Comments on: Just like athletics: exploring a childbirth analogy

By: Eva

Eva — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 00:04:45 +0000

When I got about halfway through your post I was absolutely blindsided by the fact that what I was reading was nearly identical in a lot of ways to something that I had been reading yesterday. Except the thing that I was reading yesterday was written in early decades of the 20th century by Dr. Clelia Mosher.

She spent a whole career scientifically ripping apart the idea that menstruation was horrible and debilitating and painful and the only thing you could do when “the curse” came around was to lie in bed for a week and suffer. Women really believed this and expected to be miserable one week out of four.

Then she worked against the fear that menopause would cause women to undergo some sort of unavoidable nervous collapse, which was apparently very widespread.

The parallels absolutely beat me about the ears. These are the same words. That commonly taught expectation of dysfunction and pain and inescapable suffering in a normal physical process, just because it’s uniquely female.

In some ways it’s hard to believe that we’ve still in this place almost 100 years later. We can do better than this.

By: Susannah

Susannah — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 09:58:25 +0000

Not sure why I never read this post before, but YES! Birthing highs were something I’d never even heard of before my little one was born but I certainly experienced it. I felt like a goddess for about the first four days – and then the PPD hit full force. So, it is possible to experience both from the same birth.

@ Johanna – I love your example of Sojourner Truth!

By: Enjoy Birth

Enjoy Birth — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 20:27:33 +0000

I just found your post and I so agree. I also think moms do deserve a medal for birthing!
http://www.momsdeservemedals.com/About-us.html

By: Guggie Daly

Guggie Daly — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 14:19:03 +0000

Good post. I enjoyed the extended comparison to athletic performance, as a previous athlete myself. I remember the push to complete in a competition, the way we pushed our bodies beyond all conceivable limits, the way we were cheered and supported. It is all very true. No one every told me, “oh, best not even try for that triple, you’ll never make it” and even if it was clear that another team was going to win, our coach didn’t come up to us and say “eh, forget it, you won’t get the medal.”

Perhaps the most veracious part of your post is in regards to the ‘birth high.’ True, true, true. Post partum depression shouldn’t exist. It’s a contradiction. They say 1 in 3 women will have the baby blues or PPD or even worse, a combination of PPD and PTSD. This is such a huge sign that something is wrong. I was high for weeks after my daughter’s birth. Just thinking back to any part of the labour would give me a warm tingly feeling. I am more in love with my husband than ever before (he was my birth attendant). Women believe they are making the safe choice when they choose an OB and a hospital, but it’s because they can’t even imagine what they are missing.

By: Jo

Jo — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 05:54:43 +0000

Thanks for this. It’s an ever-timely reminder of the value in appreciating our capabilities (physical and mental – no matter what the challenge. I’ve compared labour and childbirth to mountain-climbing – or even a decent hill-climb. Sure you might get to the top on a chair-lift and enjoy the spectacular view, but there’s nothing like hoofing it yourself and having an even greater degree of satisfaction with that view – combined with the confidence and satisfaction that comes with triumphing the trepidation and the unknown. It makes all the challenges to come that much easier to contemplate too.

By: Ry

Ry — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 23:39:37 +0000

Lurker surfacing here: I love your posts, they’re well thought out and eloquent and I usually wander away feeling “thank god I’m not the only one who’s laughing and/or outraged”. On this post you are definitely piercing a “veil of illusion”…Thanks for putting it out there.

By: Rebecca

Rebecca — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 15:59:02 +0000

As a runner and a natural childbirther, I love this analogy (though my labour lasted so much longer than any marathon!)! One thing I find really interesting about the analogy is the parallels between the push for pain meds in childbirth and the history of women in athletics, and in running in particular. Women were excluded from competitve running until recent history. The Olympics did not include a women’s marathon event until 1984. One of the original reasons for this exclusion – it was felt that if a woman ran more than a mile, she would damage her reproductive organs and not be able to have children.

By: Weekly News Round-Up, 10/25 « Women’s Health News

Weekly News Round-Up, 10/25 « Women’s Health News — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 15:48:41 +0000

[...] at Raising My Boychick has an interesting post on how women who choose to give birth without pain meds are discouraged by others and told the pain [...]

By: Arwyn

Arwyn — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 19:43:56 +0000

As I was writing about “athletics”, I started thinking about all the ways in which competitive sports are seriously screwed up, and I realized that the attitude I was thinking of (of pure support, of running/biking/whatever for the joy of it, of doing something pleasurable and hard for a greater good) was primarily found in charity races.

Most of the analogy holds for any type of athletics, but there is something special about charity races that makes it a particularly apt comparison.

Glad you and Sam enjoyed it!

By: Lauren @ Hobo Mama

Lauren @ Hobo Mama — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 05:20:27 +0000

Ah, thank you for the charity race analogy. I will definitely use that in conversations with people. Sam and I were chuckling as I read your imagined discouragements aloud. I loved “You’re not going to get a medal,” because people can’t stop saying that in regards to natural birth! I don’t want a fricking medal. It’s not a competition. I want a baby.

I liked the commenters mentioning breastfeeding as well, because it seems that whatever we decide to do as parents, when it’s natural/attachment-oriented, is derided as “martyrdom.” As if that’s the ony way to look at it: win/lose, and in such instances you’re fighting your own baby.

And, Ruth — yes. Garrr. Still angry here, too.