Australian fitness model Chontel Duncan just wanted to show off her newborn son Jeremiah on Instagram. But soon after Duncan shared her sweet April 6 selfie, the backlash began. “You really shouldn’t hold a newborn baby that way! He’s in pain! Poor baby,” wrote one follower, while another concerned commenter wrote: “Omg that babes poor neck. Hold ur child properly! More important than a selfie.”
The former Miss Universe finalist defended herself on Instagram one day later. “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,” she captioned a repost of her picture. “As explained earlier, Miah lifted his head up and 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. Newborns can lift their own heads up, it’s not me standing there with his head flicked back shooting away.”
The 6-foot-1 social media sensation first grabbed headlines in November after posing tummy-to-tummy with her friend Nat, who was just four weeks further along in her pregnancy.
Addressing the difference in their belly sizes, Duncan noted: “Each woman carries differently, and this most certainly doesn’t mean one is doing something wrong or not healthy. We both have healthy growing babies, and we both have had incredible pregnancies so far, feeling amazing and full of energy.”
Duncan, 27, and her husband, Sam, welcomed their 7-pound, 13-ounce baby on March 25.
At 37 weeks pregnant, Duncan was still kickboxing and doing plate pushes. “People think I’m harming my baby … and that I’m all about staying skinny and not nourishing my little D,” she told Us. “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.”