-5? Assuming that you’ll even be out that long. A lot of jury service is quite short too, just a few days. Surely by that age they could also take a bottle if you were out? I agree you should be exempt now but I think getting out of it based on breastfeeding when your child is older is unreasonable to be honest.

You don’t flex your child’s needs for this sort of thing. It needs to flex for the child. If the child is still feeding and that’s working in the child’s family, there’s no need for a bottle.

Oh come on, I've extended fed three children and think it is a bit mad to claim that a 2 year old needs feeding between the hours of 9-5. Nor do children of this age need a bottle, they're old enough for a cup.

If people want to have a representative group of people on juries, it's not helpful if there are a huge range of reasons to back out.

Crikeycroc · 10/02/2021 22:01

As usual the usual British weirdness about breastfeeding prevails on this thread. Breastfeeding is recommended by the WHO until at least two years old. Not all two year olds feed twice per day especially if mum isn’t working outside the home. We should be supporting women willing to do this not inconveniencing them with jury duty.

OP if you are still breastfeeding when they summon you again get in touch with a breastfeeding advocacy group (?LLL, I’m not sure who to recommend, I’m not in the UK) and see what they can do.

Original poster
Catscrat · 10/02/2021 23:26

@Crikeycroc thank you, I’ll see how things are in a year’s time!

OP posts:
Original poster
Catscrat · 10/02/2021 23:41

Didn’t anticipate this turning into quite such a debate Grin The breastfeeding thing was at the forefront of my mind in asking for the deferral, it may not be an issue in a year’s time as pp have pointed out. I’m not planning to send him to childcare till 2+ so don’t like the thought of having to leave him for 2 weeks of full days away from me if he’s not used to it. Would be totally different if he was at school like my older DD. I will cross that bridge when I come to it I guess!

OP posts:
AStudyinPink · 11/02/2021 11:22

Oh come on, I've extended fed three children and think it is a bit mad to claim that a 2 year old needs feeding between the hours of 9-5. Nor do children of this age need a bottle, they're old enough for a cup.

It’s not mad at all. I didn’t do extended feeding, but I recognise that some children do.

Username12353784 · 11/02/2021 11:41

I commented on this the other day but haven’t got time to read through all the posts. Did you get it sorted op? I think you have grounds to be excused or deferred. I was a few years ago due to having a young child (not breast fed) mentioned in my pp and I was excused and never heard from them again.

littlemisslozza · 11/02/2021 11:44

I was called up about 10 years ago and gave the same reason as you, breastfeeding baby plus a toddler at home. Was completely excused, not deferred. Would like to be called up again sometime though.

User0ne · 11/02/2021 12:20

[quote FabulousIAm]This link may help www.laleche.org.uk/breastfeeding-and-jury-servic/[/quote]
Use this and challenge the decision. It's been made by someone who doesn't know anything about breastfeeding or how it would relate to maternity being a legally protected characteristic

Original poster
Catscrat · 11/02/2021 15:43

@Username12353784 Thanks, they let me defer it for 12 months. I’ve already had an email through with the date for next year. I wish they’d just excused me, as I’m still stressing about it!

@User0ne thank you, someone else mentioned that link too. Some useful advice. As they’ve deferred it I will have to see what my situation is next year as they could argue I may not be breastfeeding at that point (though I’m planning to still be!)

OP posts:
J1990 · 07/03/2023 00:31

Catscrat · 11/02/2021 15:43

@Username12353784 Thanks, they let me defer it for 12 months. I’ve already had an email through with the date for next year. I wish they’d just excused me, as I’m still stressing about it!

@User0ne thank you, someone else mentioned that link too. Some useful advice. As they’ve deferred it I will have to see what my situation is next year as they could argue I may not be breastfeeding at that point (though I’m planning to still be!)

This is old I know but did you get called again?

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