Apparently Jessica Alba has decided she couldn't be bothered with breast feeding. Normally I wouldn't care about writing about it, but didn't she make a big deal while she was pregnant about how she was going to spend time with the baby and was looking forward to breast feeding and that her career was going to come second, and blah, blah, blah. Well I guess that promise lasted just as long as it took for the ink to dry in whatever magazine it was printed in.
Since giving birth, the actress has done her very best to lose as much weight as possible, as quickly as possible to get back to work. She has also been enjoying getting her drink on. Most recently at the DNC in Denver she enjoyed the special Svedka martini so much that she had several. I guess someone at the convention was just as concerned as I am about a breast feeding mom getting hammered on vodka martinis, but according to my spy, Jessica was said to have muttered something like, "breast feeding just isn't my thing."
Hey, it isn't for a lot of women, and I don't have a problem with that. I do have a problem though when you make yourself out to be some kind of saint and that you are telling everyone while you are pregnant how it is the right thing to do and she can't wait to do it, and it's part of being a mother. Then, right after the birth, you leave the hospital, collect your baby picture check from the tabloids, drop off the kid with a nanny and then head off drinking and getting back on with your life.
ACTUALLY, I do believe she was pretty open about her breastfeeding anxiety. Maybe she did breastfeed for a period of time, and maybe she still is breastfeeding now. Simply because she's been out in public (gasp!) or is drinking.
ReplyDeleteoops, there was an end to that sentence-
ReplyDeleteSimply because she's been out in public (gasp!) or is drinking doesn't mean she is no longer breastfeeding.
I think she is funny. Not Funny HAHA, but more like who are you again funny. Kinda like how Jennifer Aniston is good for a giggle from me every time I see how her "friends or sources" say she is over Brad and soooo in love.
ReplyDeleteBoy, she looks THRILLED to be there.
ReplyDeleteShe's probably one of those girls who thinks it's disgusting and that it will ruin her breasts.
ReplyDelete(which is total horseshit).
It is time-consuming and inconvenient. BUT SO IS BEING A MOTHER.
She makes me sick. Her and the rest of those high-maintenance bimbos.
OK, since I work with postpartum moms and babies, I can tell you that a lot of women who have every intention of breastfeeding end up having difficulties that end their breastfeeding experience too early. It is very frustrating to watch a new mom try over and over again only to learn that she will be unable to breastfeed. There are many reasons why breastfeeding difficulties occur and some have nothing to do with the mother. There may be factors that we don't know about in this case: tight frenulum, insufficient or low milk production, plugged milk ducts, mastitis, poor latching, jaundice, etc. Maybe she tried and gave up because it was too hard or not possible at all. Of course she could be uninterested after all, but I think we should give this one the benefit of the doubt.
ReplyDeleteAs fun and easy as it is to rag on this woman, as everyone seems to think she's a huge bitch, I have to let her off the hook for this one.
ReplyDeleteMy brother & his wife just had their first baby (Yay Jake!He's the love of my life and I hate babies!) and she has been breastfeeding (he's now 6 months). Seeing how absolutely miserable she was, getting up every 2 hours to feed him and all the other miserable crap that comes with it, I kept saying it's okay, you can stop, look how miserable you are, just put him on formula. But she stuck with it b/c she's crazy. I'm going to go with Alba tried it for a bit and was just way too miserable. She's only human. There's no rule that says if you don't breastfeed you're not a good mom.
damn, I read the wrong rulebook again!
ReplyDeleteShe's such a piece of work. I mean that in 2 ways-awesome body, crappy personality.
ReplyDeleteYeah I have to agree with everyone else on this...I have several friends who have been unable to breastfeed for various reasons. And they are all made to feel like something is wrong with them, like they're not womanly enough or not good mothers.
ReplyDeleteI don't like Jessica Alba for one bit, but I don't think she's necessarily doing anyhting wrong in this case. Hopefully one day she'll also realize that "acting isn't really her thing", and quit.
can't the jessicas go away? they bore me.
ReplyDeleteI breast-fed all 3 of my children for over a year each. The bitch is just LAZY! That does not equate to a good parent. This is also the ditz that said she's be fluent in Spanish before the kid was born - seen her in a Novella lately?
ReplyDeleteCall a lazy hypocrite a lazy hypocrite. Maybe some nasty attention to the crap she's said and isn't living up to will make her either shut up, go away, or pay more attention to not trashing women who do something she doesn't like (even though she does it her damn self). Cry me a freakin' river, the spoiled shit could even hire a wet nurse or go to La Leche League though I don't think she's bright enough to know what it means, or what they do.
I breast fed each of my daughters - but not for long - it was just something I never felt comfortable or natural doing. Two women I admire a lot for their parenting skills never breast fed their kids - it in no way, shape or form makes them lazy or bad parents. It's a personal choice.
ReplyDeleteI find Jessica really, really annoying - but it's still her choice.
breastfeeding doesn't mean you never go anywhere and if you do breastfeed you lose weight a lot faster. she could be breastfeeding.
ReplyDeletegotta love this. a man who knows nothing about breast feeding posts that he doesn't think alba is breast feeding so now we have people calling her a lazy bitch. women are their own worst enemies.
ReplyDeleteThis just prooves how immature some mothers are. I had tons of ideas about having babies and being a mom before I had two of my own. The difference between me and jessica? My thoughts aren't printed or repeated to all the world. The first thing I learned as a new mom was to never say anything definitivly. Chances are you'll end up doing the opposite of what you think you'll do.
ReplyDeletewell isn't that ironic.
ReplyDeletego smoke a joint ya dope.
ReplyDeleteI for one think women are criticized when they are mothers -- for not breastfeeding, or not doing it long enough or for doing it too long.
ReplyDeleteKatie Holmes has been criticized for allowing Suri to continue having a bottle.
Please stop the criticism, even if these actresses are not your favorite people!
bravo grace! i can't stand alba, but please. enty doesn't know about breast feeding, that's obvious from his comments. i looked at her pic and it looks like she layered, a smart move for nursing moms. and like someone else said, some moms try to nurse and can't. not enough milk, too painful, wrong schedule.
ReplyDeleteIf I ever have another kid I won't put it on my tit. I will just pump so that everybody can feed instead of just me.
ReplyDeleteI'm a fan of Alba's, so whatever, dismiss me. But look at those pictures from the ALMA awards. She's clearly still breastfeeding and that was only 2 weeks ago. She said straight up that breastfeeding helped her lose the first part of those 25 lbs. I don't think she's stopped breastfeeding because she takes one night off to pump and dump. If this item is even true.
ReplyDeleteMaybe the "spy" mixed her up with Jennifer Lopez who said straight up she wasn't going to breastfeed and didn't. So she and Marc could both share in caring for their twins.
Seems to me if as many women had trouble breastfeeding back in the day, the human race would have died out.
ReplyDeleteIt's an "option" to breastfeed nowadays. Throughout most of human history, it was a given and a necessity.
ayesha, no, not everyone had trouble breastfeeding, but you do know there were wet nurses back in the day, don't you?
ReplyDeleteMy mother was a hippie midwife/childbirth coach/La Leche League instructor/breastfeeding advocate for decades (until ill health forced her out), preaching against the evils of the bottle long before breastfeeding was even acceptable for us to talk about in public like we are right here--and before hospitals told mothers that breastfeeding is best in most cases instead of just teaching them how to warm up a bottle with formula in it.
ReplyDeleteI remember so very vividly this one woman who called our house when I was a kid. When I answered the phone, she was sobbing so hard she couldn't even speak. Because she was so upset, I stayed on the phone after I yelled at my mom to pick up the phone (yeah, snooping, I know, but I was like 7). This woman was not anyone who had ever met my mother, but after many pleas for help, she was finally routed to her. The woman was in such a state because she had just given birth maybe a week earlier and she was literally bleeding every time she tried to breastfeed. The baby could not latch on right, she wasn't producing enough milk, he was her first child, and she just did not know what to do because she so desperately wanted to breastfeed. Thankfully, my mother was able to give her some advice to help (including squeezing out extra milk for use when she was in too much pain and using vitamin E to help heal her skin), but she also had to break it to the woman that breastfeeding just might not be possible for her. I don't even know how the story ended up for this woman, but I am still pained to this day thinking about what a horrific experience she was having. The one thing I know for sure is that she was hardly a lazy bitch OR a bad mother.
Now, I don't care about Jessica Alba either way except that she does seem pretty vacant most of the time, and I realize that my little anecdote is a rather extreme example (no wonder I remember it nearly 30 years later!), but the fact is that we don't know what is really going on with her. As a scientist, I hate relying on anecdotal evidence to back up a point as I have just done, but as a compassionate person, I don't want to judge a young mother without any evidence, either. I'm certainly with those of you who think we should give her the benefit of the doubt--or even better, let her keep it a private matter, especially if things didn't work out the way she had hoped.
Dear jeebus--could I BE any long-windeder? :) Sorry 'bout that--I guess this is just a near and dear issue.
Peace out!
to those here that love me anyway:
ReplyDeletei did not breast feed either of mine.
had no intention to. i had some personal reasons, and then i had my sister-in-law's example, which i found to be embarrassing. it IS every woman's choice, but i also think that there is a proper way to do it in public, and that way is NOT to plop your self in the middle of the room and conversation, when you were previously in, perhaps, a quiet and out of the way place. part of it was that my nephews ALWAYS, ALWAYS ALWAYS either had a tit or a pacifier in their mouths.
as i say, there were also personal reasons, and this is not the forum to discuss those, but it had nothing to do with vanity.
but i also lost all my weight very quickly with both kids. and remember, my kids are 27 and 22. and i got a shitload of free formula from the hospital.
flame me gently.
That is so wrong!! I use a cover up called a hooter hider. I don't care what people think. It's a lot of work to breast feed! I'm just lucky I'm a stay at home mom. I went through ALOT of pain. I will breast feed my baby wherever we are. If my husband and I are out eating I will put my hooter hider on a she will start slurping. Michelle Obama has made it possible for me to feed her WITHOUT a hooter hider. I would too if i didn't think it would upset my husband.
DeleteI tried with my sons and failed miserably. I feel strongly about breast feeding and was so upset and frustrated and defeated when I tried. When my daughter was due, my mother took me aside and suggested I skip the frustration and go straight to bottle feeding. Best advice ever - I just focused on enjoying the first days with her and it was peaceful bliss.
ReplyDeleteSome of can't breastfeed. I can't believe I have a natural 34D to DD and can't do it and my flat chested sister had no problems. That's life for you =)
Not breastfeeding your baby can be a choice based on so many things - I wouldn't judge another woman for it or get nosy about her reasons. Maybe Alba can find a little humor in it - it sounds so easy when the La Leche ladies chat you up. Hah!
I am another failure at breastfeeding and I can assure you it wasn't for lack of trying or support. It came down to me having the rare problem of insufficient milk production. Still, for 5 months I used a supplemental nurser (which is a bottle w/a tube that you attach to your nipple so that the baby can get some breastmilk in addition to the formula) in the hopes that my daughter would get some of the benefits of breastmilk. It was a painful thing for me to accept...I still remember sobbing in the lactation consultant's office when I finally realized I had to give up hope of ever breastfeeding normally.
ReplyDeletetruth be told, my son couldn't even manage a bottle.
ReplyDeletewe had to throw the damn thing out at three months, and he finally slept through the night. he couldn't suck at all. can you imagine if i had TRIED breast feeding, with the lack of help i was already getting???
and he certainly grew up big and strong. at 5 years old, he didn't want to get on the bus one morning and threw my back out, pitching a fit. at 2, i would do a two mile walk, and he would RUN the whold thing.
and 8 months, he was swimming, and yes, i taught him. today, he's over 6 ft, and still has (ha) "super-human strength".
every human is different. that what makes us interesting. thank God!!
I had the same problem as Ace Tomato. Almost didn't bond with my son in the hospital because the nurses would take him away from me when it was clear I had no milk. I finally demanded the formula be brought to my room and no one else was to feed him but me.
ReplyDeleteTo defend Ent a little bit, Albitch does come across as hypocritical, but as Ent knows now there can be all kinds of mitigating circumstances. Many parents have the very best intentions (to never give their children sugar/McDonald's/whatever), but not every parent follows through. They don't need to go to hell for that.
Albitch - she just needs to go to hell because she can't act.
MARISA-- please never have children! ("i hate babies")-Where the hell do u get off telling a woman who's perfectly happy nursing her child that "it's ok, you can stop"???? Not ur baby, is it? Every mother has to get up at all hours to feed her child whether it's by breast or bottle. Stop giving people parenting tips u weirdo.
ReplyDeleteAnyways, I breastfed my daughter for 10 months. I was really pleased because i know how important breast milk is and how much of a positive difference it does make(go ahead and rip me up for that, i stand by it and it's TRUE)
In my experience, the girlfriends i know who didn't breastfeed gave everyone those old excuses (i cant produce enough milk, latching probs) but 3 of them confided to me that it was really so they could drink, smoke, or simply because they just didn't like the pain. One girl even told me she just felt perverted doing it. (To me, that's what makes it perverted, the fact that she felt like a perv while feeding her baby.) Fu**** selfish.
Only One friend of mine had a valid excuse-inverted nipples- and she still tried for 3 months. she finally quit because by then she was feeding her daughter formula so often that her milk had all but dried up.
Well, the pain passes. I had to endure the pain the first few weeks and i'll be damned if my baby latched on properly (and comfortably) every time. but i knew it would hurt! My dr told me, that while i was pregnant! i think it hurts 4 everyone a little bit, especially at first.
It hurt like a bitch! my nips were sore and chapped... but my baby was gaining so much weight and i loved doing it.
BTW, Most women produce as much milk as is needed based on how often they feed. So if u feed every 2-4 hours u'll have milk leaking out every 2-4 hours like clockwork. when u start f****** with the schedule u confuse the boobs.
It is truly a personal choice, but i strongly feel that too many women are giving up too soon on something that i'm sure everyone's ob-gyn's informed them was the best option as far as nourishment, bonding, and even early weight loss in mothers.
To those women with ACTUAL problems with their breasts- my heart goes out to you, seriously. But the women riding on their valid excuses because u know most people won't pry-- you know who u are, and u can eat shit for all i care.
p.s-alba sucks.
I completely agree! I'm a young mother. I was 20 when my baby was born. I didnt like the pain. I would have tears the first few weeks. But I stuck it out because im so passionate about giving her the best start possible. She hasn't been sick once! I am very proud of myself. No one I know my age has successfully gotten through the first few weeks. Most didn't even try. And their baby's are always sick.
Deletesomeone's arms must be tired from being nailed to that cross they're on.
ReplyDeleteI'm going to be a postpartum doula.
ReplyDeleteI want to help other mothers learn about breastfeeding and help them succeed.
Personally, my son wasn't breastfed. he was premature, I pumped as much as I could, but I didn't know much about it and couldn't afford an LC and had no idea about the LLL or post partum doulas.
I beat myself up about it.
My daughter, I was INTENT on breastfeeding, and I was able to nurse her for four months until she ended up at the hospital for an extended amount of time for a vascular tumor on the side of her head.
Do I feel guilty that I didn't breastfeed longer? Yes. I try not to beat myself up over it. Sometimes it just doesn't work/happen.
julie- my heart goes out to women in your position who actually CANNOT nurse. There are so many healthy women women with fully healthy babies who have every capability to breastfeed and choose not to for selfish reasons.
ReplyDeleteBreastmilk is best for the baby, hands down. Formula doesn't even come close. I just breastfed my daughter for 1 year. It wasn't easy. I had a low supply, and I too struggled after a long labor, an emergency c-section, pain meds, etc. But I persevered and my daughter turned 1 today, and has never been sick yet. I feel bad for moms who truly cannot breastfeed, but there aren't actually that many who really can't. They just won't, plain and simple. Hey, go ahead and try to justify your choices all you want, but if you could breastfeed your child, and you CHOSE not to, then you didn't put your child's well being ahead of your own selfish desires. That's the long and short of it.
ReplyDeleteGoddamn, I hate people who are judgmental about this. Breast milk is better, but a lack of it is not going to doom the child to a miserable life! Having a happy mom is a hell of a lot more important to a baby than whether or not it breast feeds. And Jessica clearly is not a happy or attentive mom. :(
ReplyDeletetwo of my sister's friends tried to breastfeed and were heartbroken that they weren't producing anywhere near enough milk. their babies weren't developing properly because they weren't getting enough nutrients and the doctors finally told them to give it up and start the bottle.
ReplyDeleteit was so hard for them because they felt like they had failed as mothers. i don't jessica alba's situation, but i doubt she would tell people something so painful if the same thing happened to her.