When Melodie Robinson heard her cousin, All Black Piri Weepu, had been given a hard time for bottle-feeding his kids, she took it personally. Piri was criticised in February when he appeared in a TV advertisement bottle-feeding his daughter Taylor, and sports broadcaster Melodie found the debate annoying due to her own experiences.
Although Melodie (38) had no problems breastfeeding her eldest child Jenson (now 2)), it didn’t come easy the second time around with her baby Freddie, who she had to bottlefeed at four months. “With Freddie there were problems with breastfeeding from the get-go,” says Melodie, who shares parenting duties with her husband, former pro golfer Marcus Wheelhouse.
“I breastfed as long as I could, but when you’re moving fast your milk supply goes down,” the former Black Fern says. “My milk supply started drying up and he got hungry.”
The busy mum is a presenter on RugbyCentre, Friday Night Football and Sideline on Sky Sport, as well as Prime Rugby and the Boil Up on Maori TV. Melodie was back on TV only six weeks after Freddie’s birth, due to the Rugby World Cup. She tried using breast pumps to supply milk, but eventually had to use formula.
“I was doing things like trying to express in the bathroom while on a plane to a rugby match in Dunedin. I was sitting there in the toilet, thinking, ‘People can hear this!'” she says. “The reason I started topping him up with formula is because he got jaundice and he wasn’t suckling properly.
“I don’t think it’s fair [when people judge mothers who don’t breastfeed]. Motherhood is hard enough as it is and sometimes the only option is to switch.” Melodie and Piri are cousins through their great grandfathers, brothers Tom and Toby Robinson (one a former All Black and the other a New Zealand Maori representative).
Although she was just as tough as Piri in her own rugby playing days, Melodie says she finds being a mum much harder. And she was horrified when she heard Piri was being slated for “promoting” bottle-feeding in an anti-smoking advertisement in February. “I think it’s fantastic Piri feeds his kids. He looks after them when he can. He’s a great role model for Maori dads.”
Melodie describes life in the Auckland home she and Marcus are currently renovating as “pretty chaotic”. But although it’s unfinished, the house echoes with laughter from the two boys playing in the lounge. When he’s not working as a golf coach, Marcus takes care of Jenson and Freddie while Melodie is at work. And last year Marcus had to really step up when Melodie was busy during the Rugby World Cup.
“It was a once in a lifetime opportunity for Melodie,” he says. “She loves her job and I can never take that away from her.” Although she’s back in the rugby season now, Melodie has also stepped up her fitness regime, spending five days a week on various forms of exercise, such as touch rugby, to shed baby weight.
“I put on 12kg for Freddie, which isn’t that much, but my body changed from toned to soft because I hadn’t trained. “Variety keeps me motivated. Last year I got Piri to play for us in our touch tournament and thanks to him our team got into the final,” she says. Melodie jokes that she’s had some of the “worst looks on telly”, including an “MC Hammer jump suit” and a “Kate Bush hairstyle”.
After chatting to the Weekly, Melodie rushes out the door with Freddie in her arms on a shopping trip to buy new clothes to fit her new figure. Despite her busy schedule, she still thinks her life is simple. “I admire mums that stay at home with their kids. My friends say I need to go back to work to get a break,” she jokes.
