Masochistic Mommy

Pregnancy takes its toll on most mothers – piles, heartburn, water retention, backache – all are par for the course. What you don't expect however, is for pregnancy to deteriorate your bones leaving you so chronically immobile that when your baby arrives, you can’t even carry him. That’s what happened to this mother. Diagnosed with Transient Osteoporosis of the Hip (TOH) during pregnancy, she clung to hopes of breastfeeding despite her health - quite literally - crumbling away. Read on to discover how she coped with the pain, the frustration, and the logistics of nursing a baby through debilitating disease. “Up until 29 weeks my pregnancy progressed without problem, I had mild morning sickness but felt full of energy along the way – even running a marathon at 10 weeks! The pain begins My hips started to hurt so I stopped running and began walking instead for a week or so, until even this became too painful. Hip pain is common during pregnancy but the type of pain I felt, right in t...

This is the fifth (fifth!) post in my quest to expose as many anti-breastfeeding books as my cornea can withstand. To resist sounding like broken vinyl, I’ll refrain from a lengthy intro, you should know the gist by now. Suffice to say, in this series we look at some potentially-upsetting, probably-litigious and unapologetically harsh treatments of breastfeeding found in mainstream parenting books. This fifth-installment is dedicated entirely to a book written by celebrity nanny, Jo Frost. I’ve got my lawyer-retardant panties on, so let’s begin. Jo Frost’s Confident Baby Care Jo Frost When a ‘TV nanny’ writes a parenting book, those with common sense shudder. They are fully aware that the lower bulk of the population (I’m not saying they’re ‘chavs’, well okay I am) that worship at the altar of celebrity will view its pages as gospel. In this book, Jo Frost is able to capitalise on her ‘celebrity’ status (yes I use the label loosely, but still...) to write any flavour of balls imaginabl...

Myth: switching from breastfeeding to bottle-feeding will solve reflux. Fact: if you have a baby with reflux, it is still possible to breastfeed, indeed, it is even more important that you breastfeed! A baby with reflux is prone to gastrointestinal problems and because breast milk is designed for human babies and so easily digested, it is the perfect food for a reflux baby. In fact, due to babies’ inability to control the flow of milk from artificial nipples, there is an increased risk that reflux will be worsened with bottle feeding. You are about to read the story of a mother whose baby displayed reflux symptoms from the very start of life. Here, she shares the struggles of public breastfeeding, ambivalent medical professionals, and the helplessness of watching one's baby in chronic pain. She also reveals easy tricks she formulated to ease her baby’s discomfort. “Neve was a 'sicky' baby from the beginning. She also cried a lot for no obvious reason.  At just a few days ol...

If you thought I’d stop at a trilogy – you were sadly mistaken, my friend. Alas, the bookstores and libraries of the world are shamelessly marinating in books that, by no stretch of the imagination, can be deemed to spit on the name of breastfeeding. It’s my mission to expose them one-by-one, even if it means writing these posts into old age. A few disclaimers before we begin: This post will be depressing at times. It will stretch the boundaries of belief. It will contain swearing. It will showcase jaw-dropping evidence of ass-hattery. It will make you fear for humanity and want to live with wolves. On that note, let’s begin! You’re the Daddy: The ultimate guide to being a new dad for blokes . Stephen Giles This book is written for dads, by a dad. Women are not the target here. Yet dads have an important role to play in facilitating breastfeeding, which makes this book even more insidious with its anti-breastfeeding mansplaining marathon. Before I leap into the bog of despair, I conced...