Insomniac pome, redux (see ailbhe, 25 Oct 2004)

[pomes]

There is a hippie in my head
With wind-chimes in her hair
Who warns "A section means you're weak -
It shows you do not care."
She peers from out her beaded fringe
To mock my "green" credentials;
"It's not enough," she coldly says,
"To honestly like lentils.
You must suffer for your love,
To prove your worth as Mother.
The bath of child-bed blood's the way;
Earth-Mothers know no other."

But I have chosen to accept
That I am not a Goddess
And it is, for me, enough to have
My babies judge my prowess.
I want to give my children all -
The born, the planned, the dreams -
A healthy, strong and loving mum
In ways within my means.
That means I must agree to choose
The uncool "science" route
And learn to bear superior glares
From those with young like fruit.

[Ed. Have had amusing image of babies dropping off like apples from stems, painless and natural - whole orchards full of pregnant woman/baby-trees, and white-coated obs wandering around with trugs and stethoscopes. OK, amusing and grotesque.]

Comments

[nex0s.livejournal.com]

i'm really glad to see that second stanza. i remember when the first one was written :/

and there's nothing "uncool" about science -- especially when it's helpful :) as in, allows you to live to be a mum :)

your baby is lucky she's got a mum who loves her so :)

n.

[feetnotes.livejournal.com]

as do i, also; may things improve steadily for you from now on, ailbhe; steadily, or - preferably - better!

science is (organised) knowledge; it's good. it is also the basis for our technology, i.e. our tools; these can open up hitherto undreamed-of possibilities: this, too, is good. the uses we choose to put them to, and in what circumstances, that's where cool & uncool come in.

and we're lucky, too, even if not quite so lucky as linnea :-))

[kightp.livejournal.com]

Your image could come straight from the old Rosalie Sorrells/Jefferson Airplane song:

"There's an island way out in the sea
Where the babies they all grow on trees (trees) ..."

Screw the inner hippie. Your life, your body, your choices.

[tiggsybabes.livejournal.com]

I have 2 emergency c-section babies & am grateful to modern science for it as my Grandma nearly died in childbirth with the same problem as me (small pelvis)

ex hippie here, too

[(Anonymous)]

I, too, am glad to see the second stanza.
I wanted the natural way, but after losing 2 pregnancies and a premature baby, modern intervention, sutures, drugs and monitoring made it possible to have J & G, who now, as teens, drive me up the wall.
We don't deny ourselves the modern conveniences such as internet shopping, so why should we deny ourselves the support of modern medicine? Your broccoli is just as organic, however you order it, and your kids are what you raise them to be, no matter how they came into the world.
Diz

[sophie-spence.livejournal.com]

*please forgive a complete stranger posting in your journal*
*I'm here from metaquotes*

This poem had a particular resonance for me. Near the end of my labor I overruled the "hippie in my head" and reluctantly agreed to allow the midwife to attach a fetal monitor - as a result we immediately realized that my daughter's oxygen was completely cut off in every single effective and comfortable pushing position. Meaning: if I even began to push, her heart rate plummeted; once I stopped, her heart rate immediately returned to normal. Using the monitor as a guide, the midwife and I were able to work out a usable though wildly uncomfortable pushing position.

Once my daughter was born, we discovered that the umbilical cord was wrapped round her neck which is not uncommon, except that her left arm had gotten wedged up alongside her head going into the birth canal - so that her arm pressed on and shut off circulation in the umbilical cord in all the comfortable positions.

Without the fetal monitor to guide us, my daughter would have been born brain-damaged as a result of prolonged oxygen deprivation in the birth canal. Instead, she's perfectly healthy.

I still shiver to think how reluctantly I agreed to that fetal monitor.

[ailbhe]

Wow. My experience was a little different - look at my journal for April 2004 for more information than you really wanted - and this poem is because from now on, any children I have have to be born through my tummy button, as otherwise my 6-year-old world-view might get damaged - no, as otherwise, I will be using a colostomy bag for the rest of my life. I'm already in - ah - serious trouble, shall we say.