The exact mechanism of what starts labor is not fully understood by Science. Science is notoriously good at offering a few impressive explanations on a surface level, and becoming enmeshed in unmeasurable and existential unknowns as the questions tighten in relevancy. That aside, it is generally accepted that the baby initiates the labor process by communicating with the placenta, it's advocate and ally throughout pregnancy. It's pretty phenomenal how it all fits together, really: a specific protein is produced by the infant lungs when they hit the developmental maturity to make the amniotic fluid to air transition. Anyway that's how it worked with mice at the University of Texas in 2004. Mice gestate for 19 days, compared to my projected 280 days. I anticipate that the complexity of mouse birth to human birth reflects that ratio, but I like the idea that the baby will let me know when it's good and ready. Like most westerners, I am somewhat reassured by a rationale, a Knowledge that diffuses the otherwise arbitrary, uncertain mysteries of Life. Beyond contemplating such mysteries, the pregnancy is going quite well. My catchphrase has become, "I don't love pregnancy, but expecting has been wonderful." We are delighted to be so close to meeting the baby, and I have a huge sense of relief at the promise that no pregnancy can go on forever. As for the baby, we still get tremendous activity. I think the little one is awake quite a bit more these days, and certainly is much stronger. Over the last few weeks, I notice he/she seems pretty curious, stroking or jabbing at anything that comes into contact with my huge abdomen. First "bad mom moment:" calling my kid butt head when it nailed me against the dining table. Probably hurt its own knee as badly as it hurt me. Yes, I admire the efficiency of pregnancy and relative cleanliness of this form of parenthood, but I feel like changing diapers and nursing are actually a pretty fair trade-off for being able to evict the little camper off my bladder and esophagus when it's important. Parents of outside children just laugh here, "How little do they know... ha ha!" But seriously.
I've been motivated to read and research all these pregnancy related questions, and I feel about as prepared as they come for labor and birth. For me, a deep comprehension of the whole process is so important, and I am pretty relaxed about the outcome because the variables aren't unexplored. I have a lot of trust in everyone involved- Jesus, my family, my husband, my midwife, my baby, and myself. I say this because people keep asking if I'm getting nervous, especially since we are planning an unmedicated, natural home birth. Honestly for my personal psychology it would be more disruptive to plan a hospital birth with epidural, because hospitals have nervous energy to me and experimenting with drugs has never been a good experience. No one can tell for sure what my body would do in those conditions. No, I'm not nervous to give birth, and I'm not nervous to give birth at home. I've spent an academic year studying pregnancy and birth, with lots of hands on lab work, and I'm more prepared for this final than any other test in my life. It will be hard, but most people pass one way or the other...
Our next post will probably have baby pictures of our own real baby!
