Amazing facts of motherhood

The flip side . . .

of the amazing fact of cells passing between child and mother is hemolytic disease of the newborn, which is why Rh negative mothers are given RhoGAM in pregnancy:

The hemolytic condition occurs when there is an incompatibility between the blood types of the mother and the fetus. There is also potential incompatibility if the mother is Rh negative and the father is positive. When any incompatibility is detected, the mother receives an injection at 28 weeks gestation and at birth to avoid the development of antibodies toward the fetus. These terms do not indicate which specific antigen-antibody incompatibility is implicated. The disorder in the fetus due to Rh D incompatibility is known as erythroblastosis fetalis. -- Wikipedia

Amazing, but before RhoGAM, deadly.

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by: Michele @ Fri Jan 13, 2012 at 19:36:16 PM UTC

Pregnancy

I had no idea that pregnancy was so potentially dangerous, or so involved with the sharing of cells and such back and forth.

All this, the dangers as well as the re-wiring of the mother's brain etc., make it seem more amazing than I ever imagined. Pregnancy just seemed like an ordinary thing, but it's extraordinary.

Sorry to be stating the obvious. I dunno -- I just never really thought about it.

"If only I had a nickel for every time I've heard someone say that the Soka skunk has changed its stripe." -- auntie

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by: mroaks @ Fri Jan 13, 2012 at 20:33:19 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Sexism

OK, brookie, I'm gonna rattle your cage. Explain to me why the Dalai Lama's statement is not sexist. He's basically saying that women biologically are better than men at being compassionate. If he had said that men are better than women at manifesting wisdom, you'd raise a protest.

So explain. Is there a double standard at work here?

"If only I had a nickel for every time I've heard someone say that the Soka skunk has changed its stripe." -- auntie

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by: mroaks @ Fri Jan 13, 2012 at 20:39:00 PM UTC

Re: sexism

Good point, mroaks! If the Dalai Lama were offering gender-role stereotypes, such as "boys are naturally tough while girls are naturally nurturing," I'd think it was a basically sexist statement.

He implied that women have different biology, and different qualities seem to accompany this biology. It's like saying "men are biologically sort of better at producing more testosterone than women, and this has implications regarding their attitudes and behavior."

Gender is more than just biology, yes, and maybe you can ding the Dalai Lama for not offering an explanatory dissertation on gender issues each time he refers to "female" or "male." He made a point about the biology of women, which I followed up with an article about biological realities during pregnancy, which might support the Dalai Lama's assertion: "female, biologically, more sort of sensitivity toward other's pain."

Do you take offense at the implication: "Male, biologically, less sort of sensitivity toward other's pain"??? Yes, that's a broad generalization. Do you disagree with it?

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by: brooke @ Mon Jan 16, 2012 at 06:18:28 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

Hey Lama

 "Hey, Lama, hey, how about a little something, you know, for the effort, you know." And he says, "Oh, uh, there won't be any money, but when you die, on your deathbed, you will receive total consciousness." So I got that goin' for me, which is nice.

I've read in the HuffPo  where da Lama has stated,

"he will consult Buddhist scholars to evaluate whether the institution of the Dalai Lama should continue at all."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/09/24/dalai-lama-reincarnation_n_978990.html

I'm not much of a fan of either. But the DNA issue is a fascinating one. Here's what Richard Dawkins supposedly wants read at his funeral:
From Unweaving The Rainbow

"We are going to die, and that makes us the lucky ones. Most people are never going to die because they are never going to be born. The potential people who could have been here in my place but who will in fact never see the light of day outnumber the sand grains of Arabia. Certainly those unborn ghosts include greater poets than Keats, scientists greater than Newton. We know this because the set of possible people allowed by our DNA so massively outnumbers the set of actual people. In the teeth of these stupefying odds it is you and I, in our ordinariness, that are here. We privileged few, who won the lottery of birth against all odds, how dare we whine at our inevitable return to that prior state from which the vast majority have never stirred?"

That's pretty poetic for a polemic.
Of course a Buddhist might have their own opinion and embellishment about winning the lottery.  

Don't let being alive ruin your day.

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by: joeisuzu @ Fri Jan 13, 2012 at 22:41:29 PM UTC