Mother’s Day Links
Some interesting links in advance of Mother's Day:
- Send Michelle Obama a Mother's Day email thanking her for supporting child care.
- Tell your favorite mother you think she's the Mother of the Year (thanks to MomsRising).
- Mother's Day Facts from the Census Bureau: I would not have guessed that having a birth outside of a hospital was only twice as common as giving birth to your EIGHTH or more child.
- Ayelet Waldman reading from the first chapter of Bad Mother. Nothing profound here — she's not the first person to notice that we set impossibly high standards for mothers, or that it might be easier to compare ourselves to fathers — but funnier than I had expected.
I'm feeling a bit guilty because I'm going away for work this weekend — I agreed to do it months ago, and just realized last week that it would mean I would be away for mother's day. Whoops.
In going through my archives looking for a post I wanted to link to, I ran across this one from two years ago, commenting on the number of end of year activities scheduled during the day. It actually somehow reassures me to remember that this is an ongoing issue, and I'm actually far less stressed out by it than I used to be.
May 8th, 2009 at 7:37 am
Careful. Mother’s Day can make you crazy.
See:
http://notionscapital.wordpress.com/2009/05/07/the-story-of-mothers-day/
May 8th, 2009 at 4:37 pm
Sitting here with my 2 week old on our bed where he was born, I continue to be amazed by how outside our mainstream culture home birth still is. For me, it was a decision not without emotional tumult. I’m a physician; my parents were very much opposed. The range of reactions to our/my plans were fascinating. “You’re delivering at xxx” (the large maternity hospital in our city) is what people would say to me. I would reply: “No at home.”
“How brave of you!” (Brave? I would think to myself. I think it’s brave to deliver in that hospital.)
“Now _that’s_ interesting.”
“Oh. What made you decide to do that.”
Or, from someone with whom I worked: “How nice. I wish that had been an option for me.” (Her greatgrandmother had delivered her at home in another country.)
I would try to educate as much as possible — because what continues to strike me about this discussion is how much ignorance, in many cases, is out there. Sometimes it felt like talking to a brick wall, the cultural myths were so profound.
As Mother’s Day approaches, I am left wishing that, yes, this were a viable option for more women. I wish home birth and birthing center birth were more accepted, prevalent, and financially feasible parts of the birthing landscape here in the U.S.
May 9th, 2009 at 12:02 am
Thanks for the link to the video! Happy Mother’s Day!
best,
Anita, MomsRising.org
May 10th, 2009 at 11:56 am
I was not that surprised over the home birth statistic. It had me thinking about the past push for more c-sections or other medical procedures with birth and a potential relationship with a lack of home birthing.
I can’t wait to read Bad Mother and I am awaiting another book, Afterbirth. I recently came across some advertisements targeted at women in the 1950s and it is a shame that the high-level expectations and responsibilities of motherhood have not changed. What is more alarming to me is the continual glossy wonder of the tasks of motherhood and the mental oppression to conform to the same opinions. Recently I heard a female conservative critic on TV say that it is not neccessary to express the types of opinions in Bad Mother and similar blogs – that is what women’s magazines are for. Obviously they have not picked up a women’s or parenting magazine lately.