Seagull Fountain » explaining the inexplainable http://www.seagullfountain.com online mother Thu, 09 Feb 2012 06:32:23 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 The burning fervor of the recently converted http://www.seagullfountain.com/2010/03/04/the-burning-fervor-of-the-recently-converted/ http://www.seagullfountain.com/2010/03/04/the-burning-fervor-of-the-recently-converted/#comments Thu, 04 Mar 2010 06:10:26 +0000 Shannon http://www.seagullfountain.com/?p=4325 I want to start off saying that if I’ve offended you by discussing my thoughts on birthing (by having thoughts that differ from yours), I am sorry. Though I feel that it matters, immensely, for me to learn and prepare for my final birth (oh yes, this will be my final birth), and though I feel it will help me be a stronger, more determined, more capable mother and woman if I stretch myself in this way, that doesn’t (honestly, pinky swear) mean I think anyone else is less strong or less determined or less capable or in any way less of a mother if she doesn’t care to think about these things, or if, having thought of them, decides to give birth hung by her toes on Neptune.

I really am self-centered enough that this is really ALL ABOUT ME. (and MY BABY).

(Though I have to tell you I’ve heard the air is very thin on Neptune, so you might want to re-think that).

(oh, I kid.)

Maybe this will explain some of my inelegant, sloppy, unintentionally incoherent analogies and plans: Reading about this labor and delivery stuff? To me it has been such a revelation . . . (I didn’t even know your body continually made amniotic fluid. My doctor told me my water was “low” with my first, and I thought, HOLY CRAP, better get the kid out before it’s ALL GONE, even though my water hadn’t broken).

It’s like suddenly I know the earth is round, and I am flabbergasted that people are still running around screaming that it is flat.

Have you accepted Jesus into your life yet? Have you been saved?

The sky is falling! The sky is falling!

When I analogized that there is maybe a right way for each woman to birth at each of her births (by comparing it to finding the right person to marry), that wasn’t supposed to suggest I thought every women should birth the same way, any more than I would suggest that we should all marry the EXACT SAME PERSON. I’m uncomfortable with the idea of even one sister-wife — you think I want to think that my husband is the right person for any other woman on this freaking planet besides me? H to the no.

And while I think there might be a best (right? most satisfying? safest?) way for a birth to go, how variable that turns out to be (one woman moos in the throes of transition, another throws pies at a clown for relief)  is one of the most fascinating things about this.

My whole point (and here I will plagiarize the Dooce): There are options! and choices! God is great! Praise be to Allah!

(the Allah part I threw in myself.)

And I think being aware of those options and being involved in making those choices makes you a (happier? more empowered? more satisfied?) person.*

(There, I said it. I am judgmental. If you choose to have a c-section because otherwise you will die, I think you are a better person than someone who would refuse that choice and that option. Sue me.)

*Ack, so maybe I don’t really believe that. What if you live in a repressed society, or you’re young, or the weight of the moral/intellectual authority of the medical establishment is so convincing you feel it best to leave it up to them? I don’t know.

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