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Thu, 8 Oct 1998 19:06:32 +0000 |
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C'mon, Kathleen! (I take it you include western women in your 'complaining
wuss' comment!) I think it's really hard to be a mother today!
You can't compare western stresses and pressures with the physical hard
work of the third world - it's different. But while those women in Mali
return to work after just eight days, there is also a tradition in many
peoples of truly nurturing the new mother and her baby and nurturing
feeding, too.
The western woman is isolated from friends and family at a vulnerable time
- and is expected to work full-time away from her baby for eight or 10
hours a day when that baby is just two or three months old.
She's expected to look good, and slim, and clean, and have a career and a
life plan and satisfy her husband sexually and have multiple orgasms,
too....oh, yes, and raise an intelligent, loving, well-nourished
well-behaved kid, 'cos if she doesn't she'll get the blame.
I think my life as a mother was harder - in some non-physical ways- than
my own mother's and hers was harder - in some ways - than her own mother's.
I'm talking support, community, expectations here, of course, and not
vacuum cleaners or microwaves or motor cars.
Bf is sometimes seen as just another demand - when it could be a great
source of truly liberating joy : (
I knew I would get back on topic....
heather Welford Neil
NCT bfc Newcastle upon Tyne UK
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