A judge says a mom can't breastfeed her 6-month-old daughter to accommodate her ex's visitation schedule, report says

• A court in Virginia ordered a woman to stop breastfeeding her baby, The Washington Post reported.
• Arleta Ramirez told the Post that her child was exclusively breastfed from birth.

A Virginia woman was ordered to stop breastfeeding her six-month-old baby so the baby's father can have overnight visits, The Washington Post reported.

Arleta Ramirez was ordered to "make every effort to place the child on a feeding schedule and use a bottle" by a Prince William County judge in late November, the Post reported. And, beginning this month, the judge's ruling granted the child's father, Mike Ridgway, four visitation days and overnight visits, according to the Post's February 1 story.

Ramirez told the Post that their daughter — who was exclusively breastfed from birth — had to be fed every hour, which initially interfered with Ridgway's visitation times. But now the judge's order will change that plan, the paper said.

"Why are they forcing me to stop breastfeeding?" Ramirez told the Post, adding that she and Ridgway broke up shortly after the child was born in July. "Isn't that her right? Isn't that in her best interest?"

Ridgway also told the Post that he'd given Ramirez the "space to both nurse and to pump milk" so he could bottle-feed their daughter when she's with him.

"Past the age of 6 months I will continue to support breastfeeding and bottle-feeding our daughter breast milk as much as possible, while also supplementing with formula only when absolutely necessary," Ridgway told the Post.

Ramirez initially had trouble pumping milk and her daughter refused the bottle at first, the paper reported. Tara Steinnerd, an attorney for Ridgway, told the Post that Ramirez was using breastfeeding as a way to "salvage" her relationship with him.

Cases like this, however, are not uncommon. Meghan Boone, a professor who studies pregnancy and parenting rights the Wake Forest University, told the Post that breastfeeding is factored in by some courts when forming visitation schedules. In 2017, HGTV host Nicole Curtis revealed she was ordered to stop breastfeeding her then-infant when her ex fought for visitation rights, according to People Magazine.

"I had no idea that a judge could say, 'You're court ordered to not feed your exclusively breastfed child," Curtis told the magazine at the time. "It's important that children have both of their parents. But [preventing] me from breastfeeding my child just so he can see the dad is not right."

Stephanie Bodak Nicholson, president of the North Caroline-based La Leche League's USA Council, a nonprofit that advocates for breastfeeding, told the Post that she has gotten at least one call each year over the last three decades about breastfeeding and custody, but noted that she's only one of over 1,000 leaders who field calls in various locations.

"It's definitely something we get calls on," Nicholson said. "It's frequent enough that we keep it on our radar."