Sacrifice

When a woman chooses to have a child, she is choosing the greatest sacrifice of her life. This is because having a baby mean sacrificing her body to carry the baby within. After conception and as soon as the baby is implanted onto the walls of the uterus, the baby begin to receive nourishment from the mother's body. It is for this reason that my obstetrician used to tell me, "there's no such thing as a malnourished baby, a malnourished mother, yes, but not a malnourished baby."

With a baby growing within, a woman's body slowly but surely changes. Some rejoice as they watch their breasts fill out but despair when they see their thighs doing the same. Stretch marks are almost a given thing and some women develop terrible allergies. Backaches, insomnia, nausea, the list goes on. For many women, even as they fight to get above these irritations, they are expected to perform their duties at home and work fully, no excuses.

I've only described the physical part of pregnancy, what about the emotional and mental upheaval that a woman goes through when she finds out that she's with child? She constantly worries whether the baby will be ok. She wonders if her husband still loves her and finds her attractive when she's got her head in the toilet bowl most mornings. Some worry about the expenses that a baby will bring.

When the day finally dawns for the baby to meet his/her parents, the woman's body again goes through another upheaval. The PAIN is indescribable, the backache that accompanies when the baby is pressing against the backbone, the contractions, the anguish of the moment. Everything comes to a head and time stands still until with a whoosh, and the baby is out!

If you think that's the end of your suffering, sorry to disappoint you, there's more to come. Think the stitches on the perineum, the cracked nipples during breastfeeding, which I think is even more painful than childbirth itself, the ongoing fatigue etc.

Sacrifice? You bet!