>Date: Wed, 25 Jan 2006 14:34:00 -0500
>From: Judy Campbell <[log in to unmask]>
>Subject: pampering
>When parents learn childbirth education from tv shows, and parenting,
>feeding etc from ads, and the
>birthplace is like a hotel, the whole thing adds up to crazy expectations
>that are so far off from reality, and so little empowerment, why would
>>anyone exclusively breastfeed????
ooooooooooohhhhhhhhh yeah, I have unfortunately been watching some bad TV in
these past couple weeks "off" from work, like A Baby Story and Bringing Home
Baby on The Learning Channel. Don't ask why, I'm getting ready to have #3!
plus I'm emotional and cry when the baby is born (and at most of the
commercials for dog food and household cleaning products too...except for
the Carnation Good Start one, for that one I throw the remote control at the
TV), I push when they push- bad for preterm labor ha ha...but mostly I rant
and fuss in disgust by what people must think is "normal" for childbirth and
feeding. I keep asking myself "why am I watching this crap?" Labor is
absolutely miserable until the epidural, everything is wonderful after
epidural, episiotomies and lying flat on your back pushing are normal,
vacuums are normal, the mom gets to view the "dirty" baby on a towel on her
gown on her chest for a second before he's whisked off to the warmer and
nursery for a few hours, pacifiers and bottle feeding are the
norm....parents say things like "I really like my sleep, my sleep at night
is really important to me, I hope (baby) learns that" and "Getting her on a
feeding schedule is really important to us"....a mom ignores her baby's
feeding cues (dad actually takes the screaming baby out for a long walk
around the block instead) until exactly 2pm to feed, then mom asks "what
time is it?" FOUR times during the first breast and then switches at exactly
2:20 even though the baby was settled in at a nice feeding....a dad says "I
really have mixed feelings about her (wife) breastfeeding," and describes
how he "wants to be involved" and how hard it is that he just gives the baby
to mom when he's crying and she nurses him and she's the only one who can
make him better.... even a mom whose husband is in the service deployed in
Cuba when she SROMs 3 weeks early and he's rushing to get there for the
delivery, the doc Pits the woman and says she'll "be happy with a cm an
hour" instead of letting her progress slowly and naturally and hopefully her
husband will arrive in time (he doesn't... then baby was in NICU for 8
days)....on and on...
forgive my ranting and probably getting off-topic, it's like when I read
Babywise, cussing and highlighting as I went, and my husband asked me why I
kept reading it if it made me so angry, I told him I have to know what I'm
up against ahead of time. it's sad to see what people "learn" from TV and
books. We've checked out alot of different prenatal books from the library
for our sons to see the illustrations of 'how big the baby is now' and 'what
he looks this week,' and some are downright awful in what they describe to
expect in childbirth and postpartum (am I allowed to name them? the one by a
pediatrician that says newborns won't be allowed to eat for 4 hours after
birth, they'll be in the nursery and get a bottle of water first, etc)
so now it's time for some *reality* TV, my 5 and 2 year old sons and I
are going to watch the videos of their births for the hundredth time (with
unmedicated very vocal mommy and her vagina, and then read Breasts by
Genichiro Yagyu for the hundredth time today and enjoy A Child is Born.
thanks for giving me a place to vent!
Vicki Hayes RN IBCLC, Lake Stevens WA (who is going to "just say no" to
bad TV, no matter how bad bedrest gets! ha ha, and whose 5-year-old Sean
offered to let me take his personalized *white* bathtowel to the hospital
"to wrap baby Lachlan in, I don't mind if he gets it bloody" --and his
dinosaur pillowcase, "I don't mind if you or Lachlan throw up on it.")
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