Miss Universe Finalist Slammed for How She Held Newborn in Selfie
The anger-inducing mom-and-baby snap. (Photo: Instagram/chontelduncan)
It’s always open season on people’s parenting skills when it comes to social media, even for celebs — remember Kim Kardashian’s car seat fail and Ryan Reynolds’s baby carrier flub? And the latest high-profile victim is beauty queen Chontel Duncan, who has been harshly criticized for the way she held her newborn in a selfie she posted to Instagram.
Related: Fitness Model Chontel Duncan Posts First Photos Since Giving Birth
“Maybe you should support your child’s neck a little more,” was just one of more than 3,400 comments, many of them critical, on the April 8 post. The photo showed Duncan, an Australian fitness model and former Miss Universe finalist, holding 13-day-old Miah upright in one hand and her iPhone in the other, posing in front of a bathroom mirror. Miah’s head is flopped back, unsupported, just above Mom’s bare, toned midriff.
Related: Beauty Products to Use Throughout Your Pregnancy
Other comments have had the same message but an even nastier tone. “Wow, she couldn’t have taken a photo with a camera and kept both her hands on her baby…what a selfish attention seeking whore…that kid will not live long if she continues to ‘care’ for him this way,” shamed one. Another reminded her, “Do not be that selfish — now you are a mother,” and yet another, “What is wrong with you, look at your child!!!!!”
Barely showing at 40 weeks. (Photo: Instagram)
Still others came to her defense, with one fellow mom noting, “Precious little man, bet he wiggled just as you took the pic. Forget the haters — being a first time mum can be hard enough (I have 5 children) let alone having people put down your every move.”
Duncan, who lives in Brisbane, was subject to frequent criticism throughout her pregnancy too — for working out, maintaining rock-hard abs, and barely looking like she was expecting at all. In March she posted a photo of herself standing belly to belly with a friend who indeed looked very pregnant in order to show how differently women can carry babies.
“People think I’m harming my baby … and that I’m all about staying skinny and not nourishing my little D,” Duncan had told Us Weekly. “I know it’s hard to believe that someone can carry a child the way I am, but in reality, a lot of women carry like me.”
The repost, which came with Duncan’s fired-up response. (Photo: Instagram)
This time around, she responded to her haters on Instagram with a repost of the controversial photo alongside one taken just moments before. In the caption she explained, “Sorry but I’m not going to be nice about what I think about your belittling attempts to educate me on the safety or better yet my intentions as a new mum… As explained earlier Miah lifted his head up an for that second that he did so, I just happened to have caught it on camera, before he then laid his head back down on my chest,” she wrote. “Newborns can lift their own heads up its not me standing there with his head flicked back shooting away… So have faith people and if you honestly don’t like my page just CLICK UNFOLLOW!!!!!”
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