April 30, 2011 is over. My blog began on April 1st and I’ve managed to reach many health professionals in 12 blogs with parts of my new vision on the prevention of FASD. First I blog, then I tweet. And this month I may open up a Facebook account.
But first blog 13 must fittingly end the month.
To end the month I’ve decided to attempt to dispel the (bi-) polar feelings mothers or fathers (friends, relatives, kids) have about the word, “Fetus."
According to Wikipedia: A fetus (also spelled foetus, fœtus, faetus, or fætus) is a developing mammal or other viviparous vertebrate after the embryonic stage and before birth…
For some reason, people forget this. On one hand they may know the educative meaning of the word, "fetus," but on the other hand they really don't use it even when it comes up in a doctors office, let at home or with family. I’ll admit, it is not the prettiest of words. But what do people think they are reading when they see that "fetus" in a magazine? They’re probably thinking baby instead.
Compare fetus to the word, baby. "Baby" sounds so much more engaging and a has a more pleasing feeling. The doctor speaks of “your baby,” (not "your fetus"). Mom and Dad are calling it baby anyway. I'm not saying I think that's bad. That’s why part of my strategy is to get rid of the stigmatism about this word “fetus” that many believe makes the “baby” sound a little less human; a little less intimate; a little less appreciated.
Interestingly, my birth sister, Sophie, and her common-law husband, Allen, called their fetus, “Polliwog,” even though they had picked out the name “Stephanie." To them it was cute. Were they showing they didn't care? Not at all. They were super fantastic people anticipating their first child with the same zeal and excitement that any new parents should have. But for education let’s look at the pictures of the three: the baby, the fetus and the polliwog feel the pull towards the baby.
Here’s a “baby," a "fetus," and a "polliwog."
By far, the baby is the best, right? Yet it still begs reality to mix with, well, "reality." Technically, they are all beautiful to me. That's right. A fetus and a polliwog and a baby. So I'll pick one...hmmm...the fetus. I believe the word fetus decribes one thing only and I love that thing because that thing will indeed be a baby one day, then a toddler, then an adolescent and then a teen and then a young adult, then marriage or getting that doctorate degree, and so on. This all comes from the fetus which comes from the egg and sperm that united. My goodness, is there somemone out there calling the egg or the sperm the baby too? (Not correct yet still, OK.)
It’s one thing to see good information accidentally in a waiting room while flipping through the pages of TIME MAGAZINE. It’s another thing when few people really know what’s going on with this awful disorder because we can’t see it when in reality it’s just a few bits of factual information away. FASD info can hit any fetus like a brick, as you yourself may experience while you read this and past or future blogs.
Yes: I'm talking about FASD now.
Therefore, concerning alcohol and the drinking mom, the ramifications are real for the baby, and the polliwog, and the fetus.
So before I go on, I am obviously going to insult some moms here and there and that’s unfortunate because I don’t wish to insult anyone. I, the doler of truth, have faced many truths in my lifetime – more than I could ever recall or want to. When there is truth, some people don’t want to hear it. The: “the truth will set us free” phrase, is often the only comfort from an initial pain, an ongoing pain or a well-guarded secret drinking pain? FASD truth let out could change many lives in just one family.
Here, here... I do not believe drinking moms fetuses are monsters as thousands of years of teratology has always suggested. But, I do believe that moms and even their boyfriends or mates are accountable for their drinking decisions to prevent monstrous future difficulties. Now here come two of my biggest concerns and part of my driving force for the fetus against fetal alcohol spectrum disorder.
Listen up...
Here’s the warped logic of a woman, her man and possibly her family. Was it worth it? (...warped bottle...warped drink...warped fetus brain...warped pregnancy...warped childhood...) Was it all worth the drink?
I’ll put the first concern like this. A woman, who has little information regarding pregnancy and her little fetus, (and they are out there), can miss the following logic. One may actually believe that the placenta protecting her tiny one is actually protecting her tiny one. Nothing could be further from the truth. Anything and everything including pee, poo and gas goes right through there, as well, bad things go in there. Most moms know this. Yet, whether the mom knows it or not, how is it still possible that if alcohol can destroy every living organ in the body, can it be safe to assume the baby (fetus) is completely unaffected? That’s my first alarming issue.
Concern two is a real clincher that one FASD organization in our city of Vancouver has a ridiculous problem with. This popular and very professional aftercare group refuses to work with any organization called Fetuses Against FASD. That's us!
By now there should be no debate on what a fetus is. Yet why does everyone become desensitized when they hear it. I say, "it is what it is." Here now I'll show you a more mature fetus?
Once again, a fetus is an unborn baby. It is not a bad word and in fact it is the appropriate name whether you are a doctor or not. If you didn’t have a fetus, you definitely would not have a baby. If you had a flower seed in your hand would it be a seed or a flower? Same idea.
Having said that we all know that all proud parents-to-be calls it their baby anyway and that is absolutely 100% perfectly fine. Now comes warped logic:
If your mind is set to follow the logic that it (the fetus) really is a baby, (since that’s what you both feel), why then is there a beer in mom's hand?
And this...
This doesn’t make sense because to follow up with the same logic, it would then also be OK for the “newborn” to have a beer too. But who does that? Do mom’s put liquor in baby bottles? Do they let them sip from their beer mug? Do they use droppers to force the baby to ingest a shot before bedtime so they fall asleep faster or so mom and dad can have uninterrupted sex?
No. If they did it would be child abuse at its worst.
Baby, Fetus, Polliwog: They are what they are!
Baby, Fetus, Polliwog: They are what they are!
Let the fetus do its job of becoming your baby.
No Booze. No Drugs. Being Real.
Comment Below...
No comments:
Post a Comment