I have the handy little Windows Vista side-bar thingy on my computer’s desktop and one of my Gadgets is the feed to the CNN top stories.
I’m thinking I might remove it.
For more than two days I stared at the headline “Girl carries secret baby to hospital, still attached” with an emotion that can only be described as
“beyond angry and ready to reach through the internet and strangle someone”
LONG BEACH, California (AP) — A 17-year-old girl gave birth secretly at home, then walked four blocks to a hospital with the baby still attached by its umbilical cord.
“I was just a little nervous” when the labor began, Xochitl Parra said Friday from St. Mary Medical Center as she cradled her 8-pound, 3-ounce son, Alejandro.
The boy was normal and “eating like a champ,” said Dr. Jose Perez, director of the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit.
The teenager said she was alone and taking a shower around 5:30 a.m. Wednesday to get ready for school. Then the contractions took over.
“I felt his head coming, so I sit down and pushed so he could come out,” she said.
Parra did not call 911 because the home phone was disconnected, and she did not want to wake the neighbors because it was so early. Instead, she wrapped the baby, got dressed and went to the hospital on foot.
“I started walking and jogging to the hospital,” she said.
The teen came into the hospital lobby and asked for help, Perez said.
“She still had the placenta and the baby was still attached, so of course everyone said, ‘Don’t move!’ ” he said.
Perez praised the girl for taking quick action.
“They could have bled to death; thank God that didn’t happen,” the doctor said. “She was very clever. She knew what to do. She wrapped the baby up and walked over here.”
Parra, a sophomore at Long Beach Poly High, said she kept her pregnancy a secret because she was afraid her mother would “kick me out of the house.” Her mother has now accepted the situation and is going to help the teen care for the baby so she can continue attending school, Parra said
Um. Does anyone else have a problem with this article? Perhaps the quote “She was very clever…” incenses you - as if ‘clever’ is now how we describe mothers who take care of their babies?! WHAT?
… or maybe you’re upset about the fact that CNN made a big story out of a teenaged mother’s worst nighmare (being discovered, giving birth alone, being afraid of rejection by her family)?
The article almost, ALMOST (but not quite) redeems itself with the mention that “Her mother has now accepted the situation and is going to help the teen care for the baby…” Honestly? I’m really happy to see that this girl’s mother is saying she’ll support her daughter -
- but who wants to bet that it won’t be all happy joy-joy like CNN spun it?
And how about that cute little link at the bottom of the article that says “Watch the teen hold her newborn“. Vomit!
I’m fearful for this new mother - teenager or not. Just like safe doesn’t mean anonymous, ’secret babies’ don’t remain secret… not even to the gawking public, thanks to CNN.
2008/05/07 10:04
how sad… :(
2008/05/07 14:32
BUT TEACHING SEXUAL EDUCATION IN SCHOOLS WILL MAKE THE CHILDREN PROMISCUOUS!!!!!!!!!!
Morons.
2008/05/07 18:30
Personally, I’m horrified that this young girls crisis is being paraded around the national news media…she gave birth alone for a reason, no small feat I assure you! (Though I know I don’t have to)
This one just hits a little to close to home…
2008/05/07 18:57
@Thanksgivingmom
The thing that gets to me is that regardless of how/why/where a woman gives birth it shouldn’t be national news. Not only for the privacy of the mother, but for godsakes there’s not one, but TWO minor children involved.
… and the thing that makes me want to be sick is this: making it national news and reiterating that she is a ‘teen mother’ = invites every wacko out there ‘desperately seeking baby’ to make offers to adopt… you know it and I know it.
Again, I just feel so bad for the MOTHER and for the bad decisions HER MOTHER made on her behalf (ie allowing CNN to nationalize her story).
Grrr.
2008/05/07 19:00
@Elizabeth
“BUT TEACHING SEXUAL EDUCATION IN SCHOOLS WILL MAKE THE CHILDREN PROMISCUOUS!!!!!!!!!!”
I do have opinions on teaching sexual education in schools, but I don’t really see the relevance to that and nationalizing a mother’s childbirth story.
Yes, she’s a teen mother - but regardless, she’s now a MOTHER and hind-sight about if she did or did not receive sexual education isn’t relevant. We don’t know how or why she was pregnant (it could’ve been rape for all Joe Public knows) and all the ’sex ed’ in the world wouldn’t change the fact that she was pregant and did give birth and is now a mother.
Just my $.02
2008/05/07 19:01
@Heather
… sad, yes, because stuff like this doesn’t need to be pubic. The private moments in an individual’s/family’s life shouldn’t be on CNN.
… and if the mother’s mother gave permission for her daughter’s story to be plastered everywhere, then SHAME ON HER.
2008/05/07 20:43
@Krississippi
Agree. Complete. My first comment? That was me showing my LiveJournal fail.
2008/05/08 0:23
I wouldn’t call any mother, any age, as clever when she failed to seek prenatal care for herself and her child. Sorry, at seventeen, she knew better. Shame on her mother for not making it clear to her daughter that she would accept and help before her daughter ever got knocked up.
My mother did with both myself and my brother. Neither of us were involved at a teen pregnancy, and statistics show that may be in part because our parents talked to us about sex.
2008/05/08 8:33
@Tina
“I wouldn’t call any mother, any age, as clever when she failed to seek prenatal care for herself and her child.”
I think there are a lot of reasons why some women don’t seek prenatal care. I believe making an assumption as to why this mother didn’t isn’t something that can be made based on the vagueness of the article.
“Neither of us were involved at a teen pregnancy, and statistics show that may be in part because our parents talked to us about sex.”
Again, the article doesn’t say how or why she was pregnant - it could’ve been rape or molestation, just as easily as assuming it was promiscuity. I don’t think any amount of talking about sex openly with one’s child can prevent every single instance of how one can become pregnant - by choice or not.