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From: inc@fluke.UUCP (Gary Benson)
Newsgroups: net.kids
Subject: Re: Learning about Life
Message-ID: <697@tpvax.fluke.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 17-Sep-85 12:48:38 EDT
Article-I.D.: tpvax.697
Posted: Tue Sep 17 12:48:38 1985
Date-Received: Thu, 19-Sep-85 03:50:27 EDT
References: <5876@cbscc.UUCP> <4303@alice.UUCP>
Organization: John Fluke Mfg. Co., Inc., Everett, WA
Lines: 33

>>        2) I want to know how all of you feel about the way we
>>           treat childbirth in America.  Is it good that most of
>>           us have never seen a woman go through labor?  Is it
>>           good that most of us have never touched a just-born
>>           baby?
 
> I always figured they tried to keep it quiet because no woman
> in her right mind would willingly become pregnant if she actually
> knew what she was in for.


Now what kind of crud is that? My mom was in her right mind, and presumably
so was yours -- I know that my mom knew what she was "in for" as you put it.

This attitude that chidbearing is some sort of horrendous experience is one
of the attitudes that develop when it is hidden. In fact, the exact opposite
is true (as far as I can tell, male that I am): childbirth may have pain
associated with it, but the joys of motherhood can eclipse the pain.

Personally, I feel priveleged to have witnessed a birth, and to have touched
a newly born infant. The woman involved very quickly forgot the labor pain,
and was in tears of joy over the new life she had brought. Not only that,
but having given birth, she now "knew what she was in for", and yet did it a
second time! Hardly the thing to expect of one in her "right mind", no? And
yet she *is* in her right mind, and your implication that most women are not
is insulting and degrading to everyone, yourself included.


-- 
			       Ensign Benson
			       -Time  Cadet-
 
    _-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-The Digital Circus, Sector R-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_


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