Today, December 25, 2009, 2009 years ago that the Virgin Mary gave birth to her son Jesus. Every year this birth is celebrated and today, festive throughout the country, we will do a reflection exercise to try to know what would happen to the head of the Virgin Mary if she gave birth today.
Your pregnancy would have been controlled by social security professionals. He would have had several ultrasounds and tests and would have woken up at night with contractions.
For a long time I would have decided, more or less, how and where to give birth. He would have thought to give birth at home, perhaps in Bethlehem, but his family would have reminded him of how dangerous it can be to do something like that and, above all, he would have said that "what the neighbors will say if they hear you scream".
Maria would have said that "she passes from the neighbors", that she brings in her womb the son of God and that if two thousand years ago she stood where she could, now she could do it with a cow and a mule behind if she wanted to.
If the Virgin Mary gave birth in the hospital
If the Virgin Mary decided to go to the hospital, she would go as soon as she could (take the child of God is a serious thing), but there they would say “you are still very green”, “calm down woman, it shows that you are first time” and “go house, which you still have for a while ”and María and José would come home to expect more continuous contractions.
Finally, she would return a few hours later, when she would be left in the expansion room to evolve.
Maria would carry a birth plan, because a friend told her that Spanish hospitals are still a bit far from giving respectful treatment to pregnant women, that in many “they make you lie down to dilate when it is best to have freedom of movement” and that as a general rule, they take care of childbirth as if they were born and she, respectful as she is, sensitive and attentive, would be eager to receive the same attention and take into account her wishes and concerns as any healthy pregnant woman who comes " just in case something goes wrong ”and not as a pregnant woman considered sick whose delivery must be guided and disrupted "so that nothing goes wrong".
Or maybe Maria wouldn't have a birth plan because "doctor, I put myself in her hands" and she would blindly trust all the recommendations of hospital professionals.
Whatever her choice, Maria would tell them that she had considered giving birth at her home, in Bethlehem, and that she had no intention of lying down because her body asked her to be incorporated.
Maybe they would tell you that "I already know, honey, but if you stand up we are uncomfortable" or maybe you would have a modern gynecologist or an updated midwife who would say: "Get what you want, we will adapt."
Maybe I would talk about the episiotomy
Maria would ask them not to “cut her sex”, because she had never heard it, nor did she know it was done and it seemed painful and unnecessary. I would even explain that I had read in some blog on the Internet that episiotomy is a practice that It should only be done to a few women and that a tear usually has a better prognosis.
Someone would answer that "it depends on the gynecologist there" and she would be entrusted to God to ask her to touch one who knew that a tear occurs in 30-40% of deliveries, while the episiotomy is done to 90% of women who stop in Spain.
Skin to skin
The midwife would give her a triptych entitled "Skin to skin" in which she could read that the latest studies show that a baby is better in her mother's breast right after birth and that breastfeeding is established much better in this way than if it is separate, or 20 minutes, to wash, weigh, measure, puncture, etc.
Maria would be bewildered and tell them "is that perhaps before you took them?", Because she would not understand that for decades the children spent their first days in large and cold hospital rooms and that they were only taken with their mothers a few minutes every 3 hours for them to breastfeed and that, until a few years ago, they were separated and delivered to the mother clean, dressed and "contaminated" with unknown germs (one of the reasons for premature contact with the mother is the contamination of mother germs, already known by the baby's immune system).
The feeding at birth
The midwife would explain that the best thing she can give is the breast, which protects her from diseases and infections and that "the breast is given on demand", however hours later, in the room, a nurse would surely say yes , which is on demand, but every 2 or 3 hours to have a schedule and giving about 15 minutes of each breast.
Maria would be stunned again, unable to understand why such elementary things are timed as feeding and wonder how long she would have to eat and how many hours to sit down to do it.
He would even remember all those citizens of Jerusalem and Bethlehem who had almost nothing to eat and would see how absurd it sounds to say that "the food must be given at a certain time."
Don't spoil it
The roommate's mother would say: "You're taking it too much and you're going to spoil it" and Maria would ask "what does it mean." "So if you take them a lot the spoils, because they get used to being in the arms all day," the good woman would answer.
The aunt of the roommate would add: "I have heard that up to three months do not get used to" giving Maria a little more freedom although dropping that from that moment on, better take it a little.
Mary would then look at her baby Jesus, caress her wavy hair, kiss her forehead and I would think that there can be nothing more wonderful than a child asking for his mother's love and arms and I would ask: "And if it's not in my arms, where do I leave it?"
"Well, in the crib, or if you go outside in the stroller," they would answer. Then they would explain what a stroller consists of and she would wonder how it is possible that 2,009 years of evolution have given only to create a wheelbarrow for children.
Or maybe I would give birth in Bethlehem, after all
Perhaps none of this would happen and the Virgin Mary would trust God to watch over her son's pregnancy and mother nature and finally decide to give birth there, in Bethlehem, in the same way that she gave birth 2,009 years ago. Namely.
