Sweet Times with Grandma Voss

Another week's blown by. On Monday night, my mom drove over the mountain all by herself to come and stay with Myles while I went to Atlanta for work. I left on Tuesday morning, a leisurely drive through the mountains punctuated by red buds in bloom and the mountains were capped with a little snow, it was beautiful. I had lunch with Ashley, sweet Alabama ASP former-roommate friend, and we went for sushi. Nice, as sushi restaurants tend not to make the list in terms of what's family friendly so I had been missing it for some time. I had coffee with a friend from theological school (she doesn't believe in supporting Starbucks, but the other coffee houses in Emory village moved out and so we went for it...sinning boldly, as she said). Then I moseyed my way over to Candler, and had the chance to lay eyes on Ayanna one final time before she moves to Ohio...Ayanna was the behind-the-scenes lifeblood of the Black Church studies office while I was at Candler and is now moving on, she's been a beautiful friend to me over the years. I had been invited to speak at the Women in Theology and Ministry graduation dinner, and so I did. Another friend came out to support me, and that made me feel good. I spoke about women and peace, the cost of this war, those radical midwives Shiphrah and Puah from the Hebrew Scriptures, and it was so very refreshing. I spent the night at Ashley's new condo in midtown, which overlooks lots of crazy tall Atlanta city skyline buildings, we shared some wine and stayed up late chatting like old times.

When I got back on Wednesday, Myles was giggling, the house was clean, pumpkin chocolate chip muffins on the counter and black bean soup in the fridge...there's nothing like having my mom come to town!! She was amazing!! The photos of Myles are ones that she took, one is in the flowers at the cemetary behind our house where we take lots of walks. And speaking of walking, Myles really turned the corner this week and is choosing walking over crawling. I'm sure he'll be running circles around me in no time.

There's a terrible article in the Times about elective cesarian births, and I just can't NOT mention it. It downplays the dangers of c-sections while playing up the "convenience" and "safety" factors, and barely lets on that the whole business of being born has become just that...a business whereby well meaning obstetricians often choose cesarian births because they are (rightfully) afraid of getting their pants sued off. What all this means for the average mama and baby is that we don't always understand the system we're entering into when we give birth. Some do, and we all make our own choices, but the TIME article sort of shrugs its shoulders as if birth choices don't matter. I think they do. Sure, some women don't mind cesarian birth...some prefer it. But I had one myself, and I know that for me personally, and surely I'm not alone here, the choices that I made in terms of prenatal care, the attention I got from the midwifery practice I was with, the choice to labor without drugs for a good and long while, the choice to push for 4 hours, all of that was really a good thing, I don't look back and say gee, I wish I'd just elected for a cesarian in the first place. And I just think that articles like this one contribute to women being underinformed about the real options that we do have. Almost every one of my friends who had an unmedicated vaginal birth swoons about it, naming it as the single most important accomplishment they could ever hope for (note I said almost). Now giving birth to Myles was of course the most important thing that's happened in my life, but the birth experience was not one I am swooning over...I had to do some hard research to learn that there was another way to do things, and I wish that information was more readily available to women so we can make wise and informed choices about the care we receive, our approach to labor, the type of birth we envision (even if we have to have a cesarian in the end). Okay, end of soapbox rant...

Not much else is new here. Myles is up from a nap, so we're off to get some cucumbers from the grocery for a dish I'm making for a shower we are attending tonight. No doubt Seth will want to tell you more about this event and his glamorous role in it...he will really be in his element, but I'll leave that for him to explain at a later date.