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Pregnancy and Birth

Continuing with the theme of human survival, pregnancy seems pertinent, especially given the book Future Home of the Living God.


Photo by Mustafa Omar on Unsplash (https://unsplash.com/@mustafa_omar)

Throughout the story, we get glimpses into Cedar’s experience as a pregnant woman. As someone who has not been pregnant and who has rarely been around pregnant or nursing women, I was curious to look into some of the pregnancy-related experiences described by Louise Erdrich. Maybe some of these facts will be new to you as well.


Hair


First, a more known side effect of pregnancy is thicker hair. Cedar writes, “I turn back and forth, catching the light, dazzled with myself—my skin is so clear, my hair so thick” (201). The reason this happens is because of an increase in oestrogen, causing hair to fall out less.


Diastasis Recti Abdominis

I was shocked to find this out, though in retrospect it makes complete sense. To make room for the growing uterus during pregnancy, the abdominal muscles have to move over. And sometimes those muscles move too far, resulting in diastasis recti. This condition can be healed by therapy and specific exercises after giving birth.


For Cedar and Tia, this means their abdominal muscles were weakened when they escaped via woven rope from the hospital, perhaps contributing to Tia’s short fall during their escape.


Fetus Responses to the Outside World


Cedar notices that her unborn baby seems to jump with her when she jumps in excitement. While I don’t know about jumping, one study found that fetuses decrease movement when they hear their mother’s voice and increase movement of their arms, head, and mouth when the mother touches her abdomen.


Another research study on fetus facial expressions found that their expressions of “pain/distress” became more complex as they matured in the womb. Perhaps Cedar’s baby was indeed responding to her sometimes, as she thought.


The Placenta

The placenta is something I knew almost nothing about but became interested in after Cedar mentioned that Tia “delivers the placenta” (184).


Mayo Clinic explains that “The placenta is an organ that develops in your uterus during pregnancy.” It feeds the fetus and is what the umbilical cord attaches to. After giving birth, the mother delivers the placenta in the “third stage of labor.” Doctors then must insure that all pieces of the placenta are removed to prevent bleeding and infection.


Postpartum Depression

Not related directly to the book, but something not talked about often is the mental state of mothers after giving birth. Sometimes the change in hormone levels in the mother’s body leads to postpartum depression which is a “form of major depression that begins within 4 weeks after delivery.”


Simply making the general population aware of postpartum depression would be good to increase understanding and reassure women experiencing it that it is not their fault and does not make them a bad mother. Seeking help is okay and good.



The amazing changes the mother must go through during pregnancy and birth show some of the most interesting strengths of the human body and the ways we are wired to survive, even in an apocalypse.



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