A few days ago, we had our first child. A healthy girl! Everything went more or less smoothly. The staff at the maternity hospital was incredible — no complaints there. The food was a bit bland, but hey, it’s hospital food.
What really bothered me, though, was the insane invasion of brands into what should’ve been a magical, private moment.
Short after we got to our room, a nurse came in with a “present”, a small paper bag labeld “lovely things”. I was so naïve and believed there would be some goodies, snacks, maybe some rompers for the baby, stuff like that.
The fucking bag was stuffed with flyers and “free samples” from brands selling diapers, formula, pacifiers, baby bottles, and other crap.
Are you fucking kidding me???
I am usually good at shielding myself from ads, but this caught me completely off-guard.
These corporations deliberately target you at your most vulnerable. Worse, they undermine breastfeeding right from the start. One “free sample” of their shitty formula — and just like that, many mothers are hooked. Because once you stop breastfeeding, you can’t go back.
A nice cocktail of corn syrup, soybean oils, synthetic vitamins and emulsifiers and stabilizers for your newborn. Yummy!
Even the sign with our baby’s name and info had a baby food brand logo on it. Like our daughter was born into a fucking sponsorship deal.
And then a woman just stormed into our room without much concern for our privacy ( I was in my underwear) and said that we had a free photo shoot with our newborn, right now if we want. Who in the right mind thinks a photo session is a good idea not even 24 hours after birth? I didn’t even had time to shower and my wife looked, well, like someone who just pushed out a human and didn’t sleep properly for 36 hours. Of course, if you want more pictures you had to pay. So once again they pull you in and exploit you when you are so vulnerable.
Why the hell do we tolerate this?
This was supposed to be one of the most intimate, human moments of our lives and instead it felt like a goddamn product launch. Ads, logos, samples, sales pitches. All shoved into our faces while we were sleep-deprived, bleeding, overwhelmed.
It’s disgusting. These companies prey on people when they’re most vulnerable, and we just let it happen. Like it’s normal.
Well, fuck that, and fuck them. It’s not normal. And it sure as hell shouldn’t be okay.