#childbirth

We in the West do not refrain from childbirth because we are concerned about the population explosion or because we feel we cannot afford children, but because we do not like children. ↗

— Germaine Greer

#afford #because #cannot #childbirth #children

It is incumbent upon us to respond to the unique needs of military women and ensure they receive proper care during the first year following childbirth. ↗

— Susan Collins

#childbirth #during #ensure #first #following

You know, there was a time when childbirth was possibly the most terrifying thing you could do in your life, and you were literally looking death in the face when you went ahead with it. And so this is a kind of flashback to a time when that's what every woman went through. Not that they got ripped apart, but they had no guarantees about whether they were going to live through it or not. You know, I recently read - and I don't read nonfiction, generally - Becoming Jane Austen. That's the one subject that would get me to go out and read nonfiction. And the author's conclusion was that one of the reason's Jane Austen might not have married when she did have the opportunity...well, she watched her very dear nieces and friends die in childbirth! And it was like a death sentence: You get married and you will have children. You have children and you will die. (Laughs) I mean, it was a terrifying world. ↗

— Stephenie Meyer

#childbirth #horror #jane-austen #death

The worst, the very worst requirement of friendship, in Eve Dallas's opinion, was sitting through an entire evening of childbirth classes. What went on there--the sights, the sounds, the assault on all the senses--turned the blood cold. ↗

— J.D. Robb

#eve-dallas #death

The desires for both a good experience and a healthy baby are very much connected, and there is nothing wrong with wanting both! ↗

— Jennetta Billhimer

#birth #childbirth #health #mother #experience

My friend Kathy is the only person who'll be halfway honest with me. 'Did you ever see a cowboy film, where someone has been caught by the Indians and tied between two wild stallions, each pulling in opposite directions?' she asked. I nodded mutely. 'That's a bit what giving birth is like. ↗

— Marian Keyes

#humor #family

I think because I did a lot of modelling and appeared in lads mags a lot of women didn't necessarily warm to me. But now I have been through childbirth, post-natal depression and struggled with my weight, women seem to relate to me a lot more. ↗

— Jennifer Ellison

#because #been #childbirth #depression #did

Publication is to thinking as childbirth is to the first kiss. ↗

— Karl Wilhelm Friedrich Schlegel

#first #first kiss #kiss #publication #thinking

When anesthesia was developed, it was for many decades routinely withheld from women giving birth, since women were "supposed" to suffer. One of the few societies to take a contrary view was the Huichol tribe in Mexico. The Huichol believed that the pain of childbirth should be shared, so the mother would hold on to a string tied to her husband's testicles. With each painful contraction, she would give the string a yank so that the man could share the burden. Surely if such a mechanism were more widespread, injuries in childbirth would garner more attention. ↗

— Nicholas D. Kristof

#empathy #women #women-s-rights #oppression

I could not get my fill of looking. There should be a song for women to sing at this moment or a prayer to recite. But perhaps there is none because there are no words strong enough to name that moment. ↗

— Anita Diamant

#love #motherhood #love