Barbara Herrera, Navelgazing Midwife, is mad. Ostensibly, she’s mad about the ripping apart of natural birth, but even a cursory examination of her post reveals that she’s really mad about being denied special status because of unmedicated childbirth. She and her philosophical compatriots who gave birth through the vagina without pain medication are special snowflakes, dammit, and how dare anyone question that specialness?
Barbara starts in on Gina Telling who implores “Don’t judge me because I had a C-section.” That sounds rather uncontroversial, but not when you consider that judging other women is half the fun of being a special snowflake. Herrera gives NO consideration to Telling’s plea. Instead, she attempts to justify the judging with a rather startling example of projection:
Women healing from birth trauma often find the telling and re-telling of their stories an integral part on their paths to normalcy (not the old normal, but the new normal). But those around them seem to hit a saturation point and it is a rare woman who has not heard, “Can’t you just get on with your life already?”
There are other topics that make people uncomfortable… death and illness are two of the most common… but I find anger, pain and disappointment about a woman’s own birth experience all but taboo…
Those women who berate Telling are really not berating her. They need to work through their trauma at their own tragically imperfect birth experiences, by informing Telling of what was wrong with hers. And what if Telling does not want to be a foil for other women’s self exploration? She must be uncomfortable with the pain and disappointment of other women. Huh? When did Telling’s birth experience become the property of other women to use for their own needs?
Another article leads Herrera to make her self concern explicit. She is mad, mad, mad about “Looks Like Nobody Ever Had a Baby Before” by Daphne Caruana Galizia. Ms. Caruana Galizia, mother of two (born with midwives, no less) dares to suggest that having a baby is not an achievement:
“Imagine just how much less angst there would be if the breathing trainer, or whatever they’re called, were to say repeatedly: ‘Remember that trillions of women have had babies throughout history, and that you’re doing nothing special. Even if it feels like you’re the only woman in the world to give birth, you’re not.'”
Oh, the horror. Ms. Caruana Galizia must be deeply dysfunctional. According to Herrera:
… Did she not feel special having her baby? Unique? How does that not happen? How can a woman who’s, in a sense, birthing “God”, not feel amazingly gifted/special/unique?
How sad for her that she is a special snowflake and does not even realize it. Suddenly Herrera has an insight:
But, if I think about it longer, maybe she doesn’t feel that birth-breastfeeding is that important after all. Isn’t that the implication …? That we’re navelgazingly obsessed with our biological performances?
Ya think?
Herrera concludes with the all out self-referential, self-pitying claptrap that characterizies NCB:
Those of us that write need to get louder, more aggressive in our countering articles such as those mentioned above. I challenge natural birth-oriented bloggers (myself, included!) to attack these overt slams against our birthing choices word for word.
So let me get this straight. Two women write articles about their own feelings and Herrera thinks this is all about her choices? Two women write that they don’t want to be assaulted with the self-congratulatory posturing of NCB advocates and Herrera thinks the appropriate response is to yell into their faces even louder?
I guess it’s not all that surprising. Herrera and her friends are special snowflakes, dammit, and the whole world should be forced to acknowledge it.
