Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site pyuxa.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!gamma!pyuxww!pyuxa!wetcw From: wetcw@pyuxa.UUCP (T C Wheeler) Newsgroups: net.jokes.d Subject: Re: Natural Childbirth by Dave Barry Message-ID: <803@pyuxa.UUCP> Date: Thu, 14-Jun-84 09:18:28 EDT Article-I.D.: pyuxa.803 Posted: Thu Jun 14 09:18:28 1984 Date-Received: Fri, 15-Jun-84 00:41:06 EDT References: <925@eosp1.UUCP> Organization: Bell Communications Research, Piscataway N.J. Lines: 31 Good Grief, Tobias, the article was not meant to be serious. I thought the story was humorous in that Barry was just poking fun at one of lifes little episodes. I am sure that he was just as awe struck and humbled as I felt when my three were born. The story did not seem in any way a put-down of natural childbirth. It was just one humorists story, told in a light funny vein. There are many many little stories like this in our media. They are just there to provide a smile or two. Read Erma Bombeck sometime. Here is a lady who does exactly the same thing, poking fun at lifes serious moments. And, they DID, at one time dope the mother to the limit during birth. They still do in many hospitals. I thought Dave Barry's description of the whole process hit the nail on the head in some instances. For instance, the classes that he attended were not unlike those my wife and I went to. We would go home afterwards and howl with laughter at some of the antics of the others. ( I suppose they did the same with our antics.) We all seem to remember the funny things that happen to us much better than the serious or not-so-funny things. I don't ever remember discussing the time my daughter broke her arm or my son had to spend a week in the hospital with respritory problems. I have talked the ear off people telling them about the time my son pulled a 12 pound bluefish out of the surf by putting the pole over his shoulder and marching up the beach when he was 7 years old. We all have to try to take the edge off the serious mode once in awhile or else we will end up as basket cases in the funny farm. The story appeared in net.jokes, so I was prepared to be amused. If it had appeared in net.med or net.something-else- serious, I might not have been as amused. T. C. Wheeler