Vote as if her life is at stake, because it is

My daughter is the light of my life, but her birth could have killed me. I haven’t had an epidural, thanks to years of writing Gray’s anatomy, I was more afraid of complications than pain during labor.

My labor was considered normal, meaning I paced, doubled over and vomited in agonizing pain every few minutes for 22 hours, and then pushed with my whole body for another four hours. And yet I needed a vacuum assist to get the baby out because her head was stuck to my pelvis. When my daughter finally emerged healthy, I cried with relief, but my face was dry because I was too dehydrated to produce tears. That’s when things quickly turned from normal to terrifying as the blood started pouring out of my body and pooling on the hospital floor.

I didn’t bleed to death because the medical team had easy access misoprostol– a drug that has now been pulled from emergency carts in Louisiana because, while incredibly effective at stopping postpartum bleeding, it can also be used to induce abortion. I also had to pack with sponges and gauze and nine stitches to stop the bleeding.

It took me months to fully recover from the birth, partly because of blood loss, and partly because one of the sponges inside me had been forgotten. If you have a Gray fan, you know that an abandoned sponge can lead to serious infections, illnesses and death. I was lucky that I sensed something was wrong and the doctors believed me, searched and found the rotting sponge, while antibiotics could still treat the infection.

I’m telling you the grisly details of my child’s birth because women usually don’t. In the same way that our culture has taught us to whisper about our periods and hide our tampons—despite the fact that our menstrual cycles sustain our species—new mothers are culturally guided to hide the more brutal details of childbirth. Our society focuses on beautiful, giggling babies. It ignores, through culturally perpetuated silence, the physical and emotional wounds that accompany the experience of pregnancy, miscarriage, labor, birth and motherhood.

I believe it is partly because of this silence – because we feel like we are somehow betraying our breathtaking, beloved babies when we name the reality that gives rise to and accompanies their existence – that we have allowed. that laws are being passed in the United States. of America that forcing women to carry out unwanted pregnancies. I believe it is imperative that women start talking about what the term ‘reproductive rights’ actually means – because this is the only way to convey how important it is that we all vote in this election.