Is information always power?

This is the question a shell-shocked Colin and I have been asking ourselves since attending ante-natal classes on Saturday. After six straight hours of information overload (including videos on natural and caesarean births) I’m leaning heavily towards the ignorance-is-bliss school of thought!

I’m sure that there are those who are empowered by seeing exactly what a woman’s body goes through during labour and delivery. But after Saturday I have decided that I am definitely not one! My theory is that the body is designed in such a way that I won’t be able to see what’s going at the time so why do I need to see it at all? I also think that when the time comes it will be easier to handle because I’ll know that in a few hours (painful though they may be) I’ll have a little baby as a reward. All I have now is two months to dwell on the messy, painful and traumatic process, with none of the positive pay-off.

In the Information Age we find ourselves in, there is an assumption that one should equip oneself with as much information as possible. When women in generations before us were pregnant the emphasis was on preparation, not information. The vast majority of them went through labour and delivery naturally and without any pain relief. Our generation either shies away from the prospect completely by opting for an elective C-section, or starts screaming for an epidural at two centimetres. So you have to ask yourself – is all that information really helping?

Of course, asking myself these questions now is pointless. What’s seen cannot be unseen! But on Saturday night, God started reassuring me while I read my preggie devotional which started with Philippians 4:13, ‘I can do everything through him who gives me strength.’ And then this morning I went to visit my friend Jaclyn and her little girl, Kirsten Ann, who is now three weeks old. Holding that tiny little baby in my arms suddenly put everything into perspective again. Yes, it’s called ‘labour’ for a reason and it won’t be a walk in the park, but when you hold your baby for the first time, man oh man, it will be so worth it!