"sometimes i miss my sanity" –wedge antilles

but you deserve to give informed consent to that process.

the lies around pregnancy - that it's inherently safe, that it doesn't do you permanent damage, that it's only extremely rare for people to die of pregnancy complications, etc like

all of these are lies constructed so that more people will get pregnant w/o knowing all that

there needs to be more talk about the impact of miscarriages and how common they are, how different abortion processes are and how accessible they are

but also like. talking about how pregnancy fucks your body up should not be taboo

this is a process that permanently changes most people's bodies, and that's even if the pregnancy doesn't do them like. severe illness or injury

and i just think everybody should have a right to KNOW that

When I was pregnant I was in a million forums for pregnant people because (cough adhd hyperfixation) and I had something called SPD (Symphysis pubis dysfunction) (not Sensory Processing Disorder though I also have that) which is where your pubic bones separate early (more or less) because they get all loosey goosey as your body gets ready to crank that baby out.

Except my pubic bone got confused and got misaligned at like 3 months pregnant. I could barely walk. I couldn't roll over in bed. Doing something that required me to shift my weight from one foot to another like opening a door knob was like an excruciatingly painful knife being stabbed into my pubic bone, I can't express how intense and blinding it was.

So I am in one million baby forums like "am I dying what is happening why is there a knife in my pubic bone" and all these people are like "I have that too! my doctor says it's normal and not to worry because it doesn't hurt the baby. I just deal with it by laying in bed for months in excruciating pain and think about how lucky I am to be having a little miracle growing in my body."

So lol nope. I went to my midwife and they are like, "Oh squeeze a can between your knees look up a physical therapy youtube on SPD" and I did that can-squeeze thing and it CURED THE PROBLEM in ONE DAY. I had been SUFFERING, y'all, it felt miraculous.

And I was so full of rage (flames, flames on the side of my face) that people are being told "Oh, it's NORMAL just deal with it" "It doesn't hurt the baby." Like, look, yes it's NORMAL but it's 100% treatable!!! SPD (again, not Sensory processing disorder) affects 1 in 5 pregnant people.

I was lucky to have amazing midwives (need a gender neutral term for that profession, but they see pregnant men and women)(side note highly recommend midwives if you are gender nonconfirming/a man/etc) and I have DOZENS of examples of shit like this.

Some people in moderate car crashes are very lucky, and walk away with zero injury. Some are very unlucky, and die. But most people fall into the third category, where they'll be injured at the time, then heal, and then for the rest of their life they have some minor and liveable complication from the injury. Like a knee that lets you know when the rain is coming, or a back that doesn't like seats without lumbar support, or a shoulder that never quite gets its full range of motion back.

she's been suffering with this since she gave birth to me. I'm 38 years old. she had that surgery last week.

Granted, it still needs to be updated because not just women give birth.

Here is an etymologically equivalent but gender neutral term I just made:

Totally ignoring all the dangers that can happen during pregnancy, pregnancy is ALWAYS uncomfortable. If you cant stand the discomfort of talking about the potential risks of birth, then you really arent ready for a child. Besides all the life and death shit it is uncomfortable! Morning sickness, distention of the gut, kicking the bladder, cravings, blood pressure changes, etc; that is all uncomfortable. Wait until the kid is born and then you are dealing with long sleepless nights, vomit, teething, colic, drool, etc and you will be dealing with hard conservations after that anyway bc if the child did damage to your body, now you are taking care of a baby while potentially disabled, forget the later years when you will have to have hard conversations with the kid anyway bc kids arent stupid and they will know that their life is what took away mom's ability to walk without pain. Take it from me, the person who watched their mom limp for the majority of my childhood, we NEED to talk about this shit.

Also the medicine to help with birth is not always without side effects either. Its good to talk about all aspects without demonizing or glorifying it. I wish my mom had gotten an epidural, but she didnt because she was told it was best to go naturally(bad. I took 21 hours, it fucked her up) but her friend got one and it shut her bladder off for weeks(bad. She nearly died bc they didnt explain to her that it could happen and she had no idea what was happening to her)

Its not divine, nor is it demonic, its a risk and people who can get pregnant need to be informed.

(Or do you prefer it dry?)

Aiming to cut costs after a poor fiscal quarter, Washington National Opera general director Timothy O’Leary announced plans Monday to lay off 200 phantoms effective immediately. “In these difficult times, we can no longer afford to keep all the ghastly, mysterious men who haunt our catacombs on this organization’s payroll,” said O’Leary, who expressed regret that the personnel reduction was happening at a time when job openings for egomaniacal opera ghouls were at a historic low.

and the mushrooms? one