Little People, Big World celebrity Tori Roloff has given birth to a baby who, like her husband Zach, was diagnosed with dwarfism. She then realized that this would not be the only challenge she’d have to face in the future.
After Tori started working on the family’s farm, fans thought her and Zach were a match made in heaven. Zach asked Tori out four months later, and Tori thought she had met the man of her dreams.
After four years, Zach proposed to Tori and they got engaged. Tori said, “We’re such a unique pairing, and we have a cool story to share, but it was terrifying. But the show has helped me realize I shouldn’t worry about what other people think.” Although Zach confessed that he never thought he was prepared for marriage but was excited about their future.
Zach and Tori exchanged their vows on July 27, 2015, with 100 of their friends and family present, the couple said “I do” during the show’s 9th season and it was the second wedding in the series. The first wedding was when Zach’s twin Jeremy married his girlfriend Audrey. It would not be the last.
In 2016, Zach and Tori announced that they were expecting their first child. They both understood that their new baby could be born with dwarfism. When discussing the possibility, Tori said, “No parent wants to hear that their child is different, no matter what that is.” Zach said, “But to me, that’s not different, he’s just like me.”
Tori Roloff was thrilled that she was going to a mother for the first time in her life, but also nervous about the prospect of bringing a new life into the world.
Before the birth of their new child, Zach and Tori had been together seven years. Tori marked the big event with a post on Instagram. “Zachary, you make me smile every day, and I love our conversations about life and our dreams together. You are my better half, and I pray every day that I can be a better wife to you. Not long after, the couple welcomed a baby boy to the family.
On May 12, 2017, their baby came to this world. As Tori and Zach had expected, the baby was born with dwarfism. However, this took nothing away from the joy of the occasion.
Zach and Tori named their baby Jackson. Zach said, “You have to encourage a dwarf child a little more because it will take them five steps to do what others can do in two, but I knew, dwarf or not, I was going to parent my child with the mentality that not everyone gets a trophy. You have to earn it.”
The couple never let Jackson’s disability be a burden or a roadblock in their love of him. Tori was willing to share their love of Jackson on Instagram and update her followers on everything related to her son.
However, in one post, Tori described her biggest challenge. She said, “Hands down the hardest thing about being a mom has been breastfeeding. It was something I did not expect. I just figured it would come naturally because it’s what nature intended – I was so wrong.” Plenty of mothers appreciated her openness on the subject as they also face the same challenges.
Breastfeeding has been a stigmatized topic for many years and plenty of women debate why it has become so taboo. Outside pressure makes them feel awkward or inappropriate about breastfeeding in public. But they can’t give up providing the nutrients to their baby. This causes mothers to become quite confused about how they should care for their new baby.
Breastfeeding was not an easy task for Tori at first. She felt a little bit awkward, but finally, her assertiveness paid off. “I’m providing for my child,” she noted, adding that “[Jackson] and I have come a long way, and we work well together now, and I’m proud of that.”
Tori’s followers praised her for being their voice and speaking openly of her difficulties. She received a lot of support and praise for her posts and was swamped with positive messages from all over, but not only mothers reached out.
Experts who deal with this matter daily turned to Tori’s Instagram posts to speak their minds. “I work as a nurse in women’s services. Over the past ten years that has been a huge push within hospitals to get everyone breastfeeding. The concept is great, but it is not reality. I have said this for a while that we are setting up moms to have a lot more postpartum depression issues.”
Tori is not the first TV persona to discuss the stigma that mothers have to face when having a baby. Many celebrities such as Chrissy Teigen, Gisele Bundchen, and Alanis Morissette have expressed their opinion on this issue. They’ve posted pictures of themselves breastfeeding their newborns.
Tori and Zach have had to face a lot of criticism, but it has never taken away from the unlimited amount of love the two have for young Jackson. She has lived happily and, of course, like many regular moms, faces various challenges and struggles. But there is no doubt that one thing she will never regret is being with Zach.
