Birthin' FGs

[Charles]

Labor in Translation (http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/13/magazine/13lives.html)
(NY Times Magazine)
By DANIELLE TRUSSONI

I saw it not as a risk, giving birth so far from home, but as an adventure. Hell, in the previous year I had graduated from college summa cum laude, earned a brown belt in karate (with a black belt surely to come, after the baby), married my boyfriend of four months (in secret, at City Hall) at age 24 and landed a job, a dream job, in Japan. My new husband had followed me to Asia. He found part-time work teaching English to housewives; I paid the rent and fried tonkatsu for two. I was thrilled to do so. Everything that I believed in college ― that I was one of the new American women who could make money and babies on her own terms ― was true. Here I was, nine months pregnant, with a new husband and a great job, about to give birth in Japan. Was there something on earth I couldn’t do?

... The baby was big, the doctor told me, nearly four kilos (almost nine pounds). I was a small woman, 5 feet 4 inches, with a prepregnancy weight of 110 pounds. The birth would be difficult. On my way out, the doctor smiled and said, “Gambatte Kudasai,” a catchall phrase that means, loosely, “Fight with all you’ve got.”

It wasn’t until a week later, in the 36th hour of labor, with contractions exploding through my body every three or four minutes, that I began to understand that phrase...

[note to mothers: while I recognize that giving birth was a life-altering experience for you, it really is nothing extraordinary, billions of women have done it before, many of them (possibly most of them) experienced much more difficult circumstances than Mrs. Trussoni, and none of them got their blather published in the New York Times Magazine.]

[Greji]

Labor in Translation (http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/13/magazine/13lives.html)
(NY Times Magazine)
By DANIELLE TRUSSONI...snip..,.[note to mothers: while I recognize that giving birth was a life-altering experience for you, it really is nothing extraordinary, billions of women have done it before, many of them (possibly most of them) experienced much more difficult circumstances than Mrs. Trussoni, and none of them got their blather published in the New York Times Magazine.]

Labor in Translation. Good title. Charles, I am laboring in translating what you are saying. Care to follow this up a bit?
:cool:

[Charles]

Labor in Translation. Good title. Charles, I am laboring in translating what you are saying. Care to follow this up a bit?
:cool:
OK, perhaps I could have worded that better. Also note that I posted this in the forum "Another Newbie Reporter Discovers Japan." My point is, every mother has their "unique" story that is just the same as every other woman that has given birth. There is nothing particularly special about this story, not even the fact that it occurred in Japan. You know, women in Japan actually give birth too.

What really burns me up about this story is that it is so self-centered. We learn that this superwoman graduated summa cum laude, has a brown belt in karate and a dream job, she pays the rent and cooks the food, and her schlub husband who teaches engrish is barely worth mentioning. And the whole POINT of this story barely rates a mention either. The story contains a total of 3 sentences about the baby, everything the woman writes is about herself. Even final sentence, "My replacement had just wrapped his tiny fingers around one of mine," barely acknowledges the child's existence as a separate human being, he is merely "my replacement."

I've read Japanese Women's Studies books and learned that there are real and interesting culturally unique aspects to pregnancy and birth in Japan, and I've talked to several FG women who gave birth in Japan. Every single story I have heard was far more interesting than this NYTimes essay. Once again, I have more evidence of my pet theory, that some FG are completely oblivious to everything happening around them, they reside in Japan but they are actually living on some other planet.

[ichigo partygirl]

hey charles any chance of posting the rest of the article so i dont have to sign up to the paper?? Cheers

[Taro Toporific]

.... any chance of posting the rest of the article so i dont have to sign up to the paper??

Try using this backdoor link that does NOT require a signup. (http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/13/magazine/13lives.html?ex=1313121600&en=dc55aaa941acf219&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss)

[ichigo partygirl]

Cheers Taro
Sure that must have been a pretty terrifying experience but hey at least she had a doctor there....
Now here is a real horrific birth story.. http://english.pravda.ru/society/stories/03-08-2006/83727-birth_floor-0

[kurohinge1]

I guess one good thing about popping out an FG baby in Japan is that it'd be very hard for them to mix up the FG bub with the rest . . .

http://classes.yale.edu/03-04/anth254a/gallery/gallery_images/multi-ethnic/Thumbs/i02_020210.jpg (http://classes.yale.edu/03-04/anth254a/gallery/gallery_images/multi-ethnic/Images/i02_020.jpg)

;)

[gomichild]

Yes that was indeed a self-centred article which really explained little of the experience of giving birth outside of your own country and in one where you don't speak the language.

Also after listing all the "amazing" things she'd achieved, she blames hormones on not being able to learn a bit of Japanese for a specialized situation? Meh.

[Socratesabroad]

My point is, every mother has their "unique" story that is just the same as every other woman that has given birth. There is nothing particularly special about this story, not even the fact that it occurred in Japan. You know, women in Japan actually give birth too.

What really burns me up about this story is that it is so self-centered.


Second part first. I actually disagree with you here, Charles. I was pleasantly surprised to hear the author explains that she wasn't the center of the universe anymore - "that I was no longer the most important person in the world" - in a manner that would evoke nods of agreement from fellow Times readers.

On to the first part about the non-uniqueness of this story. Not being a frequent Times reader, I rolled my eyes at the author establishing her 'credentials':

I...
had graduated from college summa cum laude
earned a brown belt in karate (with a black belt surely to come, after the baby)
married my boyfriend of four months (in secret, at City Hall) at age 24
landed a job... in Japan.
paid the rent and fried tonkatsu for two
was one of the new American women who could make money and babies on her own terms
was organic over conventional, acupuncture over chiropractics, yoga over jogging, alt-country over Garth Brooks.


Talk about ego - Charles and GomiC right to notice it; how can you not when the author says "Was there something on earth I couldn’t do?"
We could bring up these points with the authoress herself, since "Danielle Trussoni is the author of ... a memoir." Incredible! According to her myspace page, it's a "memoir about my amazing adventures," (http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=33981825) which is all the more impressive since it was authored at the ripe age of 24 and the authoress had scarcely more life experience than that listed above.

The most pleasing aspect of the story is that its author has long since left Japan to return home and flog her book. Sorry, memoir.