Law & Order (TV Series) Mother's Milk (2000) User Reviews

Lactation, that's the name of the game

[bkoganbing · 6/10 · 1 March 2015]

Jerry Orbach and Jesse Martin respond to an empty house with no parents and no baby which had been crying considerably. It all ends as one would expect with a dead baby buried in the father's parents backyard.

Leslie Hendrix's autopsy shows starvation. But not like the parents set out with malice aforethought to kill their newborn. For whatever reason the baby was not taking his mother's breast milk. Tessa Ghylin went to nutritionist Lee Brock who is a staunch advocate of exclusive breast feeding. But when the baby rejects mother's milk, what to do.

It is the position of the District Attorney that when all is said and done it is the mother that has the primary responsibility for care of the child. The father should have a hand in this as well which is why Michael C. Williams takes a plea and agrees to testify against his wife. He can as long as no privileged communication is divulged.

Angie Harmon prosecutes this one herself. She fought to have it that way. But she gets thrown a curve when defense attorney Donna Murphy requests for a bench trial before female judge Susan Blommaert. Fortunately the judge happened to be a woman. I know I would feel ill at ease were I a judge in this case with the issues involved.

As to how you might feel watch the episode and discover.

Breastfeeding not the culprit

[Noir-It-All · 8/10 · 8 May 2020]

Breastfeeding got a bad rap in this episode. Breast is best but it isn't easy to accomplish in a bottlefeeding world. The lactation consultant in this episode was correct that women have breastfed for millennia but she was wrong to insist that this immature and isolated mother do so. The lactation consultant should have known that through "the millennia" many new mothers received plenty of support from the community so that they can concentrate on the breast feeding relationship with baby. The mother in this ep did not have or seek this support and her husband was no help

Also, bottle feeding is no panacea; depressed or detached parents find mixing formula, sanitizing bottles and heating the contents without using the microwave to be a challenge.

As a registered dietitian, a lay breastfeeding counselor in the 1980-90's and former breastfeeding mom myself, I would never make a client sign a contract agreeing to breastfeed at all costs as did the show's counselor. Our goal was to instead enable the mother and family to make an informed decision about the best way to feed their infant. Most of us would have determined that the baby in this episode was doing poorly and the parents were not caring for the infant including feeding How? By counseling new mothers by phone. We also held monthly mothers meetings or pen to mom's, dad's and babies plus speakers about relevant topics. We rarely had parents who seemed to be as unfit as those in this episode but we sometimes had to call the baby's pediatrician or mother's ob gyn.

Today in Pennsylvania, as a health care provider, I would have to report them to the authorities.

Reasonable doubt

[TheLittleSongbird · 7/10 · 11 November 2021]

Anybody who has read any of my other reviews for for example individual episodes of the 'Law and Order' shows, am slowly working my way through writing reviews for all the episodes of 'Law and Order, 'Special Victims Unit' and 'Criminal Intent' with a long way to go, will know already how much admiration there is from me for anything that tackles difficult and controversial themes and issues. "Mother's Milk" is no exception and is going to hit home for those with newborn children particularly.

Like the previous episode "Collision", "Mother's Milk" has a lot to like and that it tried to tackle this topic is admirable. It however is not a great episode of the season, in a season that had many of them, or 'Law and Order' as a show at its best, and like that episode (though not quite as jarringly) the topic could have been handled with more complexity and tact. There was a great episode somewhere in "Mother's Milk", but it ended up just being good.

Beginning with the flaws, "Mother's Milk" is a little heavy handed and again makes it too clear what side of the topic the writers are on, especially when speaking of breast-feeding in such a negative light (which also has not aged particularly well with attitudes having changed). The defense argument too is on the judgemental side.

Did think that the early portions were nothing out of the ordinary and the conclusion felt rushed and under-explored which made it come over as not realistic.

"Mother's Milk" however has a lot that is good. The production values are typically slick with the right amount of grit, nothing is too fancy or too gimmicky. Nor is anything too static, drab or garish. The music is not too constant or emotionally manipulative, meanig not over-emphasising the emotion to make one think that's how we should be feeling. The direction is accommodating but also has pulse.

While not subtle, the writing is intelligent and taut, leaving one deep in thought. The case is an interesting one and really draws one in in the second half, it is also one that leaves one feel both angry and sad afterwards. The moral dilemmas that come with it are handled well, with the last lines resonating. The acting is very strong, Angie Harmon in particular.

Overall, pretty good but not great. 7/10.

What to do, what to do?

[rmax304823 · 7/10 · 3 October 2012]

Detectives Brisco and Green are called in to look at an empty apartment with blood on the floor and on a baby's crib. They track down the two parents, now living apart, but the baby remains missing. They discover it starved to death and buried in the back yard.

The charge against the young mother is manslaughter and the father is charged as an accomplice. It develops that the mother had given birth to a normal neonate some weeks before, has brought the infant home, and been neglectful. The baby cried all the time and the mother turned up the volume on the TV to drown it out. Little babies WILL be a pain in the neck sometimes.

The mother's defense counsel argues that the death was unintentional because the mother had been strongly advised by the hospital's lactation counselor that breast feeding was the proper way for the child to get nourishment. And, indeed, mother's milk passes on nutrients and antibodies that formulas lack. The parents had an abundance of commercial formula but didn't feed the child. In court, the lactation counselor sounds like a woman on a crusade, talking about "nipple confusion" and whatnot.

I don't know how many people recall what a serious issue this was during the 80s. The primary manufacturer of milk formulas was Nestles, a Swiss company, and there were outraged cries against it because bottle feeding was seen an artificial and unnatural. This episode touches on this sensitive issue.

I was auditing a class in Medical Anthropology in the years when this conflict was boiling, long before the release of this episode. The students were mostly women. I jokingly said I, too, was in favor of breast feeding because it placed the responsibility for feeding the baby back where it belonged -- on the mother. I was just trying to get a rise out of the other students but was unprepared for what came next, an immediate rustling sound followed by a tsunami of boos and hisses aimed in my direction.

Given that experience, as well as other impressions formed over time, this is a story about much more than mother's milk versus commercial formulas. It's about feminism. The mother may be the primary caretaker of the infant but the father should involve himself in all other responsibilities outside of breast feeding. The father has a responsibility too, and he must do more than work all day and slough household tasks onto his wife.

That, in any case, was the conclusion of the judge in this case. There's another issue that is touched upon, brought up but never explored. Are some couples simply unsuited for parenthood? How many parents, when faced with a baby who cries frequently, turn up the volume on the TV? Or worse? What is Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, anyway?

He points the finger at her, she points the finger at him. Reasonable doubt.

[Mrpalli77 · 7/10 · 19 May 2018]

An apartment's owner,after weeks without any news of the tenants, brought a new couple to see the flat. They noticed some blood stains next to the crib. The lodgers left the place with a big suitcase the last time super saw them. Unfortunately, they had no connection with neighbours but detectives managed to reach the father's parents. Maybe her girlfriend dumped him and he came back to his family. He attended the local church, the priest and a parisher said he was a very quiet guy (despite he had bad temper). His wife (Tessa Ghylin) worked part-time in a video store but they both found it hard to be parents. Who is the bad parent after all? The baby was put in a bag and buried alive in the grandfather's courtyard. Anyway he was previously starved to death, medical examiner said. Breastfeed is the issue.

We see in this episode sometimes a eighteen years old girl couldn't manage to deal with the burden of a child. He drove her crazy, but the husband gave her no support. Defense attorney was a heartless piece of cake, trial didn't progress the way it should have done, but Abbie did very good her job.

Still shaking my head

[CrimeDrama1 · 1/10 · 17 September 2022]

Aside from "Aftershock", this is the most ridiculous episode in this series. It is so easy to leave a baby at a fire station or a church OR give it up for adoption. If the mother really did starve her baby to death, that should be her punishment. Why didn't the grandparents intervene? Everyone failed that baby. There should have been NO opposition to a plea bargain.

The writers and producers, once again, sold out to make this episode as shocking and dramatic as possible but crime dramas require realism. Obviously real babies have died due to abuse and negligence but I doubt starvation? I find it interesting that the actress who portrayed the baby's mother didn't last long in the industry. The actor who portrays the father is not recognizable to me but has had some success since 1999.