OK, so this isn't about caesarians, but it is about babies. I received an email today from babycenter.com. The subject: 5 bizarre baby behaviours.
I must admit that my curiosity was peaked. While my 9 month old ds does things that I wouldn't expect a 10 year old to do, I take his behaviour in stride - assuming, for the most part, that it is developmental.
So, what did BabyCenter have to say about these "bizarre baby behaviours"? The one that stood out to me was head-banging. I thought, why the heck are they talking about this? Head-banging is something you saw neglected orphans in Romania doing because they were always left alone in their cribs.
Why would western children head-bang (something the article suggests 20% of children do)? Then it dawned on me. Ferber and cohorts. These babies who head-bang? They usually do it in their cribs "to comfort themselves", says the article. All these babies have without a doubt been "sleep trained" by one of the so-called experts. What are they experts in? Society and media sponsored child abuse.
Newsflash: BABIES SHOULDN'T HAVE TO RESORT TO HEAD-BANGING FOR COMFORT! That's why we became parents. If we didn't want the job of comforting baby, there are plenty of parents out there who would love to adopt and comfort your child.
When will we all wake up form this surreal existence we call Modern Society where it's considered best for a mom to be sliced open to deliver her baby and for that baby then to be placed in a crib to cry himself to sleep?
Stop the train, I want off.
Traditional birth is under siege. The rate of caesarean section is climbing steadily. It's time to act. What will you do? Why does it matter? It matters because "birth is more than just about making babies - it's about making mothers, too." - unknown ICANer
What Can You Do?
- Become a doula
- Join ICAN (International Cesarean Awareness Network)
- Search PubMed for the latest published research
- Surf the websites in the "Links" section
- Write a letter to: the editor of your local paper, your midwife, your OB, a pregnant friend or family member
Recommended Reading
- Thinking Woman's Guide to a Better Birth by Henci Goer
3 comments:
OK, I'm going to take an educated guess that you have no experience with head banging and a baby/toddler (in my experience it's more at the age I would consider a toddler). And no I didn't read the article. I think you're make a lot of assumptions in your article. The head banging that I am familiar with happens primarly with toddler (mostly boys) doing it when they get angry and frustrated. Kind of their version of tantrum in many ways, but definetly repeated head banging. In the cases I'm familiar with it is NOT happening when they are left alone in their cribs (if they even have cribs) and while some are still nursing others have already self weaned. As usual things are not quite as simple as it seems they should be. I couldn't let this assumption go...I know time after time my own strong reactions to something similar have had to be reexamined when my own experiences widen a bit.
keep writing and challenging assumptions in all areas. :-)
Thanks, Tami. The article specifically references babies and cribs, though. It even suggests that if the noise is bothersome, the parent should move the crib away from the wall. There was no significant mention of this being toddlers.
Wow. Now that is food for thought if ever anything was.
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