birth

Yesterday I was at Marjanne's house and a woman from the local village came by to show us her newborn baby! After oohing and aahing over the baby, she left. 

A few minutes later I asked Marjanne how old the baby was, expecting the answer to be 3 days, or maybe 7 days old. 

"About 6 hours," I was told. 

"What?!" 

Turns out the woman had given birth around 7am that morning in the local hospital in town.  By 3pm she was on my friend's porch, having ridden more than 16 kilometers sitting sideways on the back of her husband's bicycle in the middle of the hot afternoon, holding her newborn child the whole way. 

I never would have guessed, looking at her, that she'd just given birth. She was glowing and healthy and strong and smiling. She didn't look like she'd just experienced some of the most intense physical exertion a woman's body was designed for.  I just couldn't believe it.  Thinking back to my own birth experience, which was calm, relaxed, completely natural, and might I even say "pleasant" in some ways, no tearing, no trauma.... I was sore!  For weeks!  The first 24 hours I could hardly walk.  Giving birth is not an "easy" job and truly a woman's sorrow is multiplied in childbirth.  Yet this woman managed, somehow, to make it look like a piece of cake.

Within a week, she'll be back to her normal work in the fields and carrying water, etc. It gave me a perspective check! Truly these women endure things that we Westerners would never think acceptable, or maybe even possible.