You know how when you’re talking to someone you’ve just met, and your conversation follows the usual social mores about weather or occupations or where you’re from originally, or whatever? Well, if you’re a mom of littles and you’re conversing with another mom of littles, at some point, you talk about your birth experience(s).
NOT because we’re all trying to secretly judge each other (not all moms are as vindictive and petty as all the online magazines and mom blog articles like to portray us, ok?) – but because the process of giving birth is typically, like, a pretty big deal event to a woman. And talking about our birth stories with other women – who actually get why we have this crazy strong need to have to talk about them – somehow creates this weird motherly and womanly unifying bond of having been in the trenches together.
So yes, I kind of like hearing birth stories. No matter how they happened.
Even still, I always get a; bit, um, cautious, when it comes to how to approach my previous birth stories or current birth plans when in conversation. I find myself reading the crowd carefully before I start sharing too much. Read more…