Tuesday 20 November 2012

Duffed no more: Fancy a (another) spoonful of boob related guilt?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-20406743

I actually don't object to the thrust of the research behind this article and breastfeeding (when it goes well) is great and a lovely experience for mother and baby as well as all the health benefits is something of a no-brainer. Yada, yada, yada...Though for quite a lot of new mothers, it's utterly crap.  I was lucky for a bit and then I wasn't. Funnily enough though, Mini D strangely got healthier after a little formula came on board.  Also for the record, I think we've already established that I belong to the "Whatever works for you" school of parenting so be kind enough not to start wibbling on about "Breast is best". Yes, we know. However as I've said in the past, formula is not arse trimmings, brick dust and raw sewage in lard either.

HOWEVER what creates involuntary bladder frothing (and clearly not in a good way) is this:
Common reasons for stopping breastfeeding were problems with the baby rejecting the breast or not latching on properly, having painful breasts or nipples and feeling that they had 'insufficient milk'.
It's the "feeling that they had 'insufficient milk'" comment is the one that troubles me.

Sometimes it's not just a feeling. Insufficient milk is a fact. It happened to me and Mini Chunk. If I'd persisted, he'd have been Mini Twig.  The primary and most natural way to get your milk back is to spend several days doing skin-to-skin contact (which is lovely stuff but not always entirely practical) and if you're tired, depressed, achy or in big pain and with a child who is screaming their metaphorical bollocks off because they are slowing starving, being sequestered semi-naked in a theoretically 'calm' environment might actually be the thing that drives you finally and irrevocably around the fucking twist.

Being a new parent is hard enough without being encouraged into a situation that's going to send you all The Yellow Wallpaper.

Being a new parent is also hard enough without having the media telling the world that you are/you have been a shirker or a let down. Remember that this stuff is all "ideal world" and you've done your best x





Wednesday 14 November 2012

So...Mr Rhyming Slang...and your tragically ill-informed mates

The case of Savita Halappanavar has highlighted why I will never, ever stop banging on about this. Since becoming a parent, I've become actually more pro-choice than I was before. I didn't actually believe that was possible.

So....Mr Rhyming Slang....


Yes, that's you, Mr.Hunt, oh and you, Dorries, you fame-chasing-right-wing-press-baiting-blogger-harassing-half-wit, now hopefully up to your nipples in rats, spiders, centipedes and soap stars who are approaching the brick wall of the end of their careers like a stampeding bull on whizz. Oh, and you too, Cameron, Romney, Ryan, Bachman and Palin.

I hope you're feeling suitably scared by my teeny blog with a teeny audience.

Right, hat in the ring.

The stuff that goes on the wombs and love tunnels of the world (and that corner of the world that you exercise a degree of influence over) has *nothing* to do with you.

If you're going to take a role like "Secretary of State for Health", a tiny bit of medical knowledge is generally useful. Also, as a very recent parent (I'm looking at YOU, Mr Hunt), one would hope that a tiny bit of attention *might* have been paid to little things like when certain scans occurred on ye-olde-up-the-duff time line that tell you whether or not your kid is likely to, oh, live....and stuff.

What these halfwits don't seem to realise is that, if they erode the rights as they currently exist, they run the risk of ending up killing a woman because the fading heartbeat of the baby she's losing is more important. That is what happened here, all because some people believe that Sky Dad says no. They also seem to have convincingly ignored that by doing this, it's not beyond the realms of possibility that this could bite them on the arse, personally.

I like that fact that our fine and admirable medical profession in the UK (especially obstetrics and gynaecology because they are the ones I've had more to do with recently) are focused on trying to ensure the best outcomes for everybody. Delaying life saving treatment (because that's what Savita would have really been getting because that miscarriage could not have been prevented) cost a woman her life.

Not good enough, not acceptable, please let birth and pregnancy be dealt with appropriately...and political types.....shhhhh, before you make more of a fool of yourselves.



Amanda Palmer - dancing around 'til it hurts at QMU....

Bit of a cross post....

UniquelySnowflake - Amanda Palmer Giggage

I had a fabulous time and a right hoot. Everything about the wee trip was cracking and meeting up with a good mate after whoa-years was too...

Owning and wearing boots that were older than some of the people I stood next to in the queue gave me a teeny moment of pause though. Ah, what the hell, nowt wrong with being the "older folk at a gig 'Eeh, I saw the Pixies at the G-Mex in 1991 you know'" type. ;)

Thursday 8 November 2012

This will never work but here's an idea....

You know those kids that have nasty stories to tell about being in care...or the visit from the "important bloke"......or just have a painful story to tell....

You know, the girl or boy (or man or woman) be they rich, poor, ill, healthy, disadvantaged, not very bright, so brainy that grey matter has involuntary escapes from their ears from time to time because it can't cope with all the pressure of all the clever sh*te going on in there, regardless of any religious and ethnic background....they might be in pain right now...and they might be in turmoil...

Listen to them, and if they want to report whatever has happened to them to the Police, let there at least be a proper standard of care and a *real* minimum standard of investigation that goes into the accusations they make. Let them not be headed off at the pass at the front line.

I can't helping thinking that if the Justice system can guarantee this, we might actually manage to get nasty exploitative crimes against vulnerable people (regardless of age, gender and a range of other differentiating factors) treated with a true degree of seriousness, and the risk of the horrible people slipping through the net is hopefully reduced. No frothing, no hysteria about "paedos", just cold, hard, investigation to a specified standard from square one, no negotiation, no "we don't believe you because you're homeless/drug addict/teenager/sex worker/woman/gay" - Yes, we'll meet a specific standard, that's all.

And who knows, the bad guys might just be made paranoid enough to realise that it's never, ever ok....