Law & Order 11/30, may be a rerun

[momuveight2B]

I was watching an episode of Law & Order last night. This may have been a rerun since I am not real current on tv shows but the story was about a mom with four young children, PPD, an extremely controlling husband and she homeschooled without any friends or family support. She makes a pipe bomb and blows up her car with the kids inside of it so they could all go to heaven together (without dh) and have a chance at happiness. She and oldest ds about age six end up in the hospital while the three younger children all die.

So the detectives are at the hospital and ask a nurse in the hall, "Is that a breastpump for PPD mom?". Nurse replies, "Yes, can you believe the poor thing was still nursing her three year old!"

It seems the whole thing was a spoof on the Andrea Yates case.

[Benji'sMom]

That one's new I think.

They did a different one years back where a BF mom let her child starve because she was having some kind of BF issue and her LC made her feel too intimidated and guilty to use formula, so she just let the baby starve to death. Anyway, they charged the mom with negligent homicide or something. The LC was on the witness stand looking like a total zealot. Not sure if the mom had the baby on a schedule or didn't know that newborns typically nurse ALL THE TIME or what. It wasn't clear what the problem was because it was a total anti-Lactavism show.

[momuveight2B]

There was some shocked dialogue leading into it about if mom was still lactating since youngest baby was 18 months, then after the three year old comment they asked if she had been feeding the 18 month old and the answer was no because she was too shaky because of the PPD.

[sapphire_chan]

Originally Posted by momuveight2B

I was watching an episode of Law & Order last night. This may have been a rerun since I am not real current on tv shows but the story was about a mom with four young children, PPD, an extremely controlling husband
It seems the whole thing was a spoof on the Andrea Yates case.

Which makes it all the more annoying that they'd focus on how "she's nursing a 3-year old" and made it sound like the PPD was from extended breastfeeding or something. Thank goodness for a dramatization of the Yates case that actually puts blame on the husband, but then they go and screw it up by bringing breastfeeding into it.

[forshure]

I just can't watch that show anymore. It's always been somewhat reactionary, but, lately, it seems like the accused shouldn't be allowed a trial at ALL! If the police think you're guilty, you must be guilty. And, if anyone is ever found non-guilty, it's because of some activist judge or a cunning lawyer who finds a "loophole" like the police not having a warrant or post-partum psychosis. Plus, doesn't it always seems like the graduate student did it? Since when did grad students become the go-to bad guys on crime dramas?

Anyway, back to our regularly scheduled lactivism...:

Mother's Milk: Breastfeeding Controversies in American Culture devotes its entire first chapter to analyzing the Tabitha Walrond case. That was the "ripped from the headlines" story that found its way onto L&O as well as ER and Chicago Hope. It's a really tragic story actually; a first-time mom was trying to BFAR with no support, no insurance, and no well baby care for her infant. But it was used on these shows---and in the mainstream media---to demonize breastfeeding advocates, lactation consultants, and Baby Friendly Hospitals and to promote the idea that the majority of women don't have enough milk.

Mother's Milk is worth checking out for that first chapter alone. A tough read but a great book...

[siobhang]

it is a rerun, I saw it a few years ago.

Yeah. All I can say is, Yeah.

[BelgianSheepDog]

Yeah this is a rerun, I saw it before we completely ditched the TV last year.

And the graduate student did it!