A day in the life of
Ah, birth. What a wondering and amazing and life changing experience. You know, just in case you’d not contemplated the “life changing” bit, what with all the focus and stuff and what-not on the birth and how significant you have to make everything!
It’s just a day. Sure, the beginning of something hugely different and everything different. Oh, yeah, and for some, it’s a bit longer.
For me, it was just 3 days, erm, what with having three children and all.
Mine were all c-sections. The first an emergency, so it went for quite a long time. The others were scheduled into the diary. Quite handy for an anal control freak such as, um, myself. I do like a good Scheduling at the best of times. Even if these ones were quite accidental. Well, the first one, in particular.
What I have been most confused about is how significant this particular birth day is, post birth. Other than my other fetish of celebrating the anniversary of the birthday in the most cake-filled way possible.
Sure, it’s one crazy hell of day with lots of mess that someone else gets to clean up, and a significantly life changing moment. When it comes down to it, it’s “just” one day in the grand scheme of things.
I guess where I’m confused about the “significance” of it is the need to rehash a blow by blow account of each moment to others.
Especially in cases like mine, where I had caesarean sections. Suddenly, my entire being, and that of my kids, is based around that one significant day in my life. Everything that’s happened from there on in comes back to their birth day, and mode of birth.
With the possible exception of whether I breastfed or not, and if I used childcare. Although, those behaviours have also been attributed, by some, to the fact that their birth was not “natural”.
For me, loads has happened since then, and whilst their being here was a huge event in my life, it was still “just one day” in my life, and theirs, that has shaped them and created who they are.
And who I am.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mad Cow (also known as Amanda) is the mum to three boys, wife to a chef, writer, speaker, founder of Australia’s Bad Mother’s Club and Real Mums, a Live Positively Ambassador for Coca-Cola and, in her spare time, she creates sculptures from left over WeetBix. Her (almost) daily accounts of parenting can be found on her blog Diary of a Mad Cow.
Add Comment
0 Comments