Unprofessional Parenting

A 26 year old mother of a six week old infant was arrested and charged with child neglect in North Dakota for allegedly breastfeeding her baby while intoxicated.

Police were responding to a domestic disturbance call at the home when they witnessed the “very intoxicated” woman beginning to breastfeed the infant. Since alcohol is transferred to breast milk the officers arrested the woman and took the baby to the hospital for observation. The full report with mug shot can be found here.

This one just makes me shake my head. Stupid, stupid, stupid. Are we to assume she had done this before? Probably. Do we then think nine months of pregnancy went by without her drinking then as well? Who knows - in any case all I can think is what a moron this woman must be.

She is currently resting comfortably in jail and charged with felony child neglect.

For some reason I couldn’t post both “Geraldo is a jerk” clips in one message. Here is the “interview” with Ronald Cummings that Geraldo says “wasn’t pretty.” Geraldo is such a schmuck.

Geraldo scored himself two interviews recently - one with the mother of missing girl Haleigh Cummings and another confrontation with Ronald Cummings, Haleigh’s dad. In the first Haleigh’s mother accuses Ronald Cummings of being abusive to her and “possibly” to Haleigh. Feighning sympathy, Geraldo elicits stories that on the surface appear to be totally unsubstantiated rumors. Throughout the piece he never asks the most obvious question - “If you thought Ronald was potentially abusive then why would you let Haleigh live with him?
The second “interview” is Geraldo’s confrontation with Ronald Cummings who denies all the allegations. This is social vulturism at its best. Geraldo swoops in on the pretense of helping find the little girl and digs up as much dirt as he can on the family members. I don’t intent to defend Ronald Cummings here (who I know absolutely nothing about) but is this necessary or even helpful in the search to find Haleigh?

Watching these clips made me want to vomit. I guess you can take the host out of the talk show but you can’t take the sleazy and offensive rating hound out of the host.

I’ve been loosely following this so I thought I’d post the recent news. Three court judges ruled today against parents who wanted vaccine makers held liable for the possibility that the vaccines cause autism. Several studies have recently been published that support the decision but this is the first round of court cases to dismiss the possibility of a link between the MMR (Measles, Mumps & Rubella) vaccine and the development of autism.

As the video notes, there are still a few cases open that argue that other vaccines or ingredients in vaccines might lead to autism. The MMR connection though has been seen as the strongest case so far and three judges have just dismissed the connection in three separate cases.

Topping the weird parenting news front today, the father who named his son Adolf Hitler Campbell says his children were wrongfully removed from their home by child welfare services.  Heath Campbell made news a few weeks ago when a bakery in New Jersey refused to make a cake for little Adolf’s birthday because of the boy’s name.  Shorty after that the son and his two siblings were removed from their home by child welfare workers.

Welfare services have not commented on why the kids were removed citing privacy concerns about the case. Their father says his daughter, JoyceLynn Aryan Nation Campbell, was sick and in a dirty diaper during their last granted visitation.

Early in the story the child welfare agency did say that a bad name alone isn’t grounds for removal from the home. It raises some concerns, however, about the degree to which these parents have considered the best interest of the kids when giving them names like “Adolf Hitler” and “Aryan Nation”. In my book that is child abuse. I don’t want to step on anyone’s freedom to give kids stupid names but seriously - consider the major impact these names will have on their ability to go to school, get married, or gain employment. For now the kids remain with family services until further hearings on the case.

I was surprised to see the headline this morning that mother who recently gave birth to octuplets already has six kids living at home. On a basic level I can’t even imagine the logistics of having octuplets - let alone six additional children. The MSNBC report (see video below) points to a much more complicated ethical dilemma about the propriety of giving fertility assistance to parents who already have multiple children.

Once the mother realized she was pregnant with eight more kids her only options were to selectively abort or to maintain the pregnancy. I understand the inability to selectively abort but I think the real question is regarding what happened before she became pregnant.

We don’t know much about the mom (and nothing about the father although it seems that he is not involved) but there is reason to question the rationality of undergoing In Vitro fertilization when you already have six children living at home.  At the very least it may be irresponsible and at worst potentially insane.

Here is the video. I’ll be interested to see reactions to this one.

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Since I live in California I wasn’t aware that midwives and home births are not legal in every state. With the incoming Obama administration and expected changes to the health care system those who advocate home births are seeking legislation in many states to legalize the position of Certified Professional Midwives (CPM) for home birth.

The main argument in this particular article  is that a home birth attended by a CPM is a good option for those with low risk pregnancies to reduce medical costs and deliver in a more familiar environment. Many medical boards and institutions still resist the practice as potentially unsafe as labor and delivery complications can develop quickly.

I am not particularly opposed to home birth for those who want this option. It does seem however, that making the case that it is a good choice because it is “less expensive” is a terrible argument. Having a home birth is a decision that should be made based on the values, comfort and safety of the parents and baby. Economics should not be a deciding factor. It may be a plus for those who are already committed to the idea but the thought that someone might choose a home birth primarily to save a buck is a very scary prospect.

A new study released finds that the risk of complications from a c-section are dramatically reduced if the baby is delivered no earlier than 39 weeks gestation.  The full article can be found here but the summary is that even the few days of development between 38 1/2 and 39 weeks make a difference for the health of the baby.

The most complications in babies born via c-section prior to 39 weeks were due to breathing and lung development problems. Here are the statistics: 15% born at 37 weeks had complications, 11% born at 38 weeks had complications, and 8% had complications at 39 weeks.

This is surprising since c-sections are becoming more common for a variety of reasons and are typically scheduled before 39 weeks. My upcoming c-section is schedule at 38.5 weeks (see my previous post for more on my irritation about this) but as I mentioned before I was not given much of an option about the date. I did request that it be a few days later which would have put me at 39 weeks but my doctor’s office was adimate about their schedule so sometimes I guess you have to bite the bullet.

As a mom who is expecting a new addition in February this scares me! In California a 14 pound baby was born shortly before Christmas. The parents say they were surprised (their first child weighed in at a barely comparable 10 pounds) but everything looks healthy. The baby is one of the largest to be born in Orange County records.

The answer to the question of the hour is yes - this baby was born via c-section. I can’t even imagine a 14 pound newborn. No new born clothes required for this young man!  I would have personally liked a little more information from the doctors about this. The video gives a great look at him but is a little short on the technicalities of the giant arrival.

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Baby sign language has been making news for a while now. Here is an interesting video link to a news broadcast about a pre-school that is teaching baby sign language as a part of their curriculum. Proponents suggest that teaching babies sign language leads to earlier communication with parents as well as increased language skills overall. Critics say that it might delay the ability to actually learn to speak since the kids will rely on signing and won’t be pressured to learn to vocalize wants and needs.

It’s an interesting topic either way. I wasn’t opposed to teaching my son some signs but he started speaking very early so it didn’t seem necessary for communication at that point. I have friends who have had varying degrees of success with it though so it is still intriguing to me as a possibility with young children. If you child is going to be in daycare anyway it might be worth while to pick one with a curriculum that teaches signing. Check out the video and see whether or not you agree.