So this Monday I decided that ok, I do not know everything, and maybe, just maybe, this whole "free school for parents" thing organised monthly by my chosen health institution might be a good idea. Well. I might as well have stayed home and knitted, or whatever expactant women in picture-perfect mode do.
In this first hot day of July, we were crammed together in a relatively small room - about 40 pregnant women. I just went in and thought, my oh my, what happens when we all need to pee at the same time. So there we are, crammed in this room for 5 min, and I am already lacking oxygen, sweating and fidgeting in my chair. For the record, I must say none of the other women were fidgeting at all - they just sat there, comfortable as they could be, with at least one hand on The Belly at all times. Me, on the other hand, kept moving, changing positions and extracting glances from the woman next to me. Ok, is it just me, or in month no9, there is NO possible way to sit/lay/stand that can be called even remotely comfortable?
Be that as it may, we were all waiting for the lecture - entitled "Natural birth v. c-section", led by one of the leading midwives in the hospital, to start. What we got instead was a very artificial looking woman with a fake smile, who started a huge presentation of *insert brand here* (they're all made by UNILEVER, anyhow) baby-food-supplies-vitamins-pregnancy-products whatever and took the next 30min of our time. I was looking around, wondering if this is some kind of joke, and why nobody else seems to mind. This woman was basically trying to tell me that unless I start consuming those products my baby is doomed and so am I, and I was like, ok I am already in the 9th month so bugger off, it's not like I would take anything artificial if I can avoid it anyway. The nerve of these people. I spent the time browsing on my phone.
Just when it was over and I thought what we were actually there for might start some time now, a clone version of woman number 1 stepped in, and started another huge presentation on the preservation of stem cells from the umbilical cord in some clinic in the UK, which costs an average of 3000EUR. This in a country where people earn about 350-400EUR per month and consider themselves lucky. Yes, stem cells might save lives. And I do happen to have read a lot about that, but guess what, anybody interested can access all the information they need, and more, from the internet. Instead these shameless commercial assholes are using an audience of trapped pregnant women brought there for something else entirely to induce fear in them for their unborn babies and subtly push those buttons that tell parents to do the best they can for their offspring. I am so sick of them. Already on account of my bump I am being targeted with more advertisements than I can bear, in situations where I should be doing something else entirely. And I was paying parking by the hour to sit there, sweat, fidget and listen to that crap. Imagine what it would be like if I actually owned a TV!
In this first hot day of July, we were crammed together in a relatively small room - about 40 pregnant women. I just went in and thought, my oh my, what happens when we all need to pee at the same time. So there we are, crammed in this room for 5 min, and I am already lacking oxygen, sweating and fidgeting in my chair. For the record, I must say none of the other women were fidgeting at all - they just sat there, comfortable as they could be, with at least one hand on The Belly at all times. Me, on the other hand, kept moving, changing positions and extracting glances from the woman next to me. Ok, is it just me, or in month no9, there is NO possible way to sit/lay/stand that can be called even remotely comfortable?
Be that as it may, we were all waiting for the lecture - entitled "Natural birth v. c-section", led by one of the leading midwives in the hospital, to start. What we got instead was a very artificial looking woman with a fake smile, who started a huge presentation of *insert brand here* (they're all made by UNILEVER, anyhow) baby-food-supplies-vitamins-pregnancy-products whatever and took the next 30min of our time. I was looking around, wondering if this is some kind of joke, and why nobody else seems to mind. This woman was basically trying to tell me that unless I start consuming those products my baby is doomed and so am I, and I was like, ok I am already in the 9th month so bugger off, it's not like I would take anything artificial if I can avoid it anyway. The nerve of these people. I spent the time browsing on my phone.
Just when it was over and I thought what we were actually there for might start some time now, a clone version of woman number 1 stepped in, and started another huge presentation on the preservation of stem cells from the umbilical cord in some clinic in the UK, which costs an average of 3000EUR. This in a country where people earn about 350-400EUR per month and consider themselves lucky. Yes, stem cells might save lives. And I do happen to have read a lot about that, but guess what, anybody interested can access all the information they need, and more, from the internet. Instead these shameless commercial assholes are using an audience of trapped pregnant women brought there for something else entirely to induce fear in them for their unborn babies and subtly push those buttons that tell parents to do the best they can for their offspring. I am so sick of them. Already on account of my bump I am being targeted with more advertisements than I can bear, in situations where I should be doing something else entirely. And I was paying parking by the hour to sit there, sweat, fidget and listen to that crap. Imagine what it would be like if I actually owned a TV!