For something that really doesn't concern me in any way, an ad campaign by Milwaukee authorities has really rubbed me the wrong way. Here you can see their poster alarming the good folks of their city of the dangers of sharing your bed with your infant.
I know this is an issue that can raise eyebrows all over Europe as well, but here American Academy of Pediatrics is straightforwad against it, and as we can see, some local authorities are heeding their warnings and think this is an important issue to raise.
Blowing it a bit out of proportion, I call this issue and others like it hypocrisy. Conservatives' catchy slogans against Obama's health care plan and other measures often includes cries against the "Nanny State", of which I'm sure the Nordic countries would work for as a perfect example.
I say, it's too late to fight against a nanny state, when parents aren't allowed to put crib bumpers on their kids' cribs - selling them has recently been outlawed in Chicago. What is that, if not nannying? And is it not nannying when parents' judgement about their own family's sleeping arrangements is not trusted? (I have to assume they don't consider that nannying. Making sure no one goes
bankrupt if they get cancer, or that people get therapy after an
accident to rehabilitate them back to being functioning, productive
members of society? Now that's the kind of mollycoddling that's a slippery slope leading to communism! But I digress.)
About parents' judgement, then. America has the highest teenage pregnancy rates of any industrialized country, and while I know many teen moms and dads end up being good parents, it has been shown that when it comes to making responsible, adult decisions, teenagers' brains aren't physically there yet.
Also, if you trust some of what some conservative politicians are saying, every pregnancy in America is unplanned: A Republican congressman is afraid that if birth control is covered by health insurance, America will become a dying civilization!
About 1:30 in:
Add to this the appalling number of one in five children living in poverty, and an even more appalling one in three of every black or hispanic child (according to 2010 US Census data, also reported yesterday by Reuters). While being poor itself doesn't mean you won't be a good parent, being poor often goes hand in hand with being uneducated, not having the resources to learn good child-rearing practices or to make the best choices for your child.
Little by little, a sad picture emerges, where it becomes more understandable that in too many cases authorities are actually right not to trust the parents' judgement. I still strongly disagree with the way the issue is addressed, nowhere more so than in this over-the-top campaign, which makes it seem as if to
these people every other mom is an ignorant alcoholic wanting to save
money and not buying a crib, thus throwing their baby on their stomach
on a water bed with ten pillows, and laying down beside them, smoking a
cigarette, falling into a drunken coma half hoping they'll roll over
their baby.
To be serious, though, as to anything in this country, I'm sure there is no simple solution. Even if there was a comprehensive family clinic system like Finland's neuvola open for all, in this heterogenous society, attendance rates would not come anywhere close to Finland's 99.7 % for pregnant moms and 96 % for children's immunizations (sources, respectively THL and a slightly aged statistic from 1994 in Duodecim, both in Finnish). Also to be fair I should mention that there are at least nutrition advice and assistance available for poor families here as well, so even if you can't afford insurance, you can get health services for your child.
The not-so-simple solution? A more egalitarian society, without a large income gap, with high quality education for all (including realistic, no-nonsense, not abstinence-only sex ed) and affordable, easily attainable health care, including family planning services, to all.
I never said I would have a realistic solution.
Amen. I saw a couple of these posters online and was hoping someone would address the campaign like you did. Thanks!
VastaaPoistaOur 5-month-old sleeps next to me in our bed. Not because we're lazy or cannot afford to buy a crib (we have one of those, too, actually), but because this is the only way we all get some sleep. If a government official (or anyone) told me I wasn't allowed to do so, I would laugh my butt off and then make them do a couple of "night shifts" in our house.
And you're so right about the nannying. Could not have said it better myself.
Awesome post!
Thanks, Tytti, much appreciated! Indeed, shouldn't everyone want a family with a newborn get the best night's sleep they can - for many reasons, including the baby's safety and well being! Campaigns like this are really throwing the proverbial baby out with the bathwater.
VastaaPoista