Bringing Home Baby!!!

[CorasMama]

Omgomgomg! They're showing a lesbian couple who is doing adoptive breastfeeding an cosleeping! They're all about listening and following his cues. Woohoo!!!

I was only watching because it's a hearing impaired mom, so close to my heart. I was expecting formula, but hey, it's adoption, so can't fault that. But this is so awesome!

Can't find the dancing banana smilie, but yayayayayay!!!

ETA: and they're CDing!

[AlwaysByMySide]

Yesterday, there was an adorable couple who was on and had triplets. They showed friends (or family, not sure which) bringing in a second fridge/freezer, because their freezer was currently full of...pumped breastmilk (that she had worked on while they were in the NICU for a month), and she needed more room to pump some more. With TRIPLETS. I was SO impressed.

[mom of B]

That is great, they have probably gotten alot of backlash for previous seasons.

[mrsfussypants]

Here's the banana!

[llamalluv]

I saw one recently (Wednesday, I think) where the couple were bfing, cding, and were planning on raising the baby vegan.

[aaronsmom]

I saw one with an african american lesbian couple who bf'ed. But the child was biologically one of the mother's. But still awesome either way! I love when they show successful bf'ing stories because 90 percent of the time the moms give up within the first few days or weeks.

[BlissfulMommy]

That's so great! Wish I'd seen it.

That show usually makes me sad because there's so much FFing and mom's that have been given bad advise. I'd love to see the show's intro change to not include giant animated bottles and somebody bottle feeding a baby.

[Awaken]

Nice to hear about some positive episodes! Or at least something different than the usual stuff they show!

[Ruthla]

Every time I hear of a "good" episode of one of these baby shows I wonder if it's an MDC mama (or MDC mamas in this case)!

[frontierpsych]

I saw that one! It was great!

Unfortunately, the one right after it was not so great. The dad said something about cleaning the baby's penis with alcohol and the mom said "No! You can't put alcohol on a raw penis, they'll be sending us BACK to the hospital!" -- so assuming they circ'ed, but I was at least glad the mom had enough common sense not to clean it with alcohol. EEK!!

[ananas]

That's awesome! I'll have to try to catch that one sometime soon.

[meganmarie]

I just saw one last week (Tivo'd, so no idea when it aired) called "Holistic Baby" where the mom and dad were both Chiropractors and they had a home waterbirth. The mom was nursing and co-sleeping (with a snuggle nest), and they actually had an overhead videocamera in the bedroom showing her nursing in bed with the baby in the middle of the night, with dad sacked out on the other side of the bed. She also took capsules that had been made from her freeze-dried placenta to help her recover from the birth. (Which is a little out-there for me, but why not?) And they were planning to bring the baby with them to their office when they went back to work, since they practice together.

I know these episodes are not the norm, but they are out there. I hardly blame the producers, they work with what they have, and the majority of women who apply must be mainstream by definition. They film whatever they see ("reality TV") and unfortunately the reality is less than 10% of births are attended by midwives, the vast majority of births are over-managed, there is a lot of misinformation on breastfeeding out there, most women are not still nursing at six weeks, and even women who are nursing may be - sadly - shy about doing it on camera.

Maybe we 'd like shows like Bringing Home Baby and Baby Story to focus on "what should be" rather than "what is". Until that happens, I don't watch except by Tivo'ing the episodes that have something in the title or episode description that makes me think it will be bearable for me to watch.

[merry-mary]

Originally Posted by meganmarie

I just saw one last week (Tivo'd, so no idea when it aired) called "Holistic Baby" where the mom and dad were both Chiropractors and they had a home waterbirth. The mom was nursing and co-sleeping (with a snuggle nest), and they actually had an overhead videocamera in the bedroom showing her nursing in bed with the baby in the middle of the night, with dad sacked out on the other side of the bed. She also took capsules that had been made from her freeze-dried placenta to help her recover from the birth. (Which is a little out-there for me, but why not?) And they were planning to bring the baby with them to their office when they went back to work, since they practice together.

I know these episodes are not the norm, but they are out there. I hardly blame the producers, they work with what they have, and the majority of women who apply must be mainstream by definition. They film whatever they see ("reality TV") and unfortunately the reality is less than 10% of births are attended by midwives, the vast majority of births are over-managed, there is a lot of misinformation on breastfeeding out there, most women are not still nursing at six weeks, and even women who are nursing may be - sadly - shy about doing it on camera.

Maybe we 'd like shows like Bringing Home Baby and Baby Story to focus on "what should be" rather than "what is". Until that happens, I don't watch except by Tivo'ing the episodes that have something in the title or episode description that makes me think it will be bearable for me to watch.

I saw this one too! It was good!

I have to say, though, as much as they irritate me, I do try to watch some of the other ones when I can. I'm a breastfeeding counselor, so I feel it's almost research for me -- to see what a lot of moms are doing in those early days, what they've been told, what they are thinking, etc. So many times I will call a newly nursing mom and she'll say things are "fine" but when I press and ask a few questions, I find out she's supplementing or has intense nipple pain or the baby is sleeping too much or something.

[meganmarie]

Originally Posted by merry-mary

I have to say, though, as much as they irritate me, I do try to watch some of the other ones when I can. I'm a breastfeeding counselor, so I feel it's almost research for me -- to see what a lot of moms are doing in those early days, what they've been told, what they are thinking, etc.

You are a saint. It's a good idea, if you can keep from doing this

and this

and this

I still need to work on my zen.

[starwishful]

I just saw a Baby Story this morning in which a mom ends up in intensive care for a few days right after bringing her baby home due to complications from both pre-e and her epidural. She tells this story when the show is back visiting her 4 weeks later. In a shot a few minutes later, she's breastfeeding her son! I was shocked! Normally on this show, that would be the part where you'd see the dad making a bottle of formula and hear "Because I was in the hospital again after my son was born, I couldn't breastfeed." This woman overcame her obstacles and stuck with it! But, of course, it's not even mentioned. You do see her breastfeeding, and it's nice that it's just shown as normal, but I think it would have actually been good for them to make a bigger deal out of it... show the viewers that some mommies do succeed at BFing, even when something unexpected happens.