Happy holidays! You work!

There is one holiday gift that I wish every mom and mom-to-be could receive. It's simple, just the knowledge that she works. I think it's sad how many honestly believe that they don't work, that they couldn't have babies without medical intervention, and that they actually need this harmful crap that puts them through terrible things, and lands their babies in the NICU for days to weeks on end.

I was shocked at a recent conversation among moms I know here, of which the group consensus was that they were all incapable of going into labor on their own, and so were most of their relatives. One girl even said that she was the first one in her entire family ever to go into labor on her own, but it only happened once out of her four, so it was just a fluke, not actually in line with the family bloodline.

I said, "Well, I do believe pregnancy length may be hereditary, but everyone will go into labor on their own eventually. You are probably just genetically predisposed to having longer pregnancies than the mainstream medical establishment will let you have. You know, there's nothing wrong with carrying a baby longer than 40 weeks. Mine average in the 42 week range, but they all come out." In fact, I know of a few homebirth moms who have carried every baby to 43 or 44 weeks. If you actually ask them, they were all at least 42 week babies themselves, most 43 or 44. So is pregnancy length genetic? Yeah, I think so. In absence of inductions, we may even see some trends along ethnic lines, just as we do in the animal kingdom, where we clearly observe that different breeds of cattle have a variance of a few weeks when it comes to gestation length. However, one thing remains true, whatever the species, the ethnicity, or the surname. All babies come out. Everybody is capable of going into labor on their own. If you'll demand to be given the respect and dignity of carrying your baby until he/she is truly ready to come out, and will not consent to an induction, you would see that you work quite well, and are probably rather good at this whole labor thing.

On the logical side, if every single member of your family was completely incapable of going into labor on their own, due to some perceived genetic tendency, then how are you here? There wasn't this thing called labor induction until relatively modern times. I guarantee your grandmother went into labor on her own, and if you guys are from a rural area, she was probably a homebirther, too. You exist because your bloodline is solid, and CAN have babies without medical intervention. Stop letting the medical establishment tell you that you're broken. You're not. You work perfectly well, and if you would find yourself a practitioner who respects you enough to believe that, you would see for yourself.

You work. You exist because your people are good at having babies. Believe it.