I keep running down to the barn every two hours. We are all awaiting the arrival of Sunrise Farm’s newest baby, and she/he is “late”.
Late, lets talk about that term.
Some of us as mamas can relate to being “late”. My dear Stella was 10 days “late”, and come hell or high water, I was letting that baby cook as long as she needed to, while I avoided the intensity of the people around me all holding their breath, waiting to meet baby Eiring.
I am a researcher. While I was pregnant, I researched EVERYTHING. I knew everything there was to know about every brand and type of cloth diaper. I had the “safest” car seat picked out four times over, until I finally picked the “safest”. I also had this deep feeling that my baby was going to be “late” or born past the estimated due date, and that I was going to allow her to be born “late” as long as she and I were happy and healthy. So I read everything there was to know about inductions, non-stress tests and how other societies around the world treat their “over- due” mothers. I was also prepared to stand up for my decision, being warned that people may scare me into a medical intervention I did not want.
The days past my due date kept coming and going, and everyone in the world decided they had to check in on me and offer me advice. Every single person had some suggestion on how to get my baby here faster.
“Well if you ride in a bumpy car, after eating spicy food, eggplant, and pineapple juice, then go for a long walk, have sex, jump on one foot, do squats- maybe that will work!” On the morning I was supposed to go in for the non-stress test and biophysical profile, I finally felt my first contraction. I knew that the baby was doing ok, and was thankful I didn’t have to leave my safe comfortable home, where I would be giving birth, to drive an hour to Burlington for this test.
As a dairy farmer I know quite well that mother nature has her own plans. As much as we can scientifically examine every aspect of biology, for some reason or another, nature will take her own course. My first cow, Ruby, calved 10 days “early”, and although we bred her using artificial insemination, she still surprised us with a healthy, happy, full term calf!
She was the best cow in the world for doing this for me!! Because she was 10 days early, I didn’t even have time to stress out about it, she was just suddenly here one morning!!
All winter long, we hear the buzzing of the sugarmaker’s ATVs in the woods to the east of our farm. There is a large sugarbush up there, and these guys work hard, all year long for a sugaring season that lasts only weeks. The buzz around rural Vermont towns, in hardware stores and coffee shops every spring is about when the sap is “going to run”. “Oh ya, I bet it’ll run once that sun pokes up out of the clouds and the wind dies down…” says my neighbor who runs a small sugaring operation with his family. We all are aware of this- the sap running. We all pay attention to the weather and recognize when the conditions are just right for the sap to run. We also are aware if the conditions have not been favorable for the sugarmakers, and chock it up to “it is what it is” and “oh well, there’s next year”.
In our busy, modern society, we are all over scheduled and over planned. Running the farm and living in a small rural Vermont town, mostly dependent on agricultural enterprises, reminds me to slow down life a little, live by the seasons and the weather, rather then by the days and the hours.
I am constantly trying to apply this to my daily life and to my life experiences, like pregnancy. Thankfully, I had a supportive midwife that also believed in letting the baby go past the estimated due date, because after all, it is just an estimate. I think with the next baby, God willing, I am going to allow it to have a “due month”, where we do not tell people the arbitrary end of gestation date. If we can all take our heads out of our calendar planners and listen to our internal clockwork, perhaps we could lessen the stress and anticipation that surrounds any mother’s “due date”.
I’m currently a few days “late” and we are also planning a home birth. I like your perspective! I, too, think that I will give people a due month next time or at least add two weeks to the due date. People mean well, but the constant reminders are sometimes hard to listen to. Thanks for sharing!
[…] overdue cow, Olivia, gave birth to the most beautiful heifer calf, who we named […]
I, too, was “2 weeks late” and would love in a future pregnancy for them to just give me a vague month. Sadly I think that won’t work well, given that they reinforce what week/month you’re in with the scheduling of appointments. But I wish they could just tell us the season! “Late spring”!