pro-IVF

just sitting around overanalyzing my twinges and possible contractions....

given all the weirdo stuff about IVF in the public media I just wanted to share a little anecdote.

A few weeks ago my husband and I attended a very short breathing/birth class at the hospital. I learned to make the noises of various birds and it was fine. There was one couple there who definitely looked older than us and the husband was a card. He was a breath of fresh air compared to the much younger-looking husbands who blanched at the word 'vagina'. His wife seemed very sweet if somewhat long-suffering but patient with her goofy mate.

Yesterday I went to an epidural class at the same hospital where EVERYONE was a good decade younger than I - the teacher didn't even bother saying 'vagina' but talked a lot about how sore one's 'bottom' would be after giving birth. What, are they going to spank me while I'm in the stirrups? The boys (sorry, they just seemed so young) were particularly squeamish about the mega maxi-pad which the teacher referred to as a 2x4. For your 'bottom' of course.

After the class I saw the older guy in the hallway - his wife had given birth via c-section and he was over the moon, absolutely ecstatic. He said he had used the breathing exercises himself in the car on the way over to the hospital but that she hadn't needed them. He really wanted me to come up and see wife and babe but Iwas pretty sure she was wiped out, even without a sore bottom. He told me the weight, the name and all the details. Then I asked who the little babe looked like and he proudly proclaimed that she didn't look like anyone. They had done IVF and donor eggs and he was pleased as punch. By this point we had quite an audience and he didn't give a hoot. He was just so, so, so happy about his 'miracle baby' and wanted everyone to know. We bonded a little about nasty needles and so forth and then he went on his way.

That's what it's all about folks, the sheer humanity of it all, not the science, not the designer babies, but love and awe at the miracles of babes.

and if you're wondering, the epidural class really made it look like a bad idea - for many reasons but I'm glad I went because I got a much better idea of what it entailed.