taking the woman out of you

they say that the hair is a woman's crown. they say that the breasts are the woman's essentials. to me, as compared to the uterus, the other 2 mentioned above are almost meaningless. you can always grow hair, you can always augment or implant breasts, but i haven't heard of fake or implanted uterus, have you?

uterus is very important for child bearing. without one, the wish of having a child or another child of your own can never be fulfilled. i don't know how being pregnant feels like, but i am pretty sure for those who are expecting, it is something that is hardly describable.

i was in the OT the other day. went in when the surgery was taking place. at first i thought it was just another elective lower section caesarian section operation due to placenta previa (also known as low lying placenta after the 2nd trimester). after the baby was delivered, the doctor did not deliver the placenta, instead he started to remove the whole uterus. this procedure is called total abdominal hysterectomy (TAH).

at the same time, there was panic (not at the disco) around the baby's crib as the baby was starting to literally turn blue. it was not crying even after almost 2 minutes of the delivery. the nurse was paging for paeds doctor. and i am thinking: shouldn't a paeds be in the theater as well to anticipate this kind of situation? but the paeds was no where near. so, any other doctor in the theater was called to make the baby cry. and after much attempt, the baby started crying and it turned pink immediately, thank God.

meanwhile, the surgeons were having a tough time trying to remove the uterus. they also found out that the placenta has become placenta pancreta, where the minute vessels of the placenta has traversed the thickness of the uterus wall. the head surgeon was sweating, suddenly the blood pressure of the patient drop severely due to copious loss of blood, and the uterus is still far from being taken out.

after much prodding here and there in the abdominal cavity, the uterus is finally taken out from the mother. all the while throughout the surgery, i was thinking to myself: this woman will not be able to feel being pregnant ever again. this woman, will not be able to bear her own child anymore. the true "woman" in her has been taken out.

i guess the real definition of being a woman is when you are a mother. that is the test of it all when you have multiple responsibilities and the most important one is to care for yor child. so when you take the uterus out of a female, she has lost her chance of being a true woman.