As I was saying in my previous post, it is a statistical fact that the majority of women around the world tend to labor through the night. (For nocturnal creatures, the opposite is true.) Why? Well, some scientists posit that laboring at night is the result of evolutionary biology. Going back to early human times (and as is the case with the majority of other mammals) we want to give birth safely surrounded by those we trust - our tribe, clan, family etc. During the day, the men would have been off hunting woolly mammoth and the other women far flung gathering nuts and berries. At night, everyone would have been around to protect the space from predators.
I wondered whether I would fall into that pattern with this birth. Of course, I hoped I would because my mother, whether she remembers it or not, was disinvited from coming to the house to take care of our other two boys during labor. And having an active four-year-old and an 11-year-old who did not really want to see or hear any of this birth, we were worried how it would work out.
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I can relate to that! I had no one to watch my children for me at my third birth, first home birth, because my mother also did not want to be involved. She was scared to be there and didn't want her emotions to rue the day. In the end, my kids did really well through a very fast (daylight) birth and my mother decided at the last second to come only to miss the whole thing. I had another home birth last year and am awaiting my twins via home birth in May. :)
So, we were disinvited. But my bags were still packed and already in my car. Just in case. We adjusted our work schedules so that we would be able to leave for Boston at a moments notice. The usual weekend visits preceding the big event skirted around the issue of the birth. We were really excited about the new baby but we all decided that the topic was off limits for all of us. Looking back, I wish it could have been different.
Funny - my biggest worry during my second pregnancy was not over labor but where my first child would be and the timing of it all and how it would affect him and who would care for him and how to help him integrate the experience, etc. etc.
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