Thursday, May 10, 2007

Stupid People Come in All Types

This makes me really upset!
Vegan couple gets life over baby's death - Crime & Punishment - MSNBC.com

Where were these people's families? Where was their midwife? The story doesn't tell anything about why someone wasn't there to advise them. It just makes vegans and people who have their babies at home look really stupid. Feeding a newborn soy milk and apple juice is not normal for vegans or people that have home births.

Normally a home birth is attended by at least a trained midwife. I can't imagine a sane person thinking it's OK for a totally inexperienced couple to deliver a baby at home without anyone to help or advise them. Even the folks from The Farm started out with supportive friends and experienced parents around. Later Ina May Gaskin gained experience and training as a midwife. (I think mostly through delivering babies and reading.) If you read Spiritual Midwifery (I have only read pieces) you'll find they did many stupid things, but I just can't imagine not reading or getting advice from anyone during your pregnancy.

I can only speculate that these parents thought that the baby was getting enough breast milk and that he wasn't? Where was La Leche League? I don't know if baby formula that is soy based is actually made with no animal products but it's just common sense that you don't feed a newborn just any liquid. Can you imagine going through nine months of pregnancy and not reading anything or talking to anyone about becoming a parent?

There has to be something else going on with that family. Something very wrong.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

there's something very wrong with these people. it's really quite apparent when you listen to them talk. I did cringe at this story, too, because it doesn't accurately represent homebirth or veganism and yet people are likely to use it as ammunition against those practices.

the reason they were convicted was because the jury believed they were lying and that this was a case of neglect they were trying to cover with the vegan story. i don't know if that's true or not but it could be. And in any case, yeah...these people are clearly pretty crazy.

last thing, I heard the man's mother say she tried to tell them...

that's all. clearly, I have a minor obsession with this story.

Breena Ronan said...

You heard them talk?

Anonymous said...

Maybe they were vegan separatists? I mean, it's hard for me to find a vegan community in my city, but wow!htt

Breena Ronan said...

I know that if you aren't in a big city or a university town it might be difficult to find other vegans to talk to, but there must have been something that could have been done. Anyone know what baby formula is vegan friendly?