On my kids’ birthdays, the family joke is that I threaten to
tell them the story of their births, labor pains and all. The joke is it wasn’t something I dreamed
up. On my birthday, my mom and I would always
go to the stories of what having a baby was like in her day.
Sixty three years ago, if you were lucky
enough to have a hospital birth (as my mother was), women were given a general
anesthesia, put to sleep, and woke up the next day with a new baby in their
arms. Everyone else knew if it was a boy
or girl long before the mother. New moms
stayed in the hospital up to 10 days, “dangling” their legs over the side of
the bed on day three or four, finally to walk almost a week after the birth.
How things have changed!! I thank the angels every day for
the daily help and counsel my mother gave me after my first child was
born. Even though she was working full time, my mother came
over every single evening to help with Neen’s bath and answer questions I wrote
down during the day. A new mother at
only 21, I was totally green, and having her near was a necessity, not a luxury
for me.
So today, my birthday, I remember you and miss you, mom, and as
my friend Gab would say, “Happy Birthing Day, mom” because my birthday celebration
begins with you. xoxo
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"Motherhood has a very humanizing effect. Everything gets reduced to essentials."
~Meryl Streep
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"Motherhood has a very humanizing effect. Everything gets reduced to essentials."
~Meryl Streep
