Birth

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You humans say birth is a miracle, but miracles are things that defy explanation. And, we all know where babies come from, don’t we? Still, if you insist on calling it a miracle, then at least admit it is a messy and widely-available miracle.

I will not bother trying to explain what a typical birth is like. It is different for everyone. Some women can push a baby out in thirty minutes or less, while it takes hours or even days for other women. Just go where it takes you.

Beyond the physical process, each woman and man brings their unique emotions and life experience into the situation. Some people cry, others smile, some get startlingly angry and some simply pass out.

Birth is about bringing a new life into the world, sure, but what birth really does is reveal who you are as a human being. Until the creation of birth control a few decades ago, birth was a nearly universal experience for women who lived to adulthood. Similarly, fatherhood was a nearly universal experience for men. The ability of birth control to prevent pregnancy so effectively has severed you humans from your own humanity.

Birth is a liminal experience par excellance: Once you go through it, you are never the same.

Participation in the birth process is part of becoming a complete human being. People who do not have children are incomplete human beings. Sure, they walk upright and have an exceptionally large cerebral cortex, but that is not what makes one human. A human is only human by virtue of his or her understanding of those who have lived before.

Childless humans have no idea of the emotions birth[2] and parenting stir within the soul. These empty husks of humanity will often judge you as a parent without any idea how difficult it is. After all, they think smugly, my fluffy little dog is well-behaved, why can’t those people control that child? Rest assured, such people are laying the pavers of their personal road to perdition.

After your baby is born and you hold the new life in your hands, all of the possibilities and dangers of the world suddenly manifest themselves within your mind. You hope (and maybe pray) that your child will reach her full potential and change the world, and you fear (and maybe curse) the countless dangers lurking everywhere, from childhood accidents to terrorist attacks to epidemics.

Do not dwell on these fears as your child is born. Let the current of emotion wash over you. Do not let worry spoil this – or any other – moment for you. This moment that you will remember for the rest of your life, whether empires fall or you one day travel to distant and mysterious lands, the memory of your child’s birth will never fade.

Having become a parent, the deepest wisdom of humanity is now available for your understanding. You need only look and want to see it.

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