HW 36 - Pregnancy & Birth Stories

Person #1

I was the second child. My parents had already had my older brother for a year when they found out they were pregnant with me. They followed the footsteps they had set when they had my brother while my mother was pregnant. My mom went in to labor at 3 in the morning. So they dropped my brother off with a friendly neighbor and took my mom to the hospital. On the way there they thought it was a false alarm and began to turn back, but they were wrong. They described it to me as i was almost born in the car. To my mother, this had already become routine. She, again refused any medication or painkillers that the hospital would offer her. Several hours after entering the hospital, she was now holding her second son. Not 5 minutes had passed since she had given birth and her parents were already waiting outside to meet their new grandchild. She hadn't even had a chance to clean herself up yet. But they were just as excited as my mom was to meet me.

Person #2

I never met my real parents. There has never really been a discussion about them in my house because i accept the people who raised me as my parents. Not the people who gave me away. So i don't know the exact story of my birth. I know that before i was a year old, my parents came and flew to seattle and picked me up from the family that had given birth to me. I don't know the exact specifications of the trade, i don't know if my parents paid them, or if the other family gave me up because they knew they couldn't take care of me. All i know is i am home now.

Person #3

I am the oldest child in my family. My mom has told me time and time again about how she would bathe me in the sink with the baby book open next to her. Everything she did was out of her best judgement mixed with what the baby book had told her to do. She was young an inexperienced in the world of giving birth, so she was scared. She didn't want to do anything wrong because she didn't want to have that on her conscious. When she went into labor she made my father rush her to the hospital. She spent a total of 16 hours in labor. She refused drugs because she didn't believe in them. She said the faces my father made while she was giving birth was almost worth it. She said that as soon as the doctor walked out of the room, she saw her parents peering in the room looking to see their first grandchild. My mom said that the first time she held me, she knew i was hers. She felt the bond between us. Something that can never be broken she said.

What inspires pregnancy in women? Is it a motherly instinct or is it natural? Are they afraid of what will happen after words or are they willing to accept that for what they will be creating?

HW 34 - Some Initial Thoughts On Birth

As a teenager i look at birth as an after effect of sex, not as some primal need to reproduce. In the animal kingdom it is a necessity to reproduce and to have the most babies so that your species continues because you are at a constant threat of predators and higher ups on the food chain. Pregnancy can be scary for all parties involved. You are creating life, for the woman, they need to hold and grow a child inside them for 9 months. They need to change their eating habits, their working habits, and how they go about daily life. Not only that, but it is a stigma to be pregnant. People look at you differently and treat you differently. If you are on the train you offer your seat to someone with disabilities or someone who is pregnant. Not only that, but pregnancy is an incredibly painful process. It changes your body.

Even more important then that, it changes your mind. It changes how you think and act, you are no longer just responsible for yourself, but you are responsible for someone else who isn't able to take care of them self. They rely on you totally and completely to nurture them and teach them and just take care of them.

Some Questions i had:

• Are women afraid of pregnancy?
• What percentage of women are single mothers?
• How often do women die during childbirth?
• What are the infant mortality rates in the U.S.?
• What are the depression rates of pregnant women?