Motherhood in America: Some Apples for Your Pie

As news of Stupak has dominated our livid attention, many of us may not have heard the amazing gains made for motherhood in America. As of this month, all states will now allow women receiving aid through Women Infants and Children (WIC) to purchase fresh fruits and vegetables. For the first time, ever.

To anyone who hopes to accuse us of stinginess, we announce that we’re giving participating mothers $8 per month and children $6 per month in vouchers to purchase produce. Wait it gets better, breast feeding mothers get $10! Yes, that’s right $10 whole dollars to stretch over 30 delicious, vitamin-packed days.

Now what low-income woman wouldn’t want to stay pregnant regardless of her circumstances or desires with that kind of reward on the table? Could it be she’s the one thinking precisely of life -- contemplating the one her child will lead? Or perhaps she’s concerned for her already impoverished existing children and how she will manage an additional one to clothe, feed, shelter and -- dare she hope -- educate.

Right now Congress and armies of lobbyists determine whether women will be deemed worthy of access to the full range of health care the law and medical science allows. We’re hearing lots about the importance of life and the sacred bond of mother and child. So, what about motherhood.

A cursory glance at maternal health will tell you just how much we value how life is given in this country. We advocate for and in some cases force over one-third of women to undergo major abdominal surgery (though we’ve given it a nicer name), rates unknown abroad. We’ve turned a supposedly blessed event into a medical emergency and made sure women are terrified to do it and not empowered at having done it after the fact.

Child-rearing, with its joyous but exhausting and endless responsibilities, is absolutely the last priority on our national list. This is obvious to anyone who has contrasted the palatial “birthing suites” where a woman labors to the dismal recovery room she inhabits once her duty is discharged. Even for those of us on the lucky end of the spectrum, the hospital architects have signaled who and what matters in this purportedly mother-loving place.

Motherhood in any circumstances is a challenge. In fact, my own mother used to say it’s the only life sentence without chance at parole you can receive without committing a crime. Low-income motherhood is infinitely harder still. Where we should be in awe of and reaching out to help the women who daily sacrifice to undertake this feat -- we stand in judgement of them and seek to make their difficult task impossible. Only to insist it must be done.

With forced eviction from the hospital after two days, no postpartum support, miserly provisions for food, questionable access to health insurance, inaccessible but absolutely critical flu vaccines, unsafe and failing schools, little or no assistance with childcare -- how could anyone without wealth be up to the task of raising one, let alone, many children in America? Yet, this is a job description of low-income motherhood here. Now we’re contemplating drafting any fertile female who dares to have sex into this position -- and we’re confused that they’re not so eager to apply.

Child-rearing isn’t battle (as much as parents of toddlers and teenagers might insist that it is.) But it is a sort of national front-line, critical to our survival. It is our future, quite literally, at stake. As our lawmakers now shamefully consider shifting from a voluntary service for this task of national importance to conscripting women to serve at their will -- can’t we at least demand the provisions they need to do the job?