Pregnancy Warfare

Walking home after Lynn Paltrow’s presentation, I realized how angry and agitated I had become while she was speaking. I was just so angry that society feels they have some sort of right to take away individual’s power. I thought her presentation was amazing. I especially loved that she had so many stories about real women. It just showed how amendment 48 really does affect real people in very harmful ways. I was so angry because I couldn’t believe that there is possibly going to be a law that takes away a woman’s right and ownership of her body.
I really liked Sarah’s comment on how a woman should not have to live in fear of pregnancy. My older sister is pregnant with her first baby and she is due this Sunday. I am so excited for my first little nephew and I cannot wait to see the little guy. Miranda, my sister, was telling me that there are so many books out there telling pregnant women that each ache and pain and change in their body could be a signal that something is horribly wrong with her or the baby. I know they want women to be cautious, but being pregnant should not be about living in fear of your body. I am so stunned that there are people out there that want to make women not only afraid of their bodies, but afraid of what the law can to do to their bodies. In one of my other GWST classes, we discussed how women are forced to live in the realm of the body, constantly being told that we are our bodies. I think that women are SO much more than just their bodies, but it’s disgusting that people are trying to make women so powerless that they don’t even have control of their bodies.
My sister luckily lives in Santa Cruz, California which has a very natural and open view of pregnancy. She would like to have a natural childbirth and has found a doctor that supports that and a midwife who will back her up on her decision. It just saddens me that something as beautiful and natural as pregnancy has become a war for ownership of women.