Let's say I don't want to be a self-sufficient farmer after the apocolypse

[conuly]

What else can I do to sustain myself? Give me some ideas, they don't have to be necessarily good or easy ones. I'm not talking *right* after, either. I'm talking when the dystopias pick up, several years down the line after things have settled down. (Ever notice how these books always assume that if you survive the initial upheaval of life as you knowing suddenly grinding to a halt, you'll be all right?)

(And yes, this entire post assumes the end of the world as we know it is coming. If you don't think that's likely to happen, speculate anyway.)

Comments

[lizziey.livejournal.com]

Without modern medicine, having a baby is dangerous.

We might even have to go back to older methods of getting babies out... they can be less pleasant than the modern ones.



WHAT!?!? Someone has been brainwashed by the mainstream...


And...Funny, I thought the way I just had Annika 3 1/2 days ago was pretty damn primative, and it was darned sure more pleasant than my extremely medicalized births of the boys...

[conuly]

Well, she's right and she's wrong. It's definitely true that in developing countries, there is still a high risk of death-in-childbirth. And then, on top of that, there is the potential for crippling disabilities from childbirth... like permanent incontinence. Would that I were making this up.

But, it's not a guaranteed death sentence, not by far.

[lizziey.livejournal.com]

Yes, many times it is dangerous, but in most cases, its not. So it would have been better said as "Without modern medicine, having a baby is sometimes dangerous." or something. But its that "OMG without a doctor your baby will DIE!!!!" mentality that makes childbirth such so badly in the US these days. :(I mean, crap. You can't even have a midwife assisted homebirth in New York state. Because the government has made it illegal Assholes. :(

[leora.livejournal.com]

I was talking about having babies. All of my comments were within the context of a bunch of survivors putting together a community and what jobs would be available. Having babies is dangerous. Have enough women and you will have problems come up. I'm probably okay - I'm big hipped and fecundity seems to be in my genes. But there will be problems. Some of them will be solvable with a bit of poking and prodding, but not every woman is going to be able to get a baby out without aid. Having babies ~is~ dangerous. We forget that, but childbirth used to be a statistically significant killer of women, and still is in some places. Oh sure, we can seriously reduce that from simply knowing about germ theory and washing our hands and keeping things clean, but having babies involves risks. And a community will have use for someone with midwife skills.

[lizziey.livejournal.com]

Big hips have nothing to do with it. I have almost NO hip width, even after three kids, and I just birthed a 9 lb, 14 inch head circumference baby, no problem. When I say that under my fat, I am tiny, I mean I am stuck with kid's sized hats, watches, glasses and shoes. When I am without all my extra weight, I wear a 00 pants.

Yes, a community would need midwifery skills. But not "modern medicine" as such. And often enough "modern medicine" has caused as many birth risks as it has eradicated.

[leora.livejournal.com]

Oh come on, you know better than that. An example means nothing, especially for a third child. I was a fifth child, born at home, with no fuss and no pain. That's irrelevant.

Sure, lots of babies will be born without problems, otherwise humans wouldn't be here now. But some of them aren't. The old advice used to be carry small, and you can go back to that. Carry small, don't gain much more weight than you have to, and you're less likely to have a baby that doesn't fit out like you do now. But you're more likely to have health risks for the baby.

Lots of babies fit out with just labor. Some need turning and repositioning. And some just won't fit. If a baby won't fit to get out it can kill both the mother and the baby. Stalled labor is real, even if you didn't have it. And the older methods, when turning didn't work and pushing and prodding didn't work generally involved breaking part of the baby. Sometimes you can just break an arm and get a baby out, but sometimes it's a collarbone. And in some, desperate situations, you need to break the skull and remove the baby in pieces or cut the mother open and remove the baby, but generally one or the other isn't surviving through it, and if you don't do either, often both will die.

It's a real risk. And without modern medicine, it will come up at times. Many of the cesarians we have today may be done without as much cause as is necessary, but some of them absolutely do save lives.

[lizziey.livejournal.com]

I never said there was no pain to Annika's birth. Far from it, having her without pain meds was the most painful experience of my life. However, it was far more pleasant than the birth of the boys, which was chock full of doctors and nurses doing with me what they would, and not thinking my body could do this without them (just as your comment suggested, in fact!!).

As for the rest of it, that is nature. Seriously.