I am a woman who does the hard and holy things.

I breastfeed my baby on a bus
while the wrinkly ol’ timer
spews misguided musings at me.
“Cover up! That’s disgusting!”
No.
He forgot that it was a
woman’s womb
from which he arrived
and
not from the ribcage
of an average white man.

I am a woman who does the hard and holy things.
I can grow human life inside of me.
I can push a baby out of my womb,
along with my placenta—
an organ I grew
all on my own
because
I believe in the
unseen
and love
and sparks
and this miraculous divine life.

I can bring the life I created earthside,
in the comfort of my own home
or in a hospital.
Deep in a forest,
in a hidden away cabin,
or in a birthing center
in downtown Manhattan.
I can schedule a C-section
or not.

I can labor surrounded by doctors
or next to a waterfall
wearing a crown of flowers
and freshly picked herbs.
I can choose the epidural,
the nitrogen oxide happy gas.
The water birth.
The hypno, cool breeze, whale sound music.

I choose to trust my body,
breathe and scream
through each sobering contraction.
I can do whatever the f*ck I want
because
I am a woman who does the hard and holy things.

~

~

Author: Lindsay Dyan
Image: Author’s own
Editor: Nicole Cameron
Copy Editor: Catherine Monkman