Childbirth in My Life and Around the World

I haven’t had any children and I don’t quite remember the experience my mother had when I was born or the experience I had when I so eloquently presented myself to the world. I’ve always been curious about pregnancy as I watch many women go about their day with another being inside their uterus. How does it feel? What is it like?

Three years ago, a co-worker of mine was hospitalized due to complications with her pregnancy. She was always on the go, a very busy woman. Another first grade teacher and I went to visit her. Though she was hospitalized, she was constantly on her laptop, which the nurses finally took away, determined to finish her dissertation. In the midst of our visit, she began experiencing contractions. As she clinched the bed rails and moaned in pain, I became scared. This was my first time seeing someone experience the pain of childbirth and it changed my perspective on what it would be like. Though she was a woman of strength while her husband was away, I knew that this was something that I did not want to go through alone.

Though I don’t know a lot about pregnancy, I am familiar with some traditions related to childbirth within my family. The elders of my family encourage us not to do certain things, not to listen  to certain music, and to be careful what we do or say around the baby. I once asked a parent of a student I taught how her children became so smart and intellectual. She mentioned that she believed it had a lot to do with what she was doing while she was pregnant with each of them . She further mentioned that when she was pregnant with her middle child, she was finishing her master’s degree. She did a lot of reading which might explain why her daughter always has a book and thinks outside the box.

When comparing my childbirth experiences, or the experiences of others, with childbirth experiences in China, I realize that there are some similarities and some differences. Of course, in China, they are encouraged to have just one child. In some families and cultures in America and other places around the world, the more children the merrier.  In both China and in some families, parents of unborn children are encouraged to read stories to their fetus. Contrary to the views in China, many women that have been pregnant consider it okay to have sex during their pregnancy. In China, sex is strictly forbidden.

In the United States, many new parents opt to have an ultrasound in order to determine the gender of the unborn fetus, but in China, the government has strictly prohibited it. Women in China give birth without their husbands present.

Source:
http://mqhrg.mcgill.ca/i/kartchner_Callister.pdf