Morgan on motherhood and life

I recently discovered the ante-natal clinic at Tafelsig. Ante-natal similar to the American term pre-natal, which refers to a woman’s pregnancy or the months before a baby is born. So I spent today working with one of the sisters (nurses) in the ANC where we checked the mommy (said with an Afrikaans accent, sounds like mummy) to make sure she was healthy and that the baby growing inside of her was healthy. The most profound part of the day was hearing the baby’s heartbeat. Tafelsig is a clinic with very limited resources but staff members who excel at their professions, so we used this tiny, old ultrasound machine that allowed the two of us to listen to the baby’s heartbeat. No monitors to see the baby, and no high-tech equipment to perform this task. A stripped down moment encompassing the beautiful sound of new life. Have you ever heard a baby’s heartbeat for the first time? I would assume most of the students on this trip have not. I would also assume that if you are one of my co-educator’s mothers’ reading this blog, then maybe you have heard one of your children’s heart beat for the first time, specifically a child on this trip. Do you remember that moment? Do you ever stop and recognize the constant rise and fall of a chest as it breaths, the blood pulsing through a body, or the suns never-ending rise each morning?  Because as I listened to this baby’s heart beat, that is what I felt. I could feel the connection between the earth and the body I was inspecting and the tiny life form inside of her.

Each time I heard a baby’s heartbeat today my eyes filled with tears and my throat filled with emotion. Here I was listening to nature’s most precious creation and trying to fathom the astounding role of a mother, who literally carries a child until the baby is ready to come into the world. It’s actually so shocking and so astounding to really think about what life is and where it all begins. And these thoughts bring me back to the idea that we are all connected. We all came into the world the same way. These infinitely compassionate women who we can so luckily call our mothers gave us everything they have, literally a home with their body, until we could handle the world on our own. I’m not trying to sound extreme or scientific or strange here, I’m just trying to wrap my head around the idea that we all come into this world in the same way – because as humans we truly are all the same, and what could give greater insight to this idea than the fact that we all begin with a heartbeat.