Live and Let Live.

I remember after I had my first child in Germany, my father was bragging to his friend that his daughter--me-- had her baby without drugs, NATURAL childbirth, as if that is some kind of virtue. Let's face facts, every peasant does this without a doctor present, wraps up the baby and goes back to work. So I didn't feel proud. Instead, in front of his friend, I said, "Yes, dad, how would you like to push a 10 inch ball through a 3 inch hole? He gasped, but stopped bragging.

 Let's face facts, there isn't a man alive who wouldn't scream for a shot once he experienced the pain a woman goes through bringing a baby into the world. And he would never have a second one. Even my son holds up  Japanese women as virtuous, because their MALE doctors won't give them pain medicine during  labor. The doctors feel that women should have pain in childbirth, because that's natural. I wonder if those same doctors would let cancer take its course without medicine?

I was very young when we lived in Germany the first time, and every old woman felt she could tell me what to do. Nurses forced  me to nurse even when I was running a fever. They told me I wasn't allowed to cough while nursing my baby, as if I had a lot of control over it. Richy was weak because he was suffering from jaundice, and the nurse would yell at me because he didn't get enough to eat. Finally I just said no. No more nursing. The baby will survive on formula. And he did.

Now we have these Nazi type nurses in the U.S. Not everyone can nurse, and not everyone wants to. It is more important that the mother be happy.  If you want a happy baby you need a happy mother.

I am an asthmatic, and have been criticized through the years for taking medicine that stops or prevents the attacks. At the Italian border when I was returning home to Florence, the dogs grabbed me by the ankle and laid down on my bags. Luckily I always carried a prescription with me. I took out the medicine and the security man shook his head. "This stuff can be lethal, " he said. "What should I do when I can't breath?" I asked. "At least this helps." "I would never take it," he said with that disgusting moral attitude.  But then it is easy for anyone to say if he doesn't suffer from asthma.

What is it about the human being that he need to make everyone do things his or her way?  Suggestions are welcome, but to say that my way is the only way is ridiculous.