Masochistic Mommy

You are about to read the story of a mother who got a shock when her baby was born with Prader Willi Syndrome. Routine ultrasounds had not detected this non-hereditary genetic condition which results from a problem with chromosome 15. The syndrome typically causes the child to suffer from low muscle tone with motor and cognitive developmental delays, short stature if not treated with growth hormone, and later, incomplete sexual development. Most children with PWS are floppy at birth with initial difficulties in feeding, but then in early childhood begin to show an insatiable appetite which can be life-threatening. Read on to discover why it IS possible to breastfeed a baby with PWS, albeit not without hardship. “Our third child was very much wanted and planned. After two boys, people would often ask if we were ‘trying for a girl’. We always replied that we just wanted a healthy baby, and when routine scans and tests showed that he (yes, another boy!) was, to their knowledge, healthy, w...

Despite what her name may imply, Joan Wolf is not a children’s literary character. Disappointedly, she is an academic of Gender Studies at Texas A&M University. Her past works include ‘Harnessing the Holocaust: The Politics of Memory in France’ and ‘Conscience at War: The Israeli Soldier as Moral Critic’, which makes her perfectly suited to critiquing breastfeeding, no? At least her identity as wannabe historian is transparent. A lot of the ‘evidence’ in this monographic rant is courtesy circa 1930. Come on, even the title of this book is lazy and out of date. No one is asking that question anymore Wolf, get with the program! Is Breast Best? No! Breast is normal . Alternatives to the breast are deviations from the norm. Look at it this way, ‘Breast is Best’ is like saying drinking a glass of water through your mouth is best, over funnelling it into your belly button. A normal physiological act cannot be ‘best’ - it’s just freekin’ normal. Jeeez. I flick the face of anyone that clai...

If a health professional administered a drug to your child that later left them with chronic health problems, they would be guilty of medical negligence. They may very well lose their job over it, and rightly so. However, this degree of justice is routinely denied to the most vulnerable of patients. Indeed, there is a loophole in patient protection, whereby health professionals can administer medication without consent and against the patient’s best interests. Yup, I’m talking about formula. This is the heartbreaking story of baby Hermione who, when born prematurely, was given formula against her mother’s express wishes. She later went on to become very ill indeed. “In March 2012 I gave birth to my daughter, Hermione, four weeks early and weighing 4lb and 8oz.  I had planned a home birth and to breastfeed immediately but as my waters broke at 36 weeks I was induced in hospital. It was a fast labour and I was very sleepy and nauseous throughout. Separation As Hermione was early and ...

The Mommy Wars – the mythical battle to ascertain who has the biggest parenting-penis. It’s bloody, it’s gory, and it features a hella lot of faulty logic. Let's take a look at the 15 most common badly-thought-out tactics that mothers resort to in their fight for maternal supremacy. Trick #1 Ad hominem move This Latin phrase means ‘to the person’. It involves shifting attention from the point in question to some non-relevant aspect of the person making it. A common flavour of this approach is to question the speaker’s mental health. Attacking the character of the person with whom you are arguing rather than finding fault with his or her argument is a technique of rhetoric. As a debating strategy it is an epic fail because discrediting the source of the argument usually leaves the argument itself intact. Trick #2 Anecdotes Ahhhh the humble anecdote. The temptation to over-generalize on the basis of a potentially misleading particular experience seems to be irresistible in the Mommy ...

What does it take to be a born-again breastfeeder? In a word – courage! It takes courage to accept that you could have done better, courage to try again, and courage to face unpleasant memories and painful truths. Success is the award for those willing to rewrite their story. Yet success, as sweet as it tastes, is not without its paradoxes. Success can birth pride and a sense of fulfilment, and at the same time, it can reopen old wounds, triggering feelings of guilt and regret. Here is one mother’s emotional journey of failing to breastfeed her daughter, and then succeeding to breastfeed her son. “I am part of a breastfeeding family. My mom fed me till I was 18months. My cousins all were breastfed to at least this age. My mom was an LLL member and she had all her friends breastfeeding. Her best friend is an IBCLC. Breastfeeding is my norm. I was raised with it. I didn’t think there was any other option. When I fell pregnant with my daughter I was absolutely confident that I would breas...