Have you seen this?!
All I can say is wow! I mean she was in the front seat and basically just pushed her pants down to make room and the baby came out! All deliveries should be like that! Although I would definitely opt for the hospital and the drugs and the doctors. I always pray for a fast delivery but always always add “in the hospital” to the end of that prayer.
At nearly 30 weeks everything around me seems to be about pregnancy or birth. I am sure this is all in my mind, like when you learn a new word and suddenly everyone is using it all the time. At my grandmothers this morning the conversation turned to pregnancy and birth. My grandmother is a bedouin woman and many of the women who were there today are also bedouin women. Meaning they are no-nonsense, made of steel. give birth alone then walk back home kind of women.
The conversation was about how women used to do everything as normal right up until delivery. One of my aunts was telling us about a woman who would jump up on her camel at 9 months pregnant. Apparently she just hopped on and off like she would any other day. Then they told me the story of the woman who went out to get fire wood and came back with her baby AND the fire wood.
I remember my grandmother telling me the story of when she went into labour with one of her children but she had visitors over at the time and felt it would be rude to tell them she was in excruciating pain while sitting with them and having polite conversation. It’s only when one of the visitors notices that my grandmother kept clenching her fists and looked uncomfortable did they get up and leave.
They discussed at length why women now have so many complications during pregnancy and how they can’t do anything at all during. How they women are not made of the same stuff anymore and maybe it’s because women aren’t active anymore.
It was then that Baby B walked into the room and straight for a hot cup of coffee shouting “Patuccinooo”*. I jumped up and raced to grab his hand before poured it all over himself. The reaction in the room was instant! Every woman in the room simultaneously shouted at me to “SLOW DOWN!” and “ALLAH YHDEEKI DON’T MOVE SO FAST!” and “SIT DOWN BEFORE YOU GO INTO LABOUR!”.
I burst out laughing at the irony of it all! When I pointed out to them the contradiction they laughed and my aunt said “That was women then, you are not those women so sit down”.
So yes. Women used to give birth with MUCH less of a fuss than we do now but along with all the super woman birth stories are an equal amount of tragic stories that end with the death of the babies and sometimes the death of the mother.
So in your opinion is the way it used to be done before all the medical intervention better or are you happy to have your sterilized room and flowing drugs? Do you think women had less complications then? Or more still births and losses of babies?
*Little side note; I had a very very distant cousin there who flipped out at me giving my son the foam from my cappuccino and no matter how much I explained to him that he is not actually drinking the coffee he kept going on and on about how bad it is for him to have caffeine. The irony in this situation is that this is a man who had just said to me “You’re lucky your kids sit in their car seats, my daughters refuse to. I wish they would but I just can’t get them to”… Seriously… you’re in your 40’s… your kids are in their 5’s and 3’s… if you can’t make them do stuff now God help you later. And I’d give my son an espresso any day over letting him ride in a car without being strapped in.
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