Who would have thought getting pregnant could be experienced as a hard thing... haha the pun was not intended.
Growing up, I feel we as in girls were led to believe that it was so easy to get pregnant and that we must be careful, practice safe sex, and trips to the Brook Clinic for free contraception were something that teenage girls growing up in the 90s know all about.
So why are there ovulation tests to help you know when to do the deed at the best times? pregnancy supplements? Is this because the reproduction biology lessons went to waste? or are people finding it harder to get pregnant? or are these tests targeted for women above 30?
Even as an adult, the female menstrual cycle is not a 100% clear cut process in my mind.
We learn how to calculate cycle lengths, how to know our bodies.
Yet we know more about what we typically feel and do just before we are about to start out menstrual period, and what we typically experience during our periods than really fully appreciating the miracle our bodies are.
It seems to me now that "trying for a baby" is less heard of, or is it that women talk about it less or feel its a taboo? people don't use this expression much now. It seems that women share less about being pregnant until the later stages of pregnancy...I wonder why this is? Is it about being anxious in their first pregnancy? is it because of difficulties in their first trimester? or simply my own personal experience that this is not spoken about much?
Mothers have told me to not to be worried and to enjoy my time and it will happen naturally. Yet faced with reading and hearing about the concerns and risks of having children past 30 years of age, yet not much about the benefits of having children later in life.
Are these beliefs that have been adopted by society in past decades that encourage women to pursue careers, yet communicate risks of starting a family later in life and now become woven into our thoughts disguised as our personal wants and beliefs?
I had an interesting conversation, and quite an enlightening one. Where someone shared his take on families and women, equality for women. Where women have fought for equal rights, and continue to, and how this has had a greater impact on lifestyle as we know it.
His take: Previously when only men went to work, women get to be the respected homemaker/housewife. They get to raise their own children and get to really know them and to provide and be the backbone of their family, men get to provide for their family and be appreciated and respected husbands and fathers to their wives and children. Then introduce the idea that being "just a housewife" is not enough or simply not respected, introduce an "its not fair" idea, introduce "we are just as good as men if not better" so why not?
Now where companies have created a working team/finances to account for maternity leave for female staff and adjust their working team to account for staff absences during this time, have these adjustments eaten into the salaries of the working men, meaning if only husbands/partners worked, could they be on a larger income that would be the equivalent of both parents working?
Some mothers today would give almost anything to be able to "afford" to be able to stay home with their children. Feeling forced back into work because they can not afford to not work to bring in an income that would support their family's lifestyle. Did husbands and father before earn an income that could truly support a growing family? Or did families simply live according to this income and be wise with their spending?
Couples who both work hard to raise a family could call this the modern struggle, then could this get communicated to our younger population and could this lead to people believing smaller families are better and cheaper? could this have a big impact on population in the future? Would older parents be working right up to retirement age because their children are younger and require financial support?
I've become present to the thoughts, concerns and beliefs that I thought and think are my own, yet realise they were created in our my own head or they were fed/planted to me in communication around me or the people around me. In magazines, on websites, books and even in movies today, yesterday and maybe even decades before were born.
So what to do...well
TODAY is what we create it to be... When I am present to a concern of mine, I pause to take a look where did I get this concern from....Look how it explains why I think about certain things the way I do, how it explains how I feel about life/people/myself...
Then I choose, drop it and choose a new outlook.... how about one that makes me
instantly smile inside?
How about one that is somewhat the opposite to my concern and it now becomes what I am building towards, taking feasible steps and totally excited about!
Goodnight
