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Letter from Boston

Baby Trend Booming

By MASAKO YAMADA


出産ラッシュ

雅子さんが属する研究グループは、このところお産ばやり。1年半ほど前に、1ヵ月間に3人の子供が誕生し、今夏も3人の研究員が出産を控えています。雅子さんが母親になったばかりの女性たちに話を聞くと、皆楽しそうにお産体験を語ってくれます。そして最後には、決まって「今度はあなたの番?」と聞かれるのだそうです。

I was reading the Sunday Times today and a special section immediately caught my eye. The section was called "Women's Health." I grabbed it even before I opened my usual favorite section, "Sunday Styles."

I don't know if it's because I went to a women's college or if it's just because I am a woman, but I can't seem to resist articles on women's health. Not too surprisingly, many of the articles in this section concentrated on reproductive issues. I eagerly read the articles.

I've mentioned many times that my group is very large. Since there are so many people in the group, we have enough members to form a kind of society. We are also able to see different trends sweeping the group. Right now, there seems to be a trend in having babies: This is no small wonder considering that so many of the group members are of childbearing age.

Three of the group members are having babies this summer. About a year and a half ago, three babies were born within a month or so, too. Another trend is that five out of six of these babies are girls. Maybe it has something to do with the laboratory air.

I've had the opportunity to speak to many of these new parents and I've especially enjoyed speaking to the women. Although I've tried to be discreet in asking them questions about this very personal experience, most of them have in fact been extremely frank about talking about their childbirth experiences.

Indeed, they have seemed to enjoy my interest in the topic and have provided extra details without my asking ("My cervix had dilated only 3 cm at 2:00 p.m. on Saturday. And then ...").

One of the things that I've heard over and over is that they consented to epidurals only after the pain became so unbearable that they were losing the energy to push. The women have told me that part of the reason they were reluctant to have the epidural is because there is the slight risk that their spines could be damaged. They also probably felt the lingering guilt that natural is better.

Interestingly enough, the "Women's Health" section of the Sunday Times had a humorous article saying that more and more women are moving away from the once-trendy natural birth movement and are wholeheartedly embracing epidurals and other medical advances to help make the experience more comfortable.

The women I talked to all seemed extremely happy with their eventual choice to have epidurals. One woman said she was even able to watch her baby come out, since they held a mirror so she could see. She said she could only remember pain from her first childbearing experience which was a natural birth, and that this was very different.

One of the trends from the 80's that has not gone out of style is to have family members in the delivery room. The stereotypical father of the 50's paces the hall outside the delivery room and waits to hear the baby cry. The stereotypical father now brings juice to the mother, massages her back, holds her hand and perhaps even keeps the video camera running while the woman is in labor. Needless to say, he often tags along on visits to the OB/GYN both before and after the birth as well.

One of my labmates who just had a baby told me that he felt unprepared for all of this supporting work. He'd grown up in the Soviet Union, where men do not do this sort of thing. However, he was very eager to learn how to help his American wife and he enlisted in the help of a nurse friend for guidance.

Apparently, he did the job well, including holding a shower head for two hours when his wife started having contractions so that she could relax her back. It took her 40 hours to give birth after her water broke and she was in hard labor for 24 hours. His wife told me that when they finally performed the epidural, the doctor suggested that he go away. However, he stayed the entire time. I was impressed.

These stories are always fascinating to me and I love looking at the children of my friends. However, when they invariably ask me, "So, why are you so interested? Is it going to be your turn soon?" I unhesitatingly yell, "Noooo


Shukan ST: July 7, 2000

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