Over the course of this pregnancy, particularly in these last couple of months, I have struggled with how to best take care of myself. I've wondered whether I should take it easy or ignore the assumed to be harmless discomfort and maintain my usual level of activity. I often reflect on two conflicting images from literature. The first is confinement, which I have read about countless times in European historical fiction. This was the idea that toward the end of pregnancy it was best for the mother and the baby to confine the mother to bed in a dark room. It sounds horrible at first, but there have definitely been days where this appealed to me. The other image is that of the mother in The Good Earth, who squatted in the rice field, gave birth, wrapped the baby up and then continued working in the rice field. Clearly this woman was able to work right up to the end, and then some. I often wonder if this is the way to do it- just push through the pain and keep on keeping on. Obviously, neither of these approaches is ideal for me (or most pregnant women). The best approach lies somewhere in the middle- doing as much as possible without being unreasonable. Knowing personal limits and comfort levels. But that can be a hard line to draw. And timing is everything. There have been days that I have pushed myself too hard and had to try to recover by putting myself in "confinement" for the next day or two. Overdoing it caused me to have frequent, painful contractions, and that was scary at that point in the pregnancy. Now that I am at the end of the road and going into labor would be a good thing, I kind of want to go out into the rice field and work work work until it's time to deliver. I do not wish to squat in a rice field, though. I'll be at the hospital for that part :)
