To Eloise
You wrote three highly detailed birthing posts. I found them all interesting but the first one was the zinger! Bill Hill is not your run of the mill midwife. I think your best line(and there were several of these)was, "When Bill speaks about the birthing of his wife he said,'she just pushed it out, but I did most of the work', when previously he had stated that if there aren't complications all there is to do is catch it. I believe such contradiction and prejudice towards the strength of his wife comes from the fact that she left 3 weeks after the birth of their second daughter." Its as though his wife said to him, "You did all the work so you keep them." It seems really tragic that she left him and her two babies. I'm sure has a point about hospitalsbeing a sometimes negative part of the "birthing industry." On the other hand, if there are complications, it's obviously better to be in a hospital. Even in this country, when a lot of poor people had babies at home, a lot of the mothers and babies died. The section about your own birth in France was really interesting too. My mother wishes she could have had my brother and me in France. The services are so good. She was lucky that she worked for the French American Foundation here when my brother was born and had a year of paid maternity leave. I think you wrote the way you talk, and this makes the writing lively. You just need to edit it more and I think you meant "relevant" when you said of "prevalent."
To Naima
You intervieweed three different young women, and it's interesting that they all have different views about having a baby. I think the most powerful line is this one from Beinda:"I want to have kids because I feel like it’s a struggle that I have to face that will make me stronger. Every woman in my family has been an independent mother, and I feel like I will too. Its not what I want, its just a pattern I've noticed." This response sounds so depressing to me. You said that using the term "independent" parent instead of "single" parent might indicate a "more empowered sense of the possiblities of single parenthood." I think that raising a child is a two - person job and that having two parents usually makes life easier. The fact that Belinda calls having kids a struggle she has to face and that she thinks she will probably have to do alone because that seems to be the way it happens in her family is too bad. It sounds fatalistic, and I hope she'll be the one to break the one - parent cycle. You said yourself that you wished you had prepared some different questions. I think it might have been interesting if you had asked them about what they wanted to do with their lives before having children.
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From Mom
I'm glad that hearing about your birth and your brother's birth has made you think about "what a very big deal having a baby is." I think that perhaps I emphasized to you how terrifying the experience was and not enough how wondrous it was. The fact is that there is much to be scared about. Modern moms and moms-to-be read so much that they can't help but be concerned about all that they do while pregnant and all the things that can go wrong even if the odds are against them happening. There will always be someone who says to you when pregnant that we make too big a deal of having babies today. "Just think about all the women who used to have babies in the fields and then go right on working." The truth is that the fatality rate was a lot higher then for mothers and babies. Also many modern day women go to college and work and have careers. They don't consider themselves primarily baby makers. When the time seems right or when the situation is a stable one, having a baby is the most
joyful experience imaginable. Nothing is more rewarding or entertaining than one's own (or adopted) baby. The love is so strong though that when anything goes wrong, even minor things, the emotional pain is terrible. Most of us know people who have had big things go wrong. As you know, your former coach and his wife had a baby with a rare disease called Angelman Syndrome. Her brain will never fully develop, and she will never talk. Even with completely normal children the responsibility is just so great that most parents hope that their children will have their own full lives before deciding to have children themselves -- for their sakes and their children's.
From Dmitry
The bad luck of your mother's doctor was amazing. Not only did she take him away from his family on Easter but also Christmas. I guess watching football games with your dad wasn't so bad. The part about "Maple Syrup Urine Disease" really "stuck" with me. It is part comical due to the name, and part sad due to the seriousness of the disease. The way you structured the stories really kept my attention and intrigued me the further I read along. One experiment that I would like somebody to conduct would be to test if the "motherly connection" is different at all with a baby born naturally and a baby born via caesarean section.
From Eloise
Devin I think you made a very valid point, parents should really take into consideration the huge amounts of work that entail child care. I even neglected these thoughts with all my interviews. I like how you tied all your interviews back to the focal point that you grasped from your inquries. I want to know why you think women should have children when they are 30, their bodies can have them with more facility at a younger age. I think your strongest line was "Then she was told she had something called Maple Syrup Urine Disease (you can’t make this stuff up), which if not treated could cause coma and death for the baby.". I think that this line had great character and I could really hear your voice. I belive to make this part stronger you could have illustrated the point with more fluidity rather than just stating and then this happened and then this. I thought over all this was an interesting piece, you should just read over your work before publishing ! :D
From Naima
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