For Better or For Worse by Lynn Johnston for March 11, 2020

oh, El’s having a swell time… hearing the other ladies’ horrific birthing stories

I admit being one of the guests who overshared my birth experiences at baby showers but that is what women talk about at baby showers. Elly, women have birthed new humans since the beginning our our species. You birthed two and came out fine. This one should not be any different. Ignore the horror tales. Men have their fish stories and women have their childbirth tales.

I have been in many conversations where the contest is over the subject “Who had the worst birth experience?” These two ladies are rank amateurs compared to some of the stories I have heard. I am not sure why Elly is expanding like she is going to explode though from listening to them. Elly’s had two children, so she already knows pretty much all that’s going to happen. She probably has stories of her own about Michael and Elizabeth’s births.

I remember a MTB on Etiquette Hell wondering why women think that being pregnant means she wants to hear all about the births of their multiple children in excruciating detail.

My wife had an episiotomy. Of course it needed stitches. I told the doctor to add a few extra for me. ………LOL

You’re not offering Ellie support, you’re telling birth war stories! :P

That little story at the beginning sounds familiar. My mother told a similar one. She was good at inducing guilt. ;-)

With friends like those……

The looks on those faces in the final panel speak volumes.

It’s very important. Now, if only Elly could actually find some…

No one would ever get root canal without anesthesia, and I would not think less of the women who use it for childbirth.

45 years ago today, I had my second baby. 20 mins of pain was all I had. She didn’t want to wait… Thank goodness I was already at the hospital, expecting to be induced..

It’s certainly an experience, but not one that you should share unless asked. :P

I remember before my first year in High School football, the guys on the team were telling me about the physical. The whole ‘square needle in the left testicle’ story(a lie) almost put me off. I guess this is why war stories don’t stop wars.

I guess I’m one of the lucky ones…six births, no drugs, I used breathing exercises successfully, and also the quiet, relaxing music I had practiced with. I had quick recoveries. But even I could tell you horror stories, mostly about a medical system that didn’t want to work with me. They didn’t seem to understand that there is another way, that the dim lighting, music, and ability to focus I insisted on was for a reason, and that I didn’t need to be restrained.

She didn’t come to this surprise party to be stressed because your babies had hard times leaving the womb

Actually I would have liked to have had some info about what I was in for. No one I knew told me the real story. Selective amnesia – forget about the last month before and first month after. cringe

I had an aunt like that – told me how we were built just alike and she had 72 hours of hard labor with her first child. Good thing I realized she was a hypochondriac.

Anybody besides me think hanging is too good for women like this?They must be a real riot in the cancer ward.

I remember a baby shower at work where every last one of the ladies there shared their horror stories. I had had a fairly easy delivery, but had given the child up for adoption, and shared my story just like everyone else. The next day I got pulled into HR and told not to talk about my pregnancy and delivery because it made the other women uncomfortable to think that I had “given away” my baby.

it’s all coming back to her!

And on the other hand, there was a woman that delivered in the elevator on the way up to the maternity ward. Told the attendants “Oh, this is so embarassing!” And one of the attendants said “Think nothing of it. About a year or so ago, a lady dropped a healthy baby boy right out on the front lawn!” “Yeah, I know – that was me too!!”

Saturday October 1, 2011 Lynn’s Notes:

It amazes me still to think that after the hard work and “discomfort” of giving birth, we go back and do it again! My friends and I supported each other afterwards. We discussed episiotomies, backaches, lack of sleep, lactation, depression and so forth. One topic was brought up again and again: would there be more children in the world if the men produced the babies and the women puffed cigars?!

Jeff Foxworthy: Honey, I don’t remember you being in labor for 17 hours, and I don’t remember them having to bring in the Jaws of Life!

There is a reason why the Jews showed Eve getting 2 curses to Adam’s one. Birth is a killer to some. Hard and damaging.

it’s a conspiracy. They want to make sure she suffers too.

Boy am I glad they don’t have this type of gathering for a colonoscopy

What, no postpartum depression?