All Walks of Life

Everyone in my pre-natal exercise classes has a "story". We may all be pregnant at the same time, but path we took to get to this point and the paths we'll take thereafter are vastly different. It's interesting to see such diversity.

There are lawyers, teachers, engineers (including Yours Truly), and doctors. There are gals who got pregnant shortly after getting married, and others who got pregnant shortly before getting married. Some aren't married at all, but are in committed relationships. Some have an OB, and some have a mid-wife. Some have opted for some added support by hiring a doula. Some want the epidural and some want a natural birth, hoping to somehow bear through the pain when the times comes for the kid to pop out. Some will be surrounded by family after their babies are born, and some are a long way from home and have to brave it by themselves.

One girl was telling me that she's going to have her baby back home in Halifax, where her parents and her in-laws live, because they can (and are willing to) help her out. Her husband is a corporate lawyer and therefore spends most of his time working. She doesn't even know if he'll be at the birth, because he has X days off, and the time he's taking off is based on that farcical 40-weeks-of-pregnancy mark that doctors like to give as due dates.

Another girl's partner is working in the US. Meanwhile, she's stuck in Toronto trying to sell their condo so that she can join him in the States later. She won't be joining him until after the baby is born, because she will be staying with her parents at their cottage for the entire summer, to have and raise the baby during its first few months of life.

Look at me, even. I got married at 23, and am having a kid at 28. By the time PK pops out, I will have been married for 5 whole years. By today's standards, that's an awfully long time to be married sans kids. Not to mention the fact that I got married at a relatively young age by today's standards. Most people probably just assume that we had trouble conceiving. The truth of the matter is, we weren't ready to be parents when we got married (even though the hubby is 5 years my senior), so there was no rush for us.

It just goes to show that there is no such thing as a "typical" pregnancy. We're all different, and that's just fine by me. Can you imagine how boring the world would be if every birth were the same?