Mixed Messages about Breastfeeding on Law&Order-CI

[TattoMomK]

I don't know if anyone else caught this episode last night -- I believe it was on Bravo, so I think it was a re-run, mind you I was exhausted and falling asleep as it came on...but here's the deal:

Opening Sequence -- aka "setting up the story line". . .

There are two couples and an infant and it looks like it's a dinner party. Everyone is nicely dressed. Mom is holding/nursing the baby (looks 4-5months old) and the other lady says, somewhat annoyed or disgusted "You are STILL nursing?" Mom replies, "oh yeah (something about enjoying it) but I'll switch him to formula in a few weeks..."

Lady then says -- mind you just as annoyed and disgusted: "full of sugar and strange chemicals." In regards to the formula idea. (I don't know what she expects the lady to feed the baby...)

Meanwhile dad interrupts this conversation to tell mom, in just as disgusted a tone of voice "GO WASH YOUR HANDS SO-AND-SO, DINNER IS READY." Indicating breastmilk is dirty. And she demurely says "OK!"

Next thing I know while she's scrubbing her dirty breast-milk infested hands the other lady's DH comes in and starts making out with her saying he's gotta have her now etc. So they are doing the nasty grind in the bathroom, and the other lady sneaks up to the door and hears them...

And I fell asleep...hee hee thinking as I was drifting off "I gotta ask about this on Lactivism tomorrow."

Has anyone seen this? Was it discussed here? What happened to the poor breastfed baby? Did his mom die? Did he get switched to formula???

Should I write the show's producers or writers and ask what the holy hay-stacks THAT was about? : Geesh people it's confusing, is formula good or bad, is breastmilk good, bad or dirty? I'm so confused!

Do you think a single man wrote the episode?

[anne1140]

Haven't seen that one, but I did see one once where a mom starved her baby, because she insisted on breastfeeding when she didn't have enough milk. It definitely made lactavists look bad and made it seem like formula feeding was no big deal. What a way to scare new moms, sheesh!

[littlecityfarmer]

Not to mention the Law-and-Order SVU with the homeschooling/organic eating family that obviously turned out to be paranoid and fratricidal/homocidal... The touching scene at the end between Elliot and his son featured gratuitous cookie eating. I've given up on looking for positive AP/NFL messages on Law and Order!

[fek&fuzz]

They did have an episode where a guy hid drugs in the formula can and his baby died after drinking it.

I think they just look for sensational story lines, I can't imagine looking for AP/NFL messages on any of the law and order shows.

[Ziggysmama]

I haven't seen this episode but I would like too...
Law and Order for me is pure escapism.
I think mainstream families are definatley represented in adundance on the show. Maybe they are just being "fair" by showing some chrunchy people doing bad things too lol

[annettemarie]

Mamas, if you want to discuss L&O in general, could you do it in the TV forum? The OP was asking about a specific episode in a way that pertained to Lactivism. Thanks!

[TattoMomK]

Originally Posted by beansmommy

Not to mention the Law-and-Order SVU with the homeschooling/organic eating family that obviously turned out to be paranoid and fratricidal/homocidal... The touching scene at the end between Elliot and his son featured gratuitous cookie eating. I've given up on looking for positive AP/NFL messages on Law and Order!

Yeah that was an interesting one. I just saw it recently. I kept thinking "why the heck is Olivia and Elliot so freaked out by home-schooling?" It was so strange, like the whole IDEA of home-schooling was so CRIMINAL and BIZARRE. But then they did show that one lady who home-schooled was completely "normal" and her presence pointed out that the weird-o lady in question was a bit "off" anyway.

I just couldn't get over the Olivia and Elliot acting as though home-schooling was some new, bizarre, fringe of society concept they had never heard of. Olivia's attitude was so off-base. "People can really do that? Not put their children in (gasp) school?" So many people I know home school. How did she miss this?

Weird.

The CI episode last night was bizarre because it didn't make a stand either way, it made both feeding options sound WRONG. I don't get it. I am off to scratch my head (and nurse my baby).

[sunnymw]

On another episode I saw, of SVU, it was relatively positive. Well, I guess not...

The new mom was nursing, but was addicted to oxycontin, and it caused her baby to be very sleepy and eventually die. Once she found out the drugs could hurt him, she stopped using, and Olivia and Stabler did say that "At least she was doing the best she knew how to do" for the baby (single teen mom living alone), and that she didn't know better, etc.

[TattoMomK]

Hey I have a response from the big CI forum at NBC regarding this specific episode.

Hi Tattoomom,

Welcome to the board.

The episode you described is called "On Fire" and has nothing else whatsoever to do with breastfeeding. The woman and her baby are fine. That wasn't the opening sequence but the introduction to the sad lives of the main characters just before the big to do of the story. The breastfeeding digs were the older woman being jealous of the younger woman and wanting to make her feel inferior.

The baby's mom was actually making out in the bathroom with her husband.
The woman giving her a hard time about still breastfeeding is her hubby's step mother.
Stepmom had a fling with stepson and got pregnant when he was a teenager.
He finds out the hard way that his little "brother" is actually his son and unhappiness (and arson) ensues.

Well that makes me feel better, but I suppose we'll never know if the baby was forced to wean! LOL I have to say "darn MIL's, typically undermining the breastfeeding." OK except my MIL (who is AWESOME about nursing by the way), and quite a few I heard of on here, but you all know what I mean, MIL's can be such a speed bump on the road of nursing if it strikes them, or so I have read from other posters on many a message-board. What's funny is her episode description TOTALLY makes sense for the mixed messages. She's po'd the woman is nursing, she's po'd the woman might feed formula. The nursing mom can't win. It ALL makes sense now.