Day 5: The Maternal Body

Mackie, Vera, Feminism in Modern Japan, HQ1762.M326 2003 2003


...I am all alone,

totally, utterly, entirely on my own,

gnawing my lips, holding my body rigid,

waiting on inexorable fate.

There is only one truth.

I shall give birth to a child,

truth driving outward from my inwardness.

Neither good nor bad; real, no sham about it.

With the first labour pains,

suddenly the sun goes pale.

The indifferent world goes strangely calm.

I am alone.

It is alone I am.

(qtd. Mackie 53)

Part of the article "The Maternal Body" illustrates how a mother give birth to a baby. It describes the pain while labouring and the pain when her husband was not there. Comparing My Year of Meats, I believe Akiko feel relieved that her husband is not there when she is pregnant. Although labour is painful but she would rather bear it on her own. She is not alone because she have friends like Dyann and Lara who would take good care of her. She would raise her daughter no matter how hard is it.