Bored Panda

Understanding why people shake their baby. Of course it is absolutely horrible and it seems like it should make sense that nobody should even think about doing it but I have an understanding of how it can happen now. I had my own daughter 4 years ago and swore up and down that nobody but a monster would shake their child but let me tell you that sleep deprivation is hell and it is terrifying. When my daughter was a newborn, she was crying very hard one particular night and nothing we did seemed to soothe her crying. My insanely sleep deprived brain started trying to take over and I could feel the urge to shake her. Luckily, I had just enough cognitive function to recognize that I was in a very vulnerable and bad situation. I set my daughter back down in her crib and walked away for a little while so as to wake myself up some more. That is the most scared I've ever been of what the human brain is capable of.