I\'m Summer, a mouthy, sarcastic bitch. I\'m passionate about natural birth, long term breastfeeding, and living naturally. I curse too much, love tattoos, and will some day be crushed to death by my book collection. I homeschool, dream of gardening, and swing to the left. 
Shocking: Mothers Are People Too
So there’s a new article in the USA Today bemoaning the fact that mothers continue drinking and smoking after having a baby. Because, you know, once a woman gives birth she morphs into June Cleaver and never again even thinks about alcohol and cigarettes. Unless she’s bringing the pipe and a fresh martini to her husband of course.
Delany says the study highlights the importance of getting the message out to women to not resume substance use after pregnancy.
“It’s just something we need to work better on as a nation,” he says. “Women just aren’t stopping the way we would hope.”
Where’s the importance of making sure dad doesn’t drink or smoke after baby is born? Or just stressing not to smoke around your kids or drink while there’s not a sober adult to care for them? Why is mom getting the finger wagging for daring to do things after giving birth that she did before so?
Women are pretty good about avoiding substance abuse while pregnant, but a new report suggests that their alcohol use remains high and that many resume drinking, smoking and using marijuana within three months of their baby’s arrival.
Seriously? This is an issue? How dare a woman wait three months after giving birth to going back to being a normal human being?
If anything I could see how this points to the increased need to support and encourage breastfeeding, as most mothers end breastfeeding around three months. Though I should point out that many say it is fine to continue drinking in moderation while breastfeeding. So maybe increasing support, care, and time for breastfeeding mothers to continue longer there would be a slight decrease in the number of mothers smoking (cigarettes and pot). But what about dad?
With all the pressure to stop smoking and drinking during pregnancy, where’s the pressure for dad to stop smoking? After all second hand smoke can be even more dangerous, so being around smokers could be worse for mom than trying to quit smoking herself. Where’s the news about how many dads stop smoking while their partner’s are pregnant and then start back up again? For that matter what about the rest of the world? Shouldn’t the random strangers walking down the street have as much finger wagging at them to not smoke around a pregnant woman or a child as the mother gets?
Yea…this just shows me that women are stressed and don’t know how to cope with that stress without turning to substances of some sort. Well lets see….what might make a woman stressed? I don’t know…the lack of support she recieves from the community at large!? Perhaps. Or maybe even how a woman is expected to act as if nothing has changed now that she’s got a child….well, except for that nasty smoking/drinking habit…of course. Don’t go back to that…but go back to work, put your child in child care, then send them to public school and then in every after school activity so that you never actually see them. Awesome.
Amen! It’s completely off-putting the way that you somehow become public property the minute the two lines show up on the pregnancy test. It drives me bonkers.
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