She lost 30lbs. of baby weight almost instantly! (CHRIS/SCOTT/bauergriffinonline.c)
She says labor doesn’t hurt! (AKM IMAGES / Splash News)
She says her hubby’s love child strengthened their relationship! (Jamie McCarthy/WireImage.com)
She earned $25 million last year for modeling! (Alexanderk/WireImage.com)
Hey, Gisele Bundchen, thanks for declaring there should be a “worldwide law” requiring new mothers to breastfeed for six months after they give birth. Because guess what? Moms think there should be a worldwide law, too.
One that makes you shut up.
Because, really. It’s not enough you’re the most highly paid supermodel of all time (with an estimated net worth of $150 million) and married to the NFL’s hunkiest sports star (Patriots quarterback Tom Brady), but now you have to be the world’s most sanctimonious supermommy, too?
In an interview with Harper’s Bazaar UK — which hits newsstands today — Gisele gushes about her superior parenting skills since giving birth to son Benjamin, now 7 months old. The 30-year-old Gisele preaches: “Some people here think they don’t have to breastfeed, and I think, ‘Are you going to give chemical food to your child, when they are so little?’ There should be a worldwide law, in my opinion, that mothers should breastfeed their babies for six months.”
The response? Regular New York mommies everywhere are dropping their formula in disgust.
Not only did Gisele inspire more than 500 comments railing against her on US magazine’s Web site, she’s even angered breastfeeding advocacy group La Leche League International. And that’s saying something.
“One mother doesn’t have to be wrong so that another mother can be right,” says the league’s Executive Director Barbara Emanuel, who notes that Gisele never contacted the organization to get involved. “There are lots of choices out there for women, and La Leche League respects those choices.”
Regular moms, who often have to work 9-to-5 after just three months of maternity leave, or who have problems getting their child to breastfeed at all, wondered what Gisele would do if they broke her “law.” According to La Leche League, only 13.3 percent of American mothers exclusively breastfed for the first six months or longer in 2007, the most recent year statistics were compiled.
“The hypocrisy is outrageous,” points out 33-year-old Manhattan mother Carolyn Castiglia, who breastfed her daughter Adriana, now 4, for two months before she had trouble producing milk, a struggle she wrote about on mommy blog strollerderby.com. “What about women who can’t breastfeed? Should they go to jail?”
Liz Gumbinner, editor of coolmompicks.com, was one of the first to coin the term “sancti-mommy” on her blog — and she knows one when she sees one.
“The last person you want passing judgment on you is a genetically flawless supermodel who gained four ounces during her pregnancy,” says the 41-year-old Brooklyn Heights mother of two.
Gisele, in fact, gained 30 pounds during her pregnancy. But even that wasn’t an issue. Back to a perfect size 4 figure almost instantly after giving birth, Bundchen credits losing those pesky pounds to yoga and the martial arts. “I did kung fu up until two weeks before Benjamin was born, and yoga three days a week,” she pontificated to Vogue in April. “I think a lot of people get pregnant and decide they can turn into garbage disposals. I was mindful about what I ate, and I gained only 30 pounds.”
Her self-congratulatory comments revealed nothing but ignorance and contempt for how normal women live, mothers say.
“The problem,” says 35-year-old Elizabeth Beckwith, author of “How To Raise the Perfect Child Through Guilt and Manipulation” and a mother of two, “is whenever super-wealthy celebrities try to give advice to the masses it’s always really awkward because they just don’t live in the same reality as most humans.”
Beckwith continues, “That’s the basic problem. Asking Gisele Bundchen for parenting advice is like asking a unicorn for parenting advice. It’s not of this world.”
Gisele, mind you, is the same woman who tried to help abused teens in Boston by flying in her yoga teacher from New York to teach them self-esteem. But those selfish teens from the local shelters didn’t quite take to it.
“I forced it, and it didn’t quite go through. I wanted to share something, but I ended up realizing that you cannot save anybody,” she said of the ungrateful youths to Vogue. Instead, she developed a line of eco-friendly skin-care products to “teach girls to love themselves and take care of their bodies.” Because, really. That’s just what a homeless teenager needs to get off the streets, right?
“Who can take her seriously?” wonders Beckwith. “She lives in fairy-tale land.”
This isn’t the first time Gisele has sparked female outrage. In April 2009, women were left fuming when she made insensitive comments about her husband’s first son, John Edward, now 3, with actress Bridget Moynahan. Even though Brady left Moynahan while she was pregnant to shack up with Gisele, the supermodel had the audacity to tell Vanity Fair: “I understand that [John] has a mom and I respect that. But to me, it’s not like because somebody else delivered him, that’s not my child. I feel it is, 100 percent.”
Her pronouncement led “Good Morning America” to call her “a woman’s nightmare of a stepmom.”
One of Moynahan’s friends even fired back to The Post, “If Gisele loved Bridget’s child like he was ‘100 percent her own,’ then she would not talk about him to the press. Discretion and respect are not either of Gisele or Tom’s virtues, as was evidenced even when the child was still unborn and they publicly flaunted their relationship without any discretion whatsoever.”
Maybe that person should try yoga. Gisele seems to think it’s really calming.
In an attempt to dampen the flames of her most recent controversy, the supermodel posted a statement on her blog: “It’s unfortunate that in an interview sometimes things can seem so black and white. I am sure if I would just be sitting talking about my experiences with other mothers, we would just be sharing opinions. I understand that everyone has their own experience and opinions, and I am not here to judge.”
Still, Gisele likes to dole out the advice. She ended her Vogue interview by revealing there are two “secrets” to life: “The first is wake up in the morning and be grateful you are here, alive and healthy. And the second is: Give.”
And the third?
Shut the hell up, please.
mstadtmiller@nypost.com
Additional reporting by Ricardo Lisojo