Birth Stories

That was about as honest as it gets.

I just returned from a local production of Birth, by New York playwright Karen Brody. A collection of monologues, really, tied together with choreographed role-playing by other members of the cast. Each character, through an alternating series of monologues, relays her own birth story, or stories. They range from scheduled c-section to a “My Body Rocks!” self-empowered natural birth, from a home birth to an experience with too much unwanted medical intervention.

The play opens with a dialogue about how it is a domesticated dog gives birth. A dog knows what to do when the time comes. Her instinct guides her. She readies herself. Humans do not intervene unless there is an emergency. There are no bright lights above and crowds on all sides. The dog takes herself to a quiet place. She has a private birth, and when her puppies are born, they either begin to nurse, or nuzzle up with their mother. Is it too much to ask, that as women, we be treated as well as our dogs in birth?

I certainly felt the slant towards the position of natural childbirth, minimal medical intervention, the promotion of midwifery. It didn’t bother me in any way. In promoting those very virtues, the play advocated women taking care of women. This is a concept that simply can’t be wrong. We are animals. We do have instincts. And yes, as the playwright so well noted, women are qualified to give birth to their own children.

I don’t want to give away too much about the specific storylines, in hopes that if you ever have the opportunity to see this play, you will rush straight to the theater. It beefed up my confidence in myself and my abilities as a woman, educated me about some questions I should be asking, and illustrated, in a very realistic light, the myriad of options that are now available to women. Reading about your options in a book is nothing like hearing them from the mouths of women.

And most of all, I learned that the intentional choices you make for yourself are always okay. Whether it's a choice about your career, your spouse, your infertility and desire to have a child, or about childbirth. Because it is your voice and your intention, you have the right to make the decision. You stand behind it because it was the right choice for you, not for anyone else.