The Skai Jackson Drama & Real Talk On Postpartum Stress

When I was six months pregnant with Maya—who's now seven and currently trying to teach our golden retriever how to use my husband's iPad—I got three very distinct pieces of unsolicited advice in the span of one Tuesday. My mother-in-law cornered me in the kitchen to insist I eat six dates a day to "soften the cervix," which sounds like a medieval torture technique. My best friend, who had just survived her own fourth trimester, told me to buy stock in lanolin and pump like a literal dairy cow the second the baby pops out. But then there was the random lady in the Target checkout line.

I was wearing these hideous maternity overalls that made me look like a pregnant Mario brother, buying family-sized Tums. She looked at my massive belly, leaned in so close I could smell her peppermint gum and stale cigarettes, and whispered, "Just don't let the baby daddy ruin your peace."

I laughed awkwardly and waddled to my car. But honestly? She was the only one who knew what the hell she was talking about.

I've been thinking about that Target oracle a lot lately while sitting here, drinking my third cup of aggressively microwaved coffee, falling down the absolute rabbit hole of the whole Skai Jackson, baby daddy internet drama. Because holy crap, you guys. The internet is treating this like a reality show, but it's actually a terrifying look at what happens when postpartum vulnerability collides with a profoundly toxic relationship.

The former Disney star and the internet chaos

If you've a life and haven't been glued to TikTok, here's the extremely messy breakdown. Skai Jackson is 22, a former Disney star, and she just had a beautiful baby boy named Kasai early in 2025. But the news about the Skai Jackson baby was immediately eclipsed by her child's father, Deondre Burgin, who goes by 'Yerkky Yerkky' online. My husband looked over my shoulder while I was reading about this guy's rap sheet and just let out this heavy, exhausted sigh.

Burgin has been an absolute tornado of red flags. In late 2024, he was arrested for a parole violation after literally evading law enforcement. Then there was the viral livestream. He went on camera and actually gave flippant, gross advice on "how to get a famous girl pregnant." LIKE, ARE YOU KIDDING ME. I was wearing my favorite black leggings—the ones with the hole in the knee that I refuse to throw out—and holding a lukewarm mug of dark roast when I saw that clip, and I almost dropped my phone in the sink.

And then there was the infamous Facebook post where he allegedly expressed regret over the pregnancy, which he later claimed was the work of a hacker.

Oh, the "I was hacked" defense. The oldest, most pathetic excuse in the modern playbook.

I mean, think about it for five seconds. You post something horribly offensive about your own pregnant partner, you wait for the massive public backlash to roll in, and then suddenly you expect us to believe that some mysterious cyber-criminal only wanted to breach your specific local Facebook page to complain about your personal life? Make it make sense. It's so stupid.

It's just insulting to our collective intelligence. If you're going to be a terrible partner, at least have the absolute baseline courage to own your terrible opinions instead of blaming the internet boogeyman. Total cowardice.

Skai herself got arrested for domestic battery back in August, but those charges got dropped almost immediately, so whatever.

Anyway, the point is, this whole circus is happening while a 22-year-old girl is trying to recover from childbirth.

What my doctor actually said about stress while pregnant

We read these celebrity gossip stories and forget that there's a real, bleeding, exhausted woman at the center of it. When I was pregnant with Leo, my blood pressure started creeping up. My OBGYN, Dr. Evans, basically sat me down, looked at my chart, and told me that if I didn't stop freaking out about my husband loading the dishwasher wrong, my cortisol levels were going to evict the baby early.

She kinda made it sound like chronic stress physically changes the environment inside your uterus. I had read some terrifying pamphlet from the March of Dimes about how high stress can lead to premature birth and low birth weight, but hearing it from my doctor while I sat there in a flimsy paper gown made it real. Your body literally pumps out stress hormones that the baby absorbs.

And postpartum? Oh god. If you bring a newborn into a house that feels like a warzone, your risk for Postpartum Depression and Anxiety skyrockets. You're bleeding, your hormones are crashing, your nipples are cracked, and you're supposed to be bonding with this tiny alien. If your partner is acting like a fool online or running from the cops, your nervous system is going to shatter. It's not just drama. It's a maternal health crisis.

Throwing money at the problem because we're tired

When you can't control the chaos around you, you try to control the environment. Nesting is basically just anxiety with a credit card. When Leo was a newborn, I was so overwhelmed by the sheer amount of screaming neon plastic in my living room that I thought I was losing my mind.

I ended up getting the Wooden Baby Gym | Rainbow Play Gym Set, and it was my one tiny piece of sanity. Leo would just lay there on his back, staring at the little wooden elephant, and for twenty minutes, the house was honestly quiet. I could drink my coffee while it was still hot. It's made from sustainable wood and non-toxic finishes, which is great for the planet and all, but honestly? I just loved it because it was pretty and it didn't play a robotic version of 'Old MacDonald' that made me want to pull my hair out. It just gave us a calm, quiet space to exist.

If you're also drowning in overstimulating plastic junk and need a visual break, you can poke around their wooden toys collection to find stuff that won't ruin your living room aesthetic.

I also bought him this Panda Teether Silicone Bamboo Chew Toy during a 3 AM panic purchase. It's fine. It's perfectly good. Made of 100% food-grade silicone, super safe, easy to throw in the dishwasher. Maya loved gnawing on flat things like this when she was tiny, but Leo? He just used it as a projectile weapon against the dog. So, you know, it's a cute teether, but your kid's mileage may vary. Still good to keep in the bottom of your diaper bag for emergencies.

Hiding your kid from the internet weirdos

One thing I seriously really respected about Skai early on was that she tried to keep Kasai's face and gender completely off the internet. It takes a lot of restraint to not post your kid when everyone is demanding it.

My pediatrician, Dr. Miller, casually muttered once while checking Maya's ears that kids today are going to have a really weird time growing up with their entire infancy documented online. He called it their "digital footprint." It made me feel incredibly guilty for posting that video of Maya having a meltdown over a broken banana.

When your life is already attracting negative attention, keeping your baby off the grid is just smart. The American Academy of Pediatrics apparently talks about this all the time, but honestly, it just comes down to trusting your gut. If people are being toxic, don't give them ammunition.

When the relationship is literally a dumpster fire

I read this stat somewhere that basically one in ten pregnant women are dealing with some form of intimate partner toxicity or abuse, and my brain just kind of short-circuited. Ten percent.

It's so incredibly hard to leave, or to set boundaries, when you share a child with someone. These guys will go on Instagram live and swear on baby that they're the victim, that they're going to step up, that everyone is just hating on them. And then they turn around and do the exact same toxic crap the next day. Sometimes your baby d is just... not it.

When you're stuck in that cycle, you basically just have to draw a massive line in the sand and find a therapist who takes your insurance, while also somehow keeping your phone turned off so you don't get sucked into text arguments at two in the morning.

When everything else is out of your hands, you hyper-fixate on the tiny details to feel grounded. For me, it was baby clothes. I became absolutely obsessed with putting Leo in this Organic Cotton Baby Bodysuit from Kianao. It’s 95% organic cotton with a tiny bit of elastane, so it really stretches over their massive, wobbly baby heads without a struggle. It didn't fix my sleep deprivation. It didn't fix the fact that my husband and I were bickering about who was more tired. But the fabric was so insanely soft, and knowing it was free of weird chemical dyes just made me feel like I was doing at least one thing right that day.

If you want to feel slightly more in control of your kid's environment when everything else feels messy, grab a few of these organic basics before you worry about anything else.

The messy questions nobody really wants to ask

We all have the same panicked thoughts at 3 AM. Let's just say them out loud.

Is it normal to completely resent my partner after the baby is born?

Oh god, yes. Even in healthy relationships, the newborn phase is basically a sleep-deprivation torture experiment that makes you hate the way your partner breathes. But if they're actively making your life harder, running from responsibilities, or causing legal drama? That resentment is just your survival instinct kicking in. Listen to it.

What do I do if my baby d is legally in trouble?

You have to protect your peace and your kid's physical environment. If they're dealing with arrests or parole violations, you can't fix them. You just can't. You need to talk to a family lawyer or a mediator to figure out how to keep that chaos physically separated from your infant, even if it breaks your heart.

Does my postpartum stress genuinely affect my infant?

I mean, my doctor basically told me that babies are like little emotional sponges. They control their nervous system by syncing up with yours. If you're constantly terrified, crying, or screaming, they feel that tension. But feeling guilty about being stressed just makes you more stressed! So you just have to ask for help from literally anyone else—your mom, a friend, a neighbor—so you can go take a shower and scream into a towel.

Should I keep my baby off social media entirely?

There's no perfect answer, but if your life is currently surrounded by drama, trolls, or toxic family members, going dark is the safest bet. You don't owe anyone photos of your child. Your baby is not content. They're a tiny, vulnerable person, and protecting their privacy is one of the few things you honestly have total control over right now.