Link

-- hmmm (er@ah.ok), October 26, 2001

Answers

Clara hams for the camera while mom delivers the placenta in the background. Papa is holding Niel.

Don't miss it!

-- (midwifery@big.butt momma), October 26, 2001.

more on big butt momma

-- (no shame@all.babe), October 26, 2001.

It's cool. Birthing isn't always something that happens neatly hidden under a sheet as if you are ashamed of it. Yes, your ass can look huge, you're covered with blood, but you can feel like you are a goddess. And if it is your baby coming out, the whole process is a lot different from being an ignorant onlooker.

And for the record, since it was raised on the link to that moronic bulletin board: most of the non-industrial world (and a number of mothers in this country) nurse their babies for an average of 4 years. And yes, sometimes the older baby is not weaned, and you end up nursing two for a while (it's known as tandem nursing). I did both.

-- Firemouse (mother@two.times), October 27, 2001.

I have mixed feelings on this one. I don't want to fall into a "cause and effect" trap here, but my oldest daughter attended both births of her younger siblings. Right afterwards, my dad noticed that my daughter was stuffing dolls up her dress and then pulling them out in a "simulation" and asked if it was a good idea to have her attend the birthings of her siblings. I told him that I didn't know, but thought it appropriate at the time.

I didn't have my second daughter attend the birthing of her younger brother because they were only 14 months apart and I felt that too young. Now that the girls are 22 and 20, I can notice the way they discuss sexuality with me. The oldest is much more inhibited. It's as though sex is an embarrassing thing to discuss. The 20-year old discusses sex openly and honestly. I wonder if I did something to the older one in the observation of childbirth thingee. It's like most things in life, and I'll never know for sure, but I wonder.

-- Anita (Anita_S3@hotmail.com), October 27, 2001.

Anita, I wouldn't worry about that being a factor. My girls are 13 and 10. The older one did not see her sister's birth, but like yours is not comfortable about talking about sex at all (or any other aspects of her life that she considers private). She didn't even go through much of an anal phase as a child, and wasn't one to joke about excretion or other body products.

OTOH, the younger one is like having a pint-size version of Annie Sprinkle or Susie Bright around the house, and is very forthright about talking about sexual matters. Luckily I'm the sort of mother who doesn't get bent out of shape when her kid cheerfully warbles an improvised ditty about "My mama had sex with a flying squirrel, and she liked it..."

It may be a birth order thing, or just innate temperament.

-- Firemouse (two@different.beings), October 27, 2001.

Firemouse: I'll give it another 20 years and see what happens. I ALSO nursed the last two simultaneously, BTW.

Regarding the birthing pictured here, however, I think the woman started out heavy before getting pregnant. The pictures also indicate that she has/had a staph infection on her buttocks [quite common in Europe]. I wouldn't suggest that these pictures are indicative of a natural childbirth experience in the US.

-- Anita (Anita_S3@hotmail.com), October 27, 2001.