Blog: My Greatest AccomplishmentsMy Greatest Accomplishments
The other day I was bemoaning the fact that some people choose to discount two of my greatest accomplishments as a mother (giving birth without pain medication) without giving it a second thought by saying things like "You must have easy labors." As if that is the only way a woman could ever say no to the epidural. There is really no way of knowing if my labors are harder or easier than anyone else's. For all I know they are easier, it just irks me for that to be the only explanation some people can come up with.
Today I added another feat to my list of greatest accomplishments as a mother. I dare you to discount it with thoughtless one-liners. Today I let Reasor play in the pantry while I finished the corn bread and put it in the oven, figuring everything in there was edible and pantries are safer than ovens. I heard him smacking his lips, but didn't think much of it. He is generally smacking his lips. After the oven was safely closed I went over to get him and found him grasping a roach. A roach. A roach! My presence startled him and he relinquished his hold, whereupon the roach skittered away and I stomped on it with only my slipper to protect me. (That was the feat. It fits snugly here in the middle of the story.) As I cleaned up the roach guts I hoped for all I was worth that they were roach guts and not baby drool. And then I saw it, an open container of raisins. Now dear readers, please join me in hoping that that was what the lip smacking was about. Please let it be raisins. Please.
Labels: Rant
posted by Talyn at
4:33 PM
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4 Comments:
Your mother had four children with no drugs. My reason for this sacrafice was to protect my babies. Tell your friends "if you have not done it you have no idea what you are talking about."
Catching a cockroach is no easy task. The chances of him managing to catch TWO (one to eat and one for you to squash) in such a short period are slim. Plus, I bet if he'd gotten a bug that big in his mouth he wouldn't have liked it and he would have let you know.
You are amazing. I confess that I recently let a roach skitter past because I lacked your courage. (Instead of attacking, I squealed and jumped on the counter.)
And as for unmedicated childbirth, I absolutely agree. Don't let anyone downplay your accomplishments. I've done the epidural thing and I've gone without (albeit unintentionally at first). I take great pride, however, in the third time around when my choice for a natural childbirth was very deliberate and informed. I feel much more connected to my natural childbirths, a closeness that comes through the fullness of the experience. In my opinion, few recognize the courage it takes to embrace the pain of unmedicated childbirth while society laughs for not taking the easy way out. Still, I wouldn't trade the richness for anything.
I just found your blog, Talyn, and this post was great. I feel the same way about my natural childbirths, perhaps even more so because they came after a c-section (which was awful and should be avoided at all costs which are not detrimental to anyone's health).
And the story about the roach had me both totally impressed and also laughing my head off!
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