Michael from Monster’s Inc runs from photographers in this exclusive image.

Thank God that’s over!

Today concludes my week as a celebrity blogger.

You might be curious, how I felt writing about Britney, Paris, Angelina, KanYe and Madonna instead of my usual childbirth recovery topics of blood, snot and tears?

Overall? It felt really dirty and more than a little hypocritical talking about celebrities just to gain traffic and raise awareness about reproductive health. The paparazzi must live lives of terrible self-loathing.

I am also feeling ashamed of myself. June Callwood, my hero, died today. She taught me, and millions of other Canadians, never to turn our eyes from injustice, from violations of human rights or from the weak or just unlucky. June would have hated the idea of celebrity week.

Luckily, I did it all for a good cause.

Post from: Babylune

Have you noticed the ads of Madonna’s new line for H&M on this site? They don’t run constantly, but sometimes they’re there. And it makes me smile that the Maternal Girl needs the likes of me to make a living.

Post from: Babylune

Writing a childbirth recovery blog is often a thankless task. It takes a long time to research and write the posts, perform community-building tasks and do promotion. And then, celebrity blogs get all the traffic.

Plus, I’ve often wondered what it would be like to write about Paris Hilton instead of hemorroids, the Jolie-Pitts instead of painful periniums, K-Fed instead of feminine protection.

So, this week, I am going to try celebrity blogging! Beware of my super sarcasm and snotty comments about people I couldn’t care less about.

At the very least, I will be able to give my brain a rest and it will up the page views for the Mothering Sunday to Mothers’ Day Campaign.

Post from: Babylune

And, let me tell you, women’s health coverage is affected even more by these issues than any other topic. In searching for new developments in pregnancy, birth and recovery from birth, there are some media sources that I have come to trust more than others.

Now, none of these sources are perfect in terms of reproductive health coverage, but here is a list of my current three favourites that I check every day.
- Maclean’s Magazine and their Women’s Health Central archive provides an excellent overview of recent papers, conferences and developments in reproductive medicine.

- The Scotsman with their focus on health issues that are under our control such as their coverage on maternal diet and smoking.

- The International Herald Tribune for their global perspecitve on world health issues, especially those that affect the often forgotten poor mothers & children

Blogger just spread the word on one topic to a specific audience composed only of people interested in that narrow subject matter. If everyone read two daily papers, a local and a national, from cover-to-cover every evening, blogging would be completely unnecessary. Since mothers don’t have time for that kind of reading, I do it for you.

The problem is, I am going away tomorrow for six long weeks. This is not good-bye for the summer. I have pre-written a ton of posts and I will be working while I’m away. I know I will have Internet access, I am just not sure how much or what kind of access. If I have to use dial-up again, I might spontaneously combust with impatience.

If I do, scan the above sources yourself to keep up with everything recovery-oriented.

And take very good care of yourselves!

Post from: Babylune

Other people are more passionate about how motherhood should be.

There’s an interesting article about celebrity mothers (again) in the Irish Independent this morning. In particular, the article contrasts the “Slummy Mummy” style of Sarah Ferguson, the Duchess of York, who is more of a pal with Madonna, who is apparently “all about control.”

Here’s a series of quotes about how Sarah Ferguson spends time with the princesses Beatrice and Eugenie:

• “At the weekends we sleep until midday. Then we have shepherd’s pie for lunch. Then Andrew calls and says, ‘What are you doing this afternoon?’ The answer is always the same. ‘We’re watching DVDs! All afternoon’,” Sarah told the American the Ladies’ Home Journal.
• “We watch from two o’clock until midnight. It’s probably something like 24 or The OC, the whole series of them And we’re really into Grey’s Anatomy and Nip/Tuck.
• “We don’t move from our chairs. On Sundays it’s the same. Get up at midday, have roast chicken for lunch. Then DVDs until midnight, unless they’re going back to school, in which case we’ll stop at six.”

Madonna, on the other hand, has a completely different attitude.

• “My kids don’t watch TV,” she told Harper’s Bazaar in an interview, which ranged widely from her adherence to rigid family meal times to the importance of household lists.

• “We have televisions but they’re not hooked up to anything but movies. TV is trash. I was raised without it. We don’t have magazines or newspapers in the house, either.”

I find this interesting, not in terms of how kids watch TV, but the contrasts between rigidity and relaxation. Yesterday, I read an article in The Scotsman, with the headline “Too Strict with Your Children? They’re Five Times More Likely to be Fat, says Study.”

“Children with overly strict mothers are much more likely to get fat, according to new research. The study found disciplinarian mothers ended up with six-year-olds who were nearly five times more likely to be overweight than children treated with flexibility and respect, but who were still given clear rules,” says the article by writer Rachel Williams. “Scientists said youngsters whose mothers were strict might be comfort eating due to stress.”

When I think of my children’s health, the most important thing to me is not their weight. I more concerned about their safety, preventing disease and hoping that they will be good people. That said, I find that my parenting style evolves as our family evolves, but I hold myself to one standard and paid caregivers to another. I doubt the teenage princesses watch TV with their governesses, or at school. Sure, my kids watch TV at home where I know what’s on and can balance it out with reading, but I wouldn’t allow my son to attend a pre-school where they watch TV.

Still, I am not strict or highly-scheduling parent. Even with babies and young children, the day has some order, but not a timed routine. I am more of a general guidelines kind of mother. Be polite. Don’t hurt people. If you make a mess, clean it up. Don’t eat more than one ice cream before dinner and please, don’t “make a pond” indoors. It keeps me sane and the kids happy. Even if our home is pond-free.

Post from: Babylune