Sports announcer and former NFL player Boomer Esiason recently said on his radio show that he doesn’t support Mets second baseman Daniel Murphy’s choice to take paternity leave to be with his wife and newborn son. Instead, Esiason suggested that he should have forced his wife to get a C-section prior to Opening Day.
But Esiason should keep quiet about C-sections — and he definitely needs to apologize.
Here’s the background: While hosting his talk radio show Boomer & Carton, the former quarterback and his co-host, Craig Carton, bashed Murphy for his choice to be with his family and miss more than one game for the New York Mets. The two men understood Murphy had to miss the first game of the season because his wife was in labor during that time.
The understanding stopped there, however, as the radio hosts tore into the Mets player for not getting back by game two — provided the baby and mother were both healthy.
“What are you gonna do anyway?” Carton exclaimed. “You’re not breastfeeding the kid!”
Because, after all, what’s more important than three days of baseball — the allotment of days new fathers are allowed to take off by the league — in a season with 162 games? Surely not the birth of one’s first child, according to Esiason and Carton.
If the dynamic radio duo’s comments had stopped there, it would have been bad enough. But things got way worse when Esiason put himself into Murphy’s shoes.
“I would have said, ‘C-section before the season starts. I need to be at Opening Day,'” Esiason declared. “‘I’m sorry, this is what makes our money. This is how we’re going to live our life. This is going to give my child every opportunity to be a success in life. I’ll be able to afford any college I want to send my kid to, because I’m a baseball player.'”
When I first heard Esiason’s comments, I was outraged. As a woman, I found his remarks incredibly sexist and very insensitive.
To put it bluntly: A woman doesn’t get pregnant by herself. Two people are involved in the act of getting pregnant, and two people should definitely be involved in the decisions surrounding how the baby is brought into the world. A man shouldn’t demand his wife get a C-section just because it’s convenient for him. For the radio host to suggest that his wife’s pregnancy would somehow be in the way of his career is downright misogynistic and disgusting — no matter how much he tries to offset his words with fluffy dreams for the child’s bright future.
But there is one more thing that makes Esiason’s awful remark even more sickening: Cesarean sections are risky for both the mom and baby. As the world-renowned Mayo Clinic outlines, a C-section carries “a higher risk of complications” and requires a longer recovery time than a regular birth. Risks to the baby include breathing problems or injury during the surgery. And the list of risks for the mother is even longer, including life-threatening blood clots, infection and injury to nearby organs. Plus, there’s an increased risk for the mother during future pregnancies, especially in regard to the old scars from C-section surgery ripping open.
In general, C-sections are done only if there are health concerns about the baby or mom, though the Clinic’s website notes that some people do request a C-section in order to ” take advantage of the convenience of a planned delivery.”
Every couple should decide for themselves — with the help of their doctor — the best method for birthing their child. For some, that might be a C-section in order to have a “planned delivery.” But with his flippant remarks, Esiason ignored the risks involved in the surgery and severely demeaned the mother’s voice and value.
And for that, he owes Murphy, Murphy’s family and women everywhere a massive apology.
Watch Esiason’s rant below:
(h/t The Boston Globe)
