Pregnant! Oh the joy, the happiness, the dreams of the future and all it holds. Eating right, moving her body, hiring a midwife, learning all the things to a natural birth and taking care for herself and her son. The time comes and she begins labor, her waters break but there are no contractions. They do all the things to get labor going but her body just does not kick into gear for contractions that last and it is looking as if a surgery is going to be the result. How does this happen, she did all of the right things, this was never the plan, never the way she thought she would be meeting her son!
Cold, impersonal, no one meets her eyes. Their faces are hidden behind masks, no relationship, no care or concern for the fears and adrenaline that are coursing through her body now. This is just another routine surgery for them, another protocol, another step by step process of removing a child from the warmth he has known. Her hands are restrained, she cannot reach out to him as he is pulled from her body, she does not see his face as they take him over to the side away from her. They are weighing, measuring, doing things that could have waited as he screams, wanting only one thing.... his Mother.
She is broken but she presses on to tend to her son. She hears them say she should be thankful. She is thankful. She is SO IN LOVE with her son. She is SO BROKEN. The two truths exist within her.
(I know there are times when surgery is necessary. I know there are care providers in hospitals that are amazing and treat women very well. I also know there are many women with very broken stories and they need to be heard and supported. My prayers are for you all today, warrior women.)