Pre-pregnancy

I received my book from Amazon last week, What To Expect When You're Expecting, a so-called Pregnancy Bible written by Heidi Murkoff and Sharon Mazel. The book is nearly 600 pages with detailed guidance from preconception preparation to baby delivery, and is likely to be the thickest English book ever that I'm likely to read from cover to cover.

It looks like the industrial society has created extra dangers for fetus. The food we are eating today, most of which is not organic but produced on pipelines, put the embryo development at risk; seasonings and spices, which contain all sorts of stimulating substance, are potentially damaging as well. I'm also surprised to find eye cream, hair sprays, perfumes and sun blocks also contain some chemical substances that may reduce the weight of babies or increase the risks of abortion; let alone cosmetics, most of which contain toxic chemicals to create elegant color and long-lasting make-up on the face. Before I only checked product reviews, but now I need to keep an eye on ingredients of almost everything as well.

It's interesting to think about the fact that we all grow from tiny embryo to mature adults, and develop all sorts of immunity to industrial products while enjoy more tasty food rather than breast milk. We love coffee and chocolates so much that some of us can't even survive without caffeine; we get addicted to sugar and find it hard to say no to desserts despite that sugar not only brings extra weights but also hinders absorption of some nutrition; alcohol, cigarette and drugs also add pleasure as well as risks to us. In some parts of the world (yes, China I'm talking about you), people even develop resistance to insecure food during the lengthy process of growing up, while any of those toxic food additives can easily kill a fetus.

Sometimes I can't help think what will happen to my child (if there will be any) in the future. Our world is far from nature already, and theirs could be even farther. Hopefully he/she will receive better education, which is designed by top psychologists and educationalists, learning more advanced knowledge and longer history; he/she may have better understanding of the world as globalization expands, and the differences between different culture and political regimes; he/she shall be able to breathe cleaner air and eat safer food if born in the US rather than China, and enjoy suffrage as well; he/she may be able to choose what he/she really likes and make a living on that; he/she shall enjoy better technologies, taking road trips in a driverless cars and probably having vacations on Mars. But he/she may also face bigger challenges brought by upgraded mass-destructive weapons and climate change. Yes we are in a world where both benefits and crisis are surging. This is a world glorious but dangerous, I'm not even sure if he/she will be thankful to me for bringing them here.

Years before, I won't even think of having babies, which sounds so much like an adult thing. But now I'm approaching thirty, and I start to realize that I'm supposed to take more responsibilities than what I'm having now. To the relief of mine, I may be producing the best work ever in my life.