The new lactivist tactic is so vicious it defies belief.
It was pioneered by anti-vaxxers who target the mother of a child who has died of a vaccine preventable disease, claiming the she is lying or that she killed her child. Now lactivists are applying it to mothers whose babies have been brain injured or died as a result of insufficient breastmilk.
Consider Australian lactivist Lisa Bridger. She experienced her 15 minutes of fame back in 2018 when she boasted about breastfeeding her 7 year old autistic son.
Bridger is pathetic!
She received many negative and even hateful comments. You might think she would be sympathetic to mothers who deal with the brain injuries and deaths of babies due to insufficient breastmilk. You would be wrong.
In an effort to discredit Jillian Johnson, whose baby Landon died 8 years ago, Bridger posted this on Landon’s birthday.
Baby Landon’s story is commonly posted by the fed is best foundation stating that he died from starvation from insufficient breastfeeding. The problem is that this babies coroner’s report doesn’t say this. Landon sadly was born unwell. He was dehydrated at birth after a difficult delivery. He was admitted to intensive care and found to have pneumonia…
None of that is true so how does Bridger feel confident in making such odious claims? She pretended to be a researcher and ordered the coroner’s report on another woman’s baby.
no I’m not personal involved. I saw the original story many years ago, it was then blasted all over via the fed is best foundation. Many people called out the inconsistencies within the two stories. Jillians original, Christie’s version, and what really happened. As a researcher I was interested, I chose to request, payed for the publicly available copy and have since done intensive research into it…
She’s not a “researcher” and perhaps that explains why she thoroughly misunderstands what she read. The coroner’s report COMPLETELY SUBSTANTIATES Jillian’s story; Landon died from insufficient breastmilk.
How do you read a report when multiple causes of death are listed?
According to the CDC guidelines in Medical Examiners’ and Coroners’ Handbook on Death Registration:
Part I is for reporting a chain of events leading directly to death, with the immediate cause of death (the final disease, injury, or complication directly causing death) on line (a) and the underlying cause of death (the disease or injury that initiated the chain of events that led directly and inevitably to death) on the lowest used line…
If an organ system failure (such as congestive heart failure, hepatic failure, renal failure, or respiratory failure) is listed as a cause of death, always report its etiology on the line(s) beneath it (for example, renal failure DUE TO Type I diabetes mellitus or renal failure DUE TO ethylene glycol poisoning).
Therefore, the coroner’s report on Landon’s death should be read as follows:
Hypoxic-Ischemic Encepalopathy (brain damage)
DUE TO
Cardiac Pulmonary Arrest
DUE TO
Hypernatremic Dehydration (dehydration accompanied by high sodium levels)
Nowhere does it say that Landon was born dehydrated or with high sodium levels. If such a thing were possible (I’ve never heard of it), it would be described as “congenital” and it’s not.
In fact, Landon’s tragedy is typical for cases of brain injury and death caused by insufficient breastmilk.
There are increasing reports on hypernatremia, a potentially devastating condition, in exclusively breastfed newborn infants… A total of 115 reports were included in the final analysis. Breastfeeding-associated neonatal hypernatremia was recognized in infants who were ≤ 21 days of age and had ≥ 10% weight loss of birth weight… In addition to excessive weight loss (≥ 10%), the following clinical findings were observed: poor feeding, poor hydration state, jaundice, excessive body temperature, irritability or lethargy, decreased urine output, and epileptic seizures…
Why does Bridger engage in such reprehensible behavior? For the same reason anti-vaxxers harass loss parents: narcissistic rage.
Wikipedia describes it best:
…Narcissistic rage is the uncontrollable and unexpected anger that results from a narcissistic injury – a threat to a narcissist’s self-esteem or worth. Rage comes in many forms, but all pertain to the same important thing, revenge. Narcissistic rages are based on fear …
My disgust for Bridger’s behavior is leavened by pity. Imagine the abject fear that drives her and other lactivists; their fear that they have been wrong all along about the perfection of breastfeeding and their rage that an innocent child dared to die in a way that exposes the hollowness of their ideology and fragility of their egos.
Bridger is pathetic and I’m not just talking about her fundamental ignorance of medicine, science and statistics.
