miscellany of misselenaus @misselenaus - Tumblr Blog

giving birth sucks tbh. not only do you and the baby you’re birthing almost die, usually you shit yourself and often you tear your taint. then you have to push an organ out of your body (placenta) and if even a little of that remains in your body, you can hemorrhage to death or develop an infection that essentially rots your body from the inside out. even if you had a relatively “easy birth”, you bleed for weeks on end. even after that stops, your body and brain is changed for the rest of your life, the pregnancy leeched minerals from your bones, that can cause osteoporosis later. minor urinary incontinence is not uncommon, brain scans of people who gave birth show permanent changes in their brain, you’re never quite the same.

I say all of this not to say giving birth is disgusting but it is a harrowing and visceral experience. society downplays how fucking awful it is and makes it out to be a ~magical~ experience but it isn’t a magical transformative experience for everyone. it can be an extremely traumatic experience for someone who wanted to carry a pregnancy to term, much more so for someone who did not want to be pregnant in the first place or someone who knows their baby won’t survive the birth. anyway, abortion is a right. pregnancy and birth aren’t just inconvenient, it’s fucking awful.

surlyqueen

I was never more firmly pro-choice than when I was in the hospital actively birthing our daughter.

Our daughter was planned, wanted, was coming into a life with two parents who were able to financially support her, health insurance and paid(!) maternity leave, with extended family and friends waiting in the wings to support all three of us. All these advantages, and I was *still* scared. And frankly, it's still fucking dangerous.

And I imagined being alone and what it would feel like if I had been forced to birth a child I couldn't adequately care for or didn't want.

No one should have to go through that.