There's No Such Thing as 'Just' Having a Baby

[Nevilledog]

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Laurence Tribe
@tribelaw
“A woman’s right to choose means I was able to choose to have my children, no better reward for the pains of pregnancy and childbirth, no greater responsibility than to bring another human into this world.”

nytimes.com
Opinion | There’s No Such Thing as ‘Just’ Having a Baby
There are good reasons American women overwhelmingly choose having an abortion over giving up a child for adoption.
11:48 AM · Jun 20, 2022

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/19/opinion/abortion-adoption-birth-risk.html

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https://archive.ph/IPS1s

There’s a lot I don’t remember about giving birth to my first child. But I do remember 24 hours of back labor followed by two hours of pushing to no avail. I remember, through a high fever and the agony of exertion, my body shaking with hard chills when I heard the doctor say the words “emergency C-section.” I remember feeling a scalpel run along my midsection and screaming “Yes!” when asked if I was in pain and then “No” when asked if I would like to see my baby. No way did I want to meet my child for the first time under these circumstances.

What I don’t remember is being administered ketamine, then primarily a party drug and horse tranquilizer, but occasionally given to women during childbirth — albeit with the occasional adverse effect of disinhibition. I don’t remember deciding, mid-surgery, that I’d had enough and declaring, “I’m leaving,” as I heaved my open body off the table. I don’t remember being held down by two doctors while my body parts were gathered and reinserted into my torso.

But I was lucky. It could have been worse. Many women who undergo emergency cesarean sections suffer from hemorrhaging and blood clots, including life-threatening pulmonary embolisms. Some women are injured by the procedure itself, which is, after all, major abdominal surgery and can result in a perforated bladder or bowel. Some women suffer from postpartum infections to the incision wound, which can reopen during recovery. Some require additional surgery just to get over the initial surgery.

When I was pregnant with my second child, I wanted to do everything possible to avoid another C-section. Many doctors refuse to provide a vaginal birth after a cesarean, or V.B.A.C., because there is a small (less than 1 percent) risk of uterine rupture, which can be fatal to the baby and gravely injurious to the mother. I managed to find a doctor who would. Alas, my second child arrived early on Thanksgiving weekend, and the task of delivery fell to another obstetrician, less keen on my plan. Throughout labor, he refused to answer when I asked if he thought the V.B.A.C. would be successful. Only after the baby’s head and broken clavicle were out of my body did he reply.

*snip*

[Diamond_Dog]

1. This is one of the best pro-choice pieces I've ever read.

It makes my blood boil that laws making abortion illegal are mostly written by men - who have absolutely ZERO concept of the trauma childbirth can cause to a woman’s body. And to force this trauma onto a victim of rape or incest is absolutely unconscionable! Add to that the fact that American hospitals are not exactly ringing endorsements for good maternal survival rates.

Add to this missed work days, missed wages, extra health care costs … it’s sheer cruelty. I see “pro-brothers” never seem to acknowledge the existence of these major issues.

Anyone who breezily dismisses pregnancy and childbirth as a non issue,who says “Just give your baby up for adoption - Easy Peasy!” is a willfully ignorant moron with no heart and no brain!

[Farmer-Rick]

2. Great summary of the endless possible deadly or disabling problems of giving birth

When my wife was pregnant with her first, during labor, the X-ray (required because of the questionable position of the baby) showed the umbilical cord was wrapped around his neck. Plus he was upside down or in delivery that is downside down. One emergency C section later, mother and son were doing fine.

Then when she was pregnant with her 2nd, about 5 months in she had placenta previa really bad. Found her passed out in a pool of blood. And this was when they found HIV in the blood supply and they couldn't give her transfusions. But she was strong and mother and daughter pulled through.

Birth is no joke. It is a highly dangerous time for many women. The reproductive system is one of the most vulnerable systems in the human body. Yeah, birth is natural but when it goes wrong it can go very, horribly wrong.

I never understood how casual some men and forced birthers are about demanding women give birth to every zygote identified inside a womb. I guess they never saw their loved ones almost die from giving birth.

It's a horror to force women to give birth.

[milestogo]

3. Unless you're Paul Anka

Then its very simple.

[gratuitous]

4. Yeah, "just" giving birth

From the same people who gritched endlessly about the tyranny of wearing an N95 mask around others.

[Hekate]

5. KnR

[Solly Mack]

6. K&R