Being a parent can be an incredibly stressful experience; however, one mother has received a considerable amount of backlash after calling 911 for baby formula.
The mother in question is one Shannon Bird.
Bird, from Utah, is no stranger to parenting, having five children in total who she raises with her husband.
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Bird chronicles her family life on Instagram, where she boasts an impressive 100,000 followers.
However, one evening, Bird found herself in a sticky situation.
On January 28th, at 2 am, something unusual happened to Bird. Her milk dried up.
Bird has breastfed all of her five children and has never encountered a problem like this before, so she doesn’t keep formula at the house.
Bird was left at a loss as to how to feed her six-week old daughter.
Six-week-old London needs to be fed every two to three hours, which was suddenly a big problem for Bird.
And, considering that Bird only had two ounces of breast milk in the refrigerator, she knew that this would only make do for one feeding.
Bird “went into full panic mode,” she told CNN , and she speculates that a combination of medication may have caused her milk drying up.
Bird began calling all of her family and friends.
Bird called a plethora of family members, friends, and neighbors, however, none of them were awake due to the early hour.
Bird’s husband was out of town at the time and she called him to see what she should do.
Bird’s other four children were asleep, and with one of them being in a cast, taking them all out in the snowy evening did not seem like a viable plan to her.
In her time of crisis, Bird turned to the local police.
In the 911 call which Bird placed, she can be heard to be on the verge of tears and saying, “I’ve been calling neighbors and no one will answer. I’ve never been in this predicament ever. My milk just literally dried out. This is my fifth kid and this has never happened,” as KSL reports.
Two officers responded to the call and turned up at Bird’s house with a gallon of milk.
However, when officers Brett Wagstaff and Konner Gabbitas arrived at the house, they realized the “need milk” request that they had been sent was for a baby.
Nonetheless, they were more than happy to go back out and fetch the appropriate formula.
In the officers’ bodycam footage, they can be heard giving Bird the regular cow’s milk and saying, “We’ll leave this with you. We’ll be right back with some formula for your baby. She’s adorable.”
Bird was shocked by the officer’s kindness.
When the officers returned, father-of-three Wagstaff, explained, “That’s the same stuff we gave my daughter when she was first born, so hopefully it doesn’t upset her stomach,” according to CNN.
The officers also refused to take payment for the formula milk, with Wagstaff going on to say, “It’s just part of the job. I don’t think there’s any officer in the world that would have acted differently. We all got in this job for different reasons, but all the officers I know just want to help people.”
The reaction to the story has been somewhat divided.
Bird has received quite a considerable amount of negative backlash to the story, having even been called “desperate.” People were enraged by her decision to call the emergency service line for such a problem — with people writing the likes of:
“What a poor lack of planning on your part. SHAME on you, taking time from the police because you aren’t smart enough to make sure you have enough formula FOR YOUR CHILD. It’s not your first child, you should have plenty of experience by now. How self-absorbed are you?”
“Wow, privilege is all I see. But thinks it’s cute to share. Of course, she doesn’t see anything wrong with this.”
With others claiming she only did it for attention: “She posts these things over and over again because the attention no matter negative or positive is still attention… attention= new followers = more money and more companies to work with to get free stuff.”
However, some have tried to defend the influencer.
Some of the more dedicated followers of Bird’s blog and Instagram profile jumped to the defence of the influencer, writing such things as:
“Girl, don’t listen to the haters. Clearly people don’t have anything better to do than put others down. Keep doing you girl!”
“I am not sure why people are freaking out but I do think it’s a beautiful story of people being GOOD and KIND. The world needs more people like this officer. Thanks for sharing. Postpartum is hard enough with out fear of not being able to properly care for your little ones.”
“All the haters need to peace out!!! Leave her page if you dislike her! Y’all need to learn some love and compassion ASAP!! She was a mom in need, you don’t need to question her and judge her decision because it’s NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS!!”
Hopefully, she will know to stock up in the future in case of such an emergency occurring again.
How did this story make you feel? Do you think that she was right to call the emergency service line, or did you feel that this was a publicity stunt to gain more traction on her blog and socials?
The real heroes here are the two officers who went out of their way to make sure that six-week-old London was able to be fed!
h/t: CNN