News flash – the Queensland Police Union wants to introduce
tougher laws for mothers
who expose their unborn babies to potential health risks such as alcohol
and drugs. Every unborn baby should have the right to be born free of the potential
life threatening diseases and ailments that can result from their mothers
engaging in unhealthy behaviours so watch out Mums – your smoking, drinking,
druggy days could soon see you locked up!
It’s funny this news article appeared today as this issue
has been predominant in Australian media this week. One of our tv and radio
personalities was photographed by the paparazzi having a cigarette while
pregnant with her third child. She tried to buy the photos to stop them being
published, and when she couldn’t, had to confess to her husband, family and the
Australian public. The widespread public outrage this caused was amazing. It’s
not like we don’t see pregnant women smoking every day, but their faces aren’t
plastered all over the news.
I get mad when I see women smoking and drinking while
pregnant. I look at them and think I did nothing wrong and lost my baby and you’re
so selfish that you don’t even care about your baby’s life. Yep, in those
moments I judge and I judge hard. In my opinion, if you wouldn’t feed your baby
cigarettes and wine when they’re born, why do you feed it to them before they
are?
However, after seeing this woman interviewed, I can feel
empathy towards her struggle. She spoke about the shame and embarrassment she
felt, and the great lengths she went to to hide it from her family and friends –
classic addict behaviour. She spoke about how difficult it was to give it up
and how hard she tried – classic addict behaviour. She’s an addict – pure and
simple.
I can empathise because I am a recovering addict too – my vice
was food – so I could relate to her struggle to give it up. Addicts hide things
and are riddled by shame and worthlessness. Addicts live in a mouse wheel, constantly running around
and around trying to beat the cravings. Addicts beat themselves up hard every
time they fail in their attempt to give it up. Being an addict sucks!
In the end, addict behaviour is just a coping mechanism and you
just have to make the decision enough is enough. One day, I just decided to
stop over eating and loose weight. It was hard to say no to temptation but I
had to. As a result, I lost 35 kilos and, 10 years later, I haven’t put it back
on. It was hard, but the things in life we most need to do often are. But, I
still classify myself as an addict because I can still easily revert to over eating
as a coping mechanism. I have greater control over it now which is why I’ve
kept the weight off, but the tendencies and cravings are still there – they always
will be.
In the end, it’s all about willpower. Are we motivated
enough to do what we need to do? It’s sad that it’s taken such public backlash
for this woman to throw the cigarettes away, but if it has, then that’s a good
thing. It’s also a good thing if it’s made other women throw their cigarettes
away too. To me, the previous gift of being pregnant should be motivation
enough to make better life decisions. Actually, just trying to fall pregnant is
motivation enough for me! Bring on the carrot sticks!
Image by digitalart
Courtesy of www.freedigitalphotos.net
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