“If I Were Fishing..I’d Throw Him Back!”

“If I were fishing…I’d throw him back!” -Health Care Provider to mother who just birthed a 4 pound 9 ounce baby boy.

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There are 9 comments to this post.

Kat had this to say, Dec 16, 2009 @ 4:42 pm (Quote)

That is absolutely unacceptable. You just don’t compare a newborn baby to a fish, let alone one you’d reject and throw away!

Now maybe I could see a fishing-obsessed grandpa bragging about a grandbaby as big as a prized catch, *maybe!*

But “I’d throw him back?” Horrifying.

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Brittney had this to say, Dec 16, 2009 @ 4:55 pm (Quote)

Oh my gosh- that is horrible!

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rachel Reply:
December 16th, 2009 at 5:40 pm rachel(Quote)

ummm…yeah. Good thing we’re not eating the baby, sheesh. And unlike a fish you just caught, the baby will GROW.

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Nikki had this to say, Dec 16, 2009 @ 6:51 pm (Quote)

WTH?? My little brother was 4lb 2oz when he was born premature at 34 weeks and we were THRILLED that he was that big. If he would have been smaller, he could have had many more problems…this is just a really awful thing to say to a new mom!

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Crunchy Nurse had this to say, Dec 16, 2009 @ 7:21 pm (Quote)

My grandmother told me that a nurse asked her “Is that the best you could do?” after the birth of her second baby, a tiny, but healthy, girl.

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Charity had this to say, Dec 16, 2009 @ 8:27 pm (Quote)

In his defense, fishermen throw fish back to let them mature and grow more before catching them again… Maybe he just meant the baby should have cooked longer? Still not an excuse for crass behavior, but maybe he meant no harm…

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Jespren had this to say, Dec 17, 2009 @ 6:13 am (Quote)

this is a perfect example how the same words out of one person’s mouth could be acceptably funny, while out of another person’s mouth are absolutely inapropriate. If my husband or father said after the birth of little baby “he needs to cook more!” or “toss him back in, he’s still a fingerling” (fishing talk for those who don’t fish) in my family, at least, it would end up being a joke that would get laughed at til the baby was full grown (or even longer if they ended up being on the short side of the family) but from a doctor or a nurse this is totally inapropriate and definately shows something of a ‘you failed’ mentality towards the mother.

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