Nursing mother refused option of pumping breast milk "Arcom Publishing Inc. - Fauquier Times-Democrat


By Bill McIntyre November 12, 2002


Wearing a clean white one-piece pajama sleeper, Marsh Run's 8-week-old Victoria Lynn Boutwell has become the center of attention in a controversy between criminal justice officials and a recently incarcerated nursing mother.
Sporting a shock of curly black hair, a curious smile and a pair of attentive dark brown eyes, little Victoria Lynn rests comfortably in her father's arms while she fusses over her nighttime bottle of Enfamil formula. ...
Boutwell delivered a breast pump to the Warrenton Detention Center for Moore, but medical officials there disallowed its use.
"I called to make sure she got the breast pump and that's when the nurse told me that the doctor said she was not entitled to it because she was incarcerated," he said.
Dr. David Fairbanks, who operates a family practice in Warrenton, was hired by county officials to provide medical services at the Warrenton jail twice a week.
Invoking doctor-patient confidentiality, he declined to discuss Moore's case specifically, but explained that breast pumping would be allowed if it were the only means available for providing nutrition to a baby.
"But formula is cheap and half of America was fed on formula since the '60s and we've all done OK with it," he said.
Fairbanks added that part of his job was to protect the county from potential litigation.
"We just can't afford it. You would hate to have something go wrong with the milk (opening the county to potential lawsuits)," he said...."

[This woman is now in another jail where she is allowed to pump and she is trying to re-lactate. - JC]