Tattooed Mom Wins Her Battle to Breastfeed

The mother of an 11-month-old baby in Australia can once again breastfeed her child, but it took the intervention of a court. Sydney's Family Court today overturned a previous decision barring the woman from breastfeeding because she had gotten a tattoo a month ago, reports 9 News. The earlier judge thought that put the child at risk for diseases such as HIV or hepatitis and ordered the unidentified woman to stop breastfeeding, but a Family Court judge ridiculed the decision as one that seems to have resulted purely from "surfing the Internet." The unusual case stems from a nasty custody dispute, explains the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

The child's parent's aren't together, and the father complained to the court that the mother was unfit, in part because of the tattoo. The woman tested negative for any diseases, but the first judge deemed the results inconclusive. "It is the view of the court that it is not in the best interests of the child that the mother continue to breastfeed," he ruled, per the Sydney Morning Herald. The strange thing is that he cited guidelines from the Australian Breastfeeding Association, but the leader of that group thinks he overreacted. "Women do need to be careful," she says. "But it doesn't mean that you have to wrap yourself in Glad wrap." (Dad can take heart: He lost, but his kid may end up earning more in the long run.)