May 2011
47 posts
“Chance is the strangest word in the world, isn’t it? One syllable, six letters. It’s a noun, it’s a verb. Change one letter and it’s an adjective. And everything about it scares the bejesus out of so many people; it’s this thing they try to avoid at all costs. Don’t travel to the Middle East these days-there’s a chance something could happen. Don’t get involved with that new fellow on Creamery Street- I hear a lot of mud was scraped off his floor after the divorce. Don’t have your baby at home-there’s a chance something could go wrong. Don’t, don’t, don’t… Well, you can’t live your life like that! You can’t spend your entire life avoiding chance. It’s out there, it’s inescapable, it’s part of the soul of the world. There are no sure things in this universe, and it’s absolutely ridiculous to try and live like there are! There’s nothing that drives me crazier than when people say home birth is chancy or irresponsible or risky. My god, so what if it is? Which, in my opinion, of course, it isn’t. What’s the price of attempting to eliminate chance, or trying to better the odds? A sterile little world with bright hospital lights? A world where forceps replace fingers? Where women get IVs and epidurals instead of herbs? Sure, we can cut down the risk, but we also cut off a lot of touching and loving and just plain human connection. No one said living isn’t a pretty chancy business, Sybil. No one gets out of here alive.”
—Chris Bohjalian, Midwives
