keep on keeping on

I have to admit that maintaining a blog like this one is not for the faint of heart. There is something decidedly soul-sucking about posting link after link, post after post about the atrocious things that happen to women and babies during pregnancy, birth and infancy. Worse, though, is the overwhelming culture of fear which afflicts not only so many health care practitioners, but those same women. Repeatedly reading women defending their unnecessary and damaging caesareans, convinced that normal birth would have assuredly killed them and their babies, is, quite frankly, hard. I'm a total wimp for writing that, but it's true: it hurts me. It hurts me for the baby's sake and it hurts me for the mother's sake. It hurts me as a lover of people, as a lover of women, as a feminist, as a lover of liberty.

But for that same reason I can't not post, either. I recently saw an old camp friend of mine (yes, I worked at a camp, and yes, they were some of the best times of my young life). She is unmarried, unattached, not imminently having children, but she mentioned that she reads my posts about parenting and birth. One more young woman, set up to have a good birth experience, set up to make wise, informed choices. One more young woman empowered.

If that isn't reason enough to persevere, I don't know what is.