more than a miracle
It's one of life's greatest miracles, but couldn't it also be considered one of its greatest risks? When you think about it, two, assuming its not twins or anything more, lives are in danger when it comes to maternity, and that is a scary thing. Actually, maternity is terrifying.
I think my own fear roots from my association of labor with pain, and thinking that one day I too will experience this unbearable pain. I have always been someone who gets a little squeemish when it comes to blood and needles and and incisions. Despite the large amount of hate I get from friends for this, I still cannot even bring myself to watch Grey's Anatomy for these reasons, so naturally some parts of Gawande's article in The New Yorker were definitely difficult for me to read. He used a bunch of scientific terms basically to let the readers know that when it comes to this miracle of life, there are many harsh realities that are often looked over. To put it as simply as possible, there is a lot of pain, a lot of drugs, and a whole lot of worry. But what can we gather from this? I think the answer is just as simple: Women are amazing.
The fact that there are people strong enough in this world to live their lives with essentially a second human inside of them is shocking to me, yet women show it is possible every single day. They go to school, or to work, or to the grocery store or wherever and do whatever and all while their bodies are literally creating another person within them. While giving birth is so commonly paired with the idea of it being a miracle, the statistics show that it should be just as associated with tragedy. There are so many stories of trauma and danger and regret; it is intimidating to say the least. We grow up learning that anything short of a perfect birth, or the highest score on the Apgar Score, is a personal failure, and nobody wants to fail.
Pregnant women risk their own lives, and those of their unborn children every day that they live together as such. But if this is true then I cannot help but counter, why are we still seen as the weaker gender? Women experience the most physically, emotionally, and mentally draining process possible, one of which I am sure a male could not even begin to understand, and still are considered the weak ones. If we are capable of such a thing, and even more as so many continue their lives exactly the same, then it just does not make sense that the fact that a man can lift a heavier weight than me means that he is inevitably stronger. What is the true test of strength here? Maternity is amazing, and it is also terrifying, but if the production of another life is not enough to show the strength that women have, then I am unsure of what possibly ever could.
I think my own fear roots from my association of labor with pain, and thinking that one day I too will experience this unbearable pain. I have always been someone who gets a little squeemish when it comes to blood and needles and and incisions. Despite the large amount of hate I get from friends for this, I still cannot even bring myself to watch Grey's Anatomy for these reasons, so naturally some parts of Gawande's article in The New Yorker were definitely difficult for me to read. He used a bunch of scientific terms basically to let the readers know that when it comes to this miracle of life, there are many harsh realities that are often looked over. To put it as simply as possible, there is a lot of pain, a lot of drugs, and a whole lot of worry. But what can we gather from this? I think the answer is just as simple: Women are amazing.
The fact that there are people strong enough in this world to live their lives with essentially a second human inside of them is shocking to me, yet women show it is possible every single day. They go to school, or to work, or to the grocery store or wherever and do whatever and all while their bodies are literally creating another person within them. While giving birth is so commonly paired with the idea of it being a miracle, the statistics show that it should be just as associated with tragedy. There are so many stories of trauma and danger and regret; it is intimidating to say the least. We grow up learning that anything short of a perfect birth, or the highest score on the Apgar Score, is a personal failure, and nobody wants to fail.
Pregnant women risk their own lives, and those of their unborn children every day that they live together as such. But if this is true then I cannot help but counter, why are we still seen as the weaker gender? Women experience the most physically, emotionally, and mentally draining process possible, one of which I am sure a male could not even begin to understand, and still are considered the weak ones. If we are capable of such a thing, and even more as so many continue their lives exactly the same, then it just does not make sense that the fact that a man can lift a heavier weight than me means that he is inevitably stronger. What is the true test of strength here? Maternity is amazing, and it is also terrifying, but if the production of another life is not enough to show the strength that women have, then I am unsure of what possibly ever could.
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