c-section soliloquy

my mother, on an annual basis, compensates for her years of agorophobically exiling me from the kitchen and its teaching laboratory by subscribing me to chatelaine. recipes in this magazine have gotten me through many a dinner party, my gratitude is actually pretty profound. however, this magazine is inane. however however, it is widely read. thus, i am compelled to respond to a piece this month ms. rebecca eckler, that columnist who writes "baby blogging" in the saturday globe style section. her writing is about as fascinating as baby puke. she typically writes about such fascinating things as people who get their sonograms made into expensive cookies. see what i mean? EATING your fetus is FASCINATING, right? but sick.

chatelaine frequently infuriates me with its coverage of such idiot topics as whether 7 1/2 glasses of water or 8 is better for your health. this month rebecca had two pages to righteously pronounce to readers why she still thinks she continues to constitute a "woman", even though she went to a different city to find a doc who would give her a totally unnecessary elective c-section, her mother flying in on westjet for the occassion. as if the biggest debate about c-sections was whether you remained a WOMAN after you had one.

NB currently has a c-section epidemic. believe me, it is not because snotty over-privileged, morally bankrupt narcissists are selecting an hour between spa treatments to inconvenience themselves with labour. it is not because it is convenient. it is not convenient to stay double time in hospital, to cost the system almost double, to steal away an ob-gyn from legitimate surgical deliveries. it is not convenient to risk death under anaesthetic. it is because women in NB *seem* to *need* the interventions more than any where else in the country.

why? NB women are not as healthy. why? give me two pages in chatelaine...

shooting a debate that involves the economic status of women, the agency relationship between physician and woman patient, the availability of maternal and newborn care practitioners, the economic strain on the system, the medicalization of women's lives, etc, into the mad cow bull's eye of whether you are still a WOMAN or not after righteously getting your tummy untucked is so typical of these times. rather than confront meaningful, challenging questions in our system, let's giggle competitively about the size of our c-sec scars exposed during our last sisterly brazilian wax. good grief.