The miracle of childbirth can be difficult for adults to explain to young children. It still weirds most of us out – explaining to a youngster that it’s totally normal for another human being to drop out of a woman’s uterus doesn’t always go over well. But this girl, Erica, doesn’t seem to be confused at all!
During her classes “show and tell” time, Erica went up in front of her classmates with a pillow inside her shirt to simulate a pregnancy. When she began, she showed a photograph of her newborn brother, Luke, saying that he was a symbol of her parents’ love for each other. Erica then said that her father put a seed in her mother, allowing Luke to grow inside her, and that the fetus was able to eat via an “umbrella cord.”
Two weeks earlier, her mother began having labor pains, which Erica amusingly pantomimed. Saying that her father then called the “middle wife,” to deliver the baby, Erica pointed out that the woman didn’t have a sign on her vehicle like a pizza delivery man. Once the midwife arrived, Erica’s mother was placed on a bed, the child explaining that her mother kept a bottle of water in case the fetus got thirsty.
That confusing note was explained when she described how the “bottle” turned out to be her mother’s water breaking, with the water gushing all over the bed. With the midwife’s encouragement, Erica’s mother gave birth to Luke. Erica described the baby as being covered in “yucky” stuff that was from the “play center,” (aka placenta).
Erica’s candid recount of her mothers birthing experience is a hilarious one, tinted through the imaginative lens with which children see the world.