Whose baby? "Your children are not your children. They are the sons and daughters of Life’s longing for itself. They come through you but not from you, And though they are with you, yet they belong not to you. " This is how the poet Kahlil Gibran expressed the mystery of childbirth.
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At the beginning of my pregnancy, I was determined to look fantastic all the time. No one was going to say, Poor thing. She shouldn’t have gotten pregnant so early. I wanted my appearance to reflect how I felt about having a baby.
As the weeks wore on, however, I was aghast to see a drooping form in the mirror with tired, shadowy eyes, a form that moved painfully, as though it were about to throw up. (It was) (more…)
During the question period, one student put up his hand and ventured that the human fetus couldn’t be a person, because at an early stage it looks exactly like a pig fetus. The professor, who was arguing that the human fetus is a person, and therefore had human rights like any other, said sharply… (more…)
I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw the ultrasound at 10 weeks. There, on the blurry, black and white screen, was a perfectly formed, active baby, swimming and twirling. I couldn’t feel her from the inside yet, but when I saw the baby, I thought, “there really is a person in there!”… a person with a rather big head (hey, you looked funny at that age too!), but with perfectly discernable fingers and toes, a huge beating heart, and a little elfin face. All that, and I didn’t even look pregnant! (more…)
When I discovered, just days ago, that I am pregnant, I burst into tears. Pregnancy has a way of bringing emotions to the surface. And what a time for emotion! It is a momentous occasion no matter how young or old you are, a rite of passage like your first date, your first period, your first car —and even more so, because it is more powerful. (more…)
There have been a whole host of women who made me think, “I want to be just like that when I’m twenty-two, thirty-two, forty-five, sixty…” They’ve shown me how to be a woman. First, of course, there was my mom. Moms are the first role-model for every girl. But at a certain age we look beyond. I learned how to put on make-up from a friend when I was twelve. My friend Becca taught me that you overcome shyness by pretending not to be shy. I learned how to dance from my fun aunt. From Judith Martin’s columns I learned that nothing crushes your enemies like good manners. (more…)
