The Sunday Sidebar.
January 6, 2008 by Liz Lewis
Filed under A Mother's Wisdom, Endurance, Extreme, Health, Misc., Oddities, The Sunday Sidebar
The Sunday Sidebar this week is all about pregnancy…
Pregnant Women Eat Dirt
Eating dirt (geophagy) is actually more common than most people realize. It’s a practice that many people around the world indulge in. In fact, in parts of Africa, the sight of a young woman eating dirt is seen as a sign that she is expecting a baby.
But not to worry, it’s not just any old dirt they eat. According to a recent study, the pregnant women go to great lengths to find the right type of dirt. They rake and collect it from specific places outside their villages. (Why People Eat Dirt?)
Wombs for rent in India
Commercial surrogacy is becoming a growth industry in India. Poor Indian woman are undergoing in-vito impregnations with the egg and sperm of couples (from as far away as the United States) unable to conceive on their own. The woman will often earn more through this than what they would normally make in 15 years. But it’s a growth industry that raises many moral and ethical questions. (Giving birth the latest job outsourced to India)
Belly Dance your way through childbirth
Childbirth is not something you would automatically think of when belly dancing is discussed. But it should be. Belly dance movements – the swaying of the hips and pelvis – reflect the bodies movements during the stages of labor. So it seems logical that belly dancing would be a useful aid during childbirth. Many mothers-to-be agree and are enrolling in belly dancing classes. (Hips Don’t Lie in Belly-Dancing Births)
And finally…
Could you do this ?
Back in 2000, a Mexican woman alone in an isolated one-room cabin resorted to performing a caesarean section on herself after enduring a 12 hour labour with excruciating pain. Apparently, she cut through skin, fat, and muscle to reach into her womb and pull out her baby boy. An amazing feat at the best of times, it’s even more amazing that she and the baby survived to tell the tale. This is the only known case of a woman performing a successful casesarean section on herself. (True Grit: the mum who delivered her own baby)
Gives new meaning to the somewhat un-pc term “one tough broad”.
The limits of human endurance in survival situations always amazes me. But, throw in motherhood and that ol’ maternal instinct and “Katie bar the door!”
Definitely one tough broad.
Whenever I read about someone who has had to do such an extraordinary action, I wonder how I would cope in the same situation. But no one knows how much strength they have until they are put to the test…