Usually you'll see people stop and smile, a sense of hope washing over them at the prospect of a brand new person being brought into this world, as if they were thinking, "Go on and make an impression on humanity. We believe in you. We always have."
I shared this vision of hope and wonderment, too. I was optomistic, even idealistic. I had the idea that the family would be wading through gumdrops and jelly-beans. We're kind of trained by television and movies that childbirth is a beautiful thing.
That is until Baby Doc shattered it with her classically tactical and brutal honesty.
The baby isn't squeaky clean. Apparently it smells bad. Everyone, especially the mother, is exhausted. The scene could be patched into any modern war movie and fit right in. Now every time that song plays in the hospital where I work, that image pops into my head. That song heralds a vision of a tired, bleeding woman, a screaming child, and an emotionally scarred husband thinking "What has been seen can never be unseen."
You see, because of the media, we're conditioned to believe that the baby is healthy, the procedure uncomplicated, and the aftermath strangely magical. Television does give credit to the fact that it is painful, but it still seems to romanticize childbirth. I'm not trying to mock childbirth and the whole process. On the contrary, women should be respected immensely for going through this nine month roller-coaster which has a painful, vulnerable climax whose denouement is ultimately going to be a teenager down the road. Yeah, a teenager! High five to woman-kind for being so hardcore!
I digress. Very easily distracted here.
The beauty is found in the strength shown throughout the process, the magic through the creation of life.
It's found in the hardships and the bonds formed from them. We're taught to try and be excited throughout the whole thing, when in truth being terrified is the more natural response. It is like a roller-coaster, bellybutterflies and everything. Sometimes there's even a lot of vomit depending on who you are.
Well, when it's all said and done, we can then look back and see what parts were fun and acknowledge the parts that weren't.
Pain-coaster is interchangeable with "Hate-Husband-Coaster" in some instances.
I didn't draw the Middle School and High School portion because it would certainly become the blueprints for a Death Coaster where the sheer g-forces would cause your brain to hemorrhage.
*Author's note: Just learned that there is in fact a "Death Coaster" blueprint that was created by an artist and verified by physicists. In reviewing the photo, it is very accurate to the analogy I was trying to draw in this post. Also, if there hasn't been a Heavy Metal song called "Death Coaster", there should be.
All in all, it's an exhilarating, amazing ride which results in the creation and nurturing of a new human being. And this is what goes through my mind every time that little jingle is played in the hospital when a new baby is born.
Every single time.
