Local Woman Missing

by Mary Kubica

“Where’s Delilah?” Delilah is Josh and Meredith’s daughter. She’s six.

“the sitter told me only Leo was there. She said that Meredith had kept Delilah home for the day because she was running a fever. She said Meredith had called Delilah in sick to school, and had canceled her own classes.”

Shelby Tebow to consider, a young woman who went for a jog in our neighborhood ten nights ago and never returned.

I glance down at the phone in my hand, expecting it’s my client with some conditioned reply. Thx. Instead: I know what you did. I hope you die.

I’ve since seen things happen in a labor room that appall me. My own birth experience was a cakewalk in comparison. A common belief during labor is that a baby’s needs supersede that of the mother’s. Women don’t always know they have options. Or they aren’t given a choice in their care. If they are, they aren’t allowed ample time or information to come to a decision themselves. Choices are made without their consent. Too many women don’t want to be a burden and so they say nothing. The mistreatment is subtle, too, and falls under the guise of medical care. Doctors do things that verge on sexual assault to me. They stick their hands inside a woman’s vagina without telling her first. They disregard a woman’s pain. They use forced or invasive practices. In the labor room, no doesn’t always mean no. Most times labor ends with a happy ending. Women put aside whatever negative feelings they experienced during birth because they got what they wanted in the end: a healthy baby. That doesn’t make it right. One of the reasons I do what I do is to advocate for women during birth.