beckee's birthy book club.

Some of you may have known I was bound to get 'birthy' on this blog eventually, but for those who didn't, allow me to explain.  I have been nursing a growing obsession with midwifery and the natural birth movement for much of the past ten years.  I believe it started somewhat subconsciously, deeply embedded in the inner machination of my biological clock.  Little did I know that thing was already ticking as I entered the tail ends of my teen years!  But that silent ticking led me to a precursor obsession with watching live birth on television.  When I moved into my first apartment, where for the first time since leaving my parents' care for college I had access to cable, I found myself addicted to watching shows like "A Baby Story," "Bringing Baby Home," and "Birth Day."  Actually, it may have started earlier than that, because I remember watching Molly Ringwald's belly and stress levels grow over and over again in "For Keeps" while I was still in high school.  At any rate, I fed myself of all things birthy for several years straight, cringing through the screams and crying on cue when those screams gave way to tears of joy and strategically placed strains of baby-friendly music as new mom after new mom held her minutes-old child for the very first time.  My understanding of the bonding that was taking place before my very eyes was enhanced by the sense that I was going through a bonding experience as well; each viewed birth formed a tether between me and every woman who is or will be a mother on this planet.  These were Oprah-watching days, too, so every time Oprah's eyes glistened as she turned to face the camera and proclaim her view that motherhood is THE-MOST-IMPORTANT-JOB-ANYONE-WILL-EVER-DO, I felt further vindicated in my new love, my new relationship, my new passion for mothers and babies and families as they were made, again and again, before my own glistening eyes.