Monday, February 28, 2011

Birth Stories

The nurse came bursting into the room- "Excuse miss, you have visitors. Shall i let them in to see you?"
"I don't even have my make up on yet! Give me some time and then you can let them in."
The nurse, who coincedentaly didn't have a scrap of make up on her face begrudgingly walked away. Laura sighed and took the Lancome foundation out of her pink make up bag and applied it to fresh face. She knew that everyone would have a camera and she wanted to look her best. No one wants to look back on the photos from one of the best days of their life looking pale and tired. No. Defintely not tired. Need. More. Conceler.

No longer than 5 minutes later the nurse came bursting back into the room declaring that she was going to let the visitors in as they were getting impatient- that was sure to be Laura's Mum, Ann. This nurse had obviously never done her make up in her life before as Laura hadn't even finished her mascara yet. She succumbed to the over bearing nurse that probably thought Rimmel was a car manufacturer, and let her family come in.

Everyone cooed over the little brown cherub that lay in Laura's arms. With a mane of thick black hair and long eyelashes she was everything Laura had dreamed of. From the moment she was born, Ruby was an observer. A busy body. Her huge brown eyes wide open. She wanted to see everything that was happening around her. And to this day she is still the same.

My subject was young when she was pregnant, 18, and 19 when she eventually gave birth, and i think this was a major impact on the process. She was heavily influenced by everyone else's advice as she was young and though that this was the best way to deal with it. There wasn't a doubt in her mind that she should go to hospital, rather than opting for a home birth as that was the norm. Although it is also the norm now I think that it has become more popular recently. Although maybe it is the most popular choice for a reason.
Hospital vs home, and do age and time have a difference on the decision?

Monday, February 14, 2011

The immediate thought i have when i think of birth is the process and how it is depicted on tv. How painful it truely is, and whether the melo dramtic screaming and panting is truely necessary. What also comes to mind is how everyone describes it as 'beautiful.' As we all know the process is far from beautiful so it must be the idea of bringing new life into the world rather than the excecution that everyone is banging on about. The visual aspect when I think of birth is far from a pretty one. Probably influenced by what I see on tv, I imagine a woman panting with beads of sweat flurrying down her forehead, screaming at her husband and everyone else who is in earshot.

In the age of reality tv I also started to think, will it become part of everyday tv? Todays culture is nosy one. Nothing is too much for us to know anymore, nothing is private anymore. Will we start to see live births? Although we have already started to see it it makes me sad to think thjat nothing is private anymore. With everything from marriages to births being documented on tv and the internet, what are we keeping sacred?