I have a new hero!
There are a number of people I admire, Frank Lloyd Wright for one, others I can’t remember this late at night. Today at uni we had a guest lecturer speak, Professor Freda Briggs.
I was blown away by her lecture, it had a profound impact on me. She spoke about child abuse, in particular child sex abuse.
One of the stories she relayed was about a newborn who, through the Family Court was granted access time to be split between mother and father, two days on, two days off. While I am all for the father having equal responsibility for the child, this kind of custody arrangement for a newborn is incredibly detrimental to the breastfeeding relationship. Hearing this brought a tear to my eye.
She also spoke about the hidden meaning in abused children’s drawings. People drawn with no arms represent their power and strength being taken away. Using lots of black, red, brown and purple are signs of anger.
Professor Briggs has a long history of advocating for the rights of the child, rather than as seems to be the case so often these days, the rights of the parent. She said that the current aim of keeping the family together is not actually based on any research. She spoke about how often policy decisions are made on the basis of finances, rather than what is actually in the best interests of the acutal people involved.
Listening to her speak galvanised me in two different directions – as a mother I wanted to run out of the lecture theatre, grab my children and never let them out of my sight but as a professional it piqued my interest in the Child Protection system.
