Coco Rocha doesn't just simply stand around all day long looking pretty. The Canadian model has a mind and she spoke it after receiving a barrage of "unwanted" parenting advice on social media.
It's a sad state of affairs when a mom posts an adorable baby photo, as Rocha did, then is forced to explain - and defend and justify - the reason her infant daughter is being formula fed.
"It happens to every mom at different times," Rocha said of the fact her milk dried up.
Rocha took the high road, warning Instagram users who posted negative comments would be blocked. No such comments are visible on her posts.
"...Not that this is anyone's business - I loved breastfeeding Ioni for the first 5 months of her life and then one day my milk went dry," wrote Rocha. "She's been on formula for a few weeks now and seems to be doing just fine. In the last 4 weeks she gained another 2 pounds, grew another inch and is in the 90th percentile for her age."
She's right. It's no one's business. The only people entitled to know how much weight a baby is or isn't gaining are her parents and her pediatrician, so I wish she hadn't felt shamed into sharing this information with the masses.
As Rocha adds: "[Parenting] is not a democracy, everyone doesn't get a say."
If I had a loony for every time I had to reiterate these words... Breast is best, but bottle is also acceptable if prepared properly.
If Health Canada deems it so, then that's good enough for me - and it should be good enough for you, too.
You know that saying, "out of the mouth of babes"? Well, you won't believe the wisdom that came out of this six-year-old's mouth. After seeing her divorced parents argue, Tiana sat her mother down and pleaded for the couple to get along.
The YouTube video is so precious and jaw droppingly moving, it's no wonder it has been viewed more than 9 million times in a matter of days.
The Canadian mom, whose Facebook moniker is Cherish Sherry, couldn't help but share the footage that “brought me [to tears] and [made me] feel guilty.”
Tiana explains that she herself isn’t "trying to be mean. I just want all of us to be friends ... If I can be nice, I think all of us can be nice, too… I’m trying to do my best in my heart.”
Honestly, Disney couldn't do better than this. The first grader even coaxes her mom to “just try your best.” Isn't it the best when kids throw our own lines back at us?
It's so sad to see kids caught in the middle of conflict. But even happy couples disagree from time to time. Tiana's message is a wake up call to all parents that just because kids are young doesn't mean they don't understand.
Just because they don't take in the minutiae of what we are saying doesn't mean they don't get the nuance. They suck in all the emotion and the atmosphere we create like proverbial little sponges.
Case in point. We are trying to sell our home without much luck. My son - also six, by coincidence - penned a note of apology to our house, saying "Sorry house, no one likes you." He then kissed the window in an attempt to console the house, which presumably felt sad and unwanted. I reminded him that buildings don't have feelings, to which he gave me a 'well, duh' look and claimed he was just pretending.
Our kids are truly the best teachers. We could do with being better students.
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Behind all the photos of glowing moms with new babies pressed to their bare chests is a slew of darker images that rarely see the light of day. Then comes along Danielle Haines.
In a photo taken three days after giving birth to her baby boy, Haines puts her most raw, vulnerable self forward.
For the longest time the photo was shared only as part of a birth class being taught by the Phoenix-based student midwife. Ten months on, Haines decided to post it on her Facebook page, and the rest is viral history.
This is a picture of me 3 days postpartum. I was so raw and so open, I was a fucking mess. I loved my baby, I missed...
Posted by Danielle Haines on Saturday, September 12, 2015
“This is a picture of me 3 days postpartum," writes Haines. "I was so raw and so open, I was a fucking mess.
"I loved my baby, I missed his daddy (he went back to work that day), I was mad at my mom, my heart hurt for my brother because my mom left us and now I had a little boy that looked like him, my nipples were cracked and bleeding, my milk was almost in, my baby was getting really hungry, I was feeling sad that people kill babies, like on purpose, I had not slept since I went into labour, I didn’t know how to put my boobs away, my vagina was sore from sitting on it while nursing constantly, I was kinda losing my mind…"
Notwithstanding the above, Haines described her postpartum experience as “magical" because she and her baby were supported by a sisterhood, a mom collective who gently reminded her that they'd all been there and she would "get through it just fine too.”
Following an outpouring of shares and private messages, Haines decided to collaborate with a web designer friend, Katie DiBenedetto, to create a space for people to swap birth stories, Postpartum Confession.
“Every birth, with each baby no matter how well the birth goes or how great your pregnancy was or how prepared you feel like you are - you (and your family) are going through a huge transition,” said DeBenedetto. “You’re recovering/healing from growing and birthing a whole human. You’re going to be vulnerable."
Vulnerable is right. And sore. I wasn't prepared for the sheer extent of sore I experienced once my natural birth high wore off, and I faced the most incredible comedown. It was as if I had been preparing and cramming so hard for labour, that once the main event was over I had no idea what to do next, or how to be... Throw some haywire hormones into the mix, and I totally see my own hot mess of a self reflected back in Haines's photo.
Beautiful, yes, but utterly shell shocked.
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