Comment of the week
Published:
August 30, 2014 at 10:06am
This came in beneath my post about the government’s plans to ban advertising of infant formula milk:
Yesterday I accompanied a grieving family to the mortuary at Mater Dei Hospital to pick up a stillborn baby for burial.
I was shocked to note that the tag showing the child’s details and pinned to his clothing was emblazoned with – of all things – the phrase “Breast milk is best.”
The sheer insensitivity of the whole thing was breathtaking. I wanted to tear off that tag and shout “F&ck you, you callous bastards!”
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http://www.independent.com.mt/articles/2014-08-30/news/overcrowding-at-mater-deihospital-reachingunprecedented-levels-6393135104/
Fearne is so taken with breast milk that he has forgotten all the promises he made before the election.
He is as useful as tits on a bull.
Mhux kullhadd ikun jista jaghmel breastfeeding. B’daqsxejn stress zejjed malajr jaffettwa l-breastfeed. Allura mhux fair li tigi pinguta qisu xi att hazin fuq it tarbija ghax taghti formula milk.
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20140829/local/the-mystery-of-vallettas-three-legged-horse.533625
Why everything has to be explained along officious description is beyond philologic. Or maybe Times of Malta has taken it on herself to coax this nation into some form of spirit following the mess instigated.
‘It’s V18 therefore good’. How to belittle an artist, that the chattering watercolourists not embarrass their caste.
The sense of place is what’s causing a riot in every artist’s soul. Do NOT remove those pieces, force the art down people’s throats.
It’s what happens when quality cannot be discriminated. Times of Malta obliged to ‘explain’ after the piece below buried under Taghna Lkoll’s hate.
Just try to bear the neverending stream of comments, an orchestra of barks, rasps and farts.
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20140829/local/vallettas-latest-additions.533598
“Why everything has to be explained along officious description is beyond philologic.”
Which is why you are genius. You understood the entire problem.
To compound the provincial idiocy, they had to have the name in Maltese. “Zieme”.
V18 sucks. That’s official. It’s boring, straitjacketed, welded onto an official framework that makes civil servants of artists. They love it, because it gives them the Maltese Dream – it gives them security. But it’s not European culture. And to us on the outside, it’s boring.
More statwetti fil-vetrina.
Insensitivity was always one of the hallmarks of Labour governments. In March of 1984 they were wrapping newborn babies in sheets of cotton wool because they did not have enough nappies with the risk of the babies putting tufts of cotton in their mouths.
Also they were putting at risk mothers who were in Labour but did not arrive at the ward with a letter from the minister. How do I know this? Because my wife and I experienced it, and to Edwin Grech’s credit, he was so furious when he saw my wife’s condition because she was being left uncared for that he threatened to fire all the staff if such a thing happened again.
Insensitivity does not have to do with a government but with staff. I had a child who passed away after two months during a Nationalist government and the government had nothing to do with the insensitivity.
When she was born, I waited outside the breast feeding clinic waiting to be directed on what to do to provide breast milk for her, because there is a stress on breast milk for NPICU babies.
Nobody bothered to suggest that I should rather not go there but have a one-to-one with the midwife. The pain of seeing happy mothers was excruciating. I had to take a photo and sit down and try and stimulate my instinct. The mothers looked scornfully at me as though I was some kind of freak.
Midwives have been given way too much power, yet there is no study that shows how many mothers who do not cope with this insistence of breast feeding fall into a depression.
I was told when to breast feed, but when my infant daughter was at the end of her life nobody bothered to tell me to stop expressing, only nature did. And there I was rocking her to her passage out of life with ice packs on my breasts and swallowing Panadols.
I then asked to give the 10 litres I had expressed to a milk bank, and I was told there was none. So I threw a small jar when my child was interred and had to find a way to reconcile with throwing away milk, which was part of my earthly bond with her. It is still painful to remember all this.
Authorities should ideally stop giving midwives too much power; they are only making mothers go on guilt trips. The second time round, I spent three months in hospital and so had time to think and observe. The midwife’s expertise is based on just watching the mother and baby and if they think the baby is taking milk they write ‘vigorous sucking’. But my child was not drinking. She was irritable after two forced breast-feeds and I expressed to see if there was any milk and there was none.
Once I opted out of not letting my daughter starve, the midwife’s attitude was “Din mhux qed ittija breast!” They ignored me did not help and made a fuss when I told them the plug of the bottle warmer was to high for me to stretch out to switch on because of my stitches.
That is the service one gets both with a C-section and formula milk. Chris Fearne had better not give them more power, because no scientific proof can back up their theories, and women should be free to do what is best for their children.
This is exactly what my wife passed through. She had to have a C-section and could not produce enough milk no matter how hard she tried.
The midwives ignored her and did not help her at all but tried to give her a guilt complex all the time.
Someone should really have a chat with these midwives. They are there to help the mother and baby not to play doctor and meddle with vulnerable persons’ feelings.
Could the mothers provide themselves the nappies instead of having their babies wrapped in cotton wool?
Who is the bastard who attached a tag like that to a still born baby? Could a still born drink, suckle or do anything else? Unfortunately not.
Getting sick and tired of this ‘breast milk is best’ campaign. Expecting mothers need to be told that the reality of it all is that many boxes need to be ticked for a successful breast feeding experience.
And if this doesn’t happen, well it’s certainly not the end of the world, and, more importantly, doesn’t give the mother ‘loser’ status. Formula milk is just as good.
Some babies are fine with what the human body provides, others won’t latch, some require shields, others even will need frequent feeds which is when formula milk comes to the rescue if the natural supply is not enough.
Some newborns won’t even want to feed right after birth and require stomach washouts — yet some midwives forcefully put the baby to the mother’s breast unknowingly creating further stress on both mother and baby.
Then there’s the breast pump. No comment there!
There isn’t a simple formula which says this or that is right. It’s a learning fricking process.
Just let new mothers enjoy motherhood. Breast milk, formula milk, whatever makes both mum and baby happy will do.
There, rant over.
Spicca z-zmien tal-buzullotti, u beda zmien tal-wahx, thrillers tal-biza.
Kieku ma nafux f’liema zminijiet qed nghixu, kont nghid: Possibbli hawn min hu daqshekk insensittiv?
Tmexxija hamalla b’operat ghall-hamalli. Kaz iehor fis-sensiela tas-“signs of the times”.
Fl-ahhar mill-ahhar it-torri ta’ Babel irid jaqa’.
I know of a young mother who thought that she was breastfeeding her baby only to find out that the baby was actually undernourished.
The baby’s health improved when she began giving the baby bottles.
Breast feeding may be good but to describe it as some panacea is irresponsible considering that it may lead to undernourishment-related diseases which may be life-long.
Mothers should be told of these risks.
One has to consider that bottle milk never killed anyone.
I believe that breast milk is the best for both mother and baby. Not all mothers want to breast feed their baby, and they have every right to choose what they think is best for their offspring.
Putting pressure on the new mother may cause undesired effects. I know one mum who went into a depression as she thought herself a failure because she could not breastfeed for many reasons.
Midwives and doctors cannot exert too much pressure because new mothers are vulnerable and it is their sacrosanct right to choose the method of feeding.
Am I understanding correctly, are dead women going to have this ad pinned to their nipples from now on?
So why is the government offering free child care when they expect mothers to breastfeed their babies till they’re toddlers? With a child who is dependent on breastfeeding, the mother can’t go to work so doesn’t need child care.
F**k off Fearne and stop behaving like a petty fundamentalist imam.