Becky and I have been keeping a secret for a few months, but we’d like to share it now.
Our first child is due in the middle of November.
Back in March, in response to a story about college students having to pay more for birth control pills, I wrote about the Ladycomp, an incredible device from Germany that allows women to avoid pregnancy without the use of dangerous drugs or barrier methods. In a comment on that post, Cryptogon reader KL wrote:
OK, I will fall in the trap … Why aren’t you and Becky procreating? Don’t we need more of your kind, and less of the jesus-nut-neocon-dimwit type?
(Kevin, I am not telling you to have children, I’m just wondering why you aren’t doing so in such a lovely environment, because I’d want about nine kids running around such a farm.)
It was practically killing me to keep the secret that Becky and I had already started using the Ladycomp for a different purpose than the intended one. You see, the Ladycomp is setup to help women avoid pregnancy, but when a couple decides to conceive a child…
This might be more information than you want to know, but we got it right on the first try.
Becky knew she was pregnant pretty quickly and booked an appointment to see the doctor, so we could register with the midwives. The doctor is a smart woman, but she initially doubted that Becky could know she was pregnant so soon. A quick urine test later and, yep, there was the answer.
I told the doctor the story about the Ladycomp and she was very skeptical that “it” happened on the first try. The dialog with the doctor went like this:
“You avoided pregnancy for three years without using contraception, and then got your wife pregnant the first time you were actually trying to conceive?”
“Yes, that’s right,” I said.
“What’s that thing called?” she asked, still not really believing the story.
“Just type ‘ladycomp’ into Google. It’s a registered medical device from Germany.”
She wrote it down.
HA.
Now, when we mentioned the Ladycomp story to our midwife (who’s from the Netherlands), she didn’t even blink, “Oh yeah, that’s good.” When I said that it was nice to find someone who knew about the Ladycomp, she said that lots of women use it in Europe, no big deal. Of course, I couldn’t help myself and started talking about the poison pushing pharmaceutical companies and how many American women are brain washed into using dangerous drugs to avoid pregnancy. She kinda smiled, shook her head and said, “America… America is a funny place.”
“Yeah, but the joke is getting old,” I said. So much for maintaining appearances in public. Oh well.
The fact that Becky and I are both eating a Weston A. Price style diet almost certainly contributed to the effort. Everyone knows people in their thirties or even twenties who are incapable of having children. Often, when you look at their lifestyles, you have to wonder how they’re alive at all. Lots of soda, white bread, nutrasweet, polluted air, water and food. Toxic jobs. Lobotomizing television. Lots of dangerous prescription drugs for anything that ails ya… And increasing numbers of people aren’t able to have children. Imagine my shock.
When I was in the U.S., I was absolutely sure that I didn’t want children. This is how I summed up the situation back then: You’d have to be fully insane to want to bring a child into this living Hell. I’ll get by as best as I can and that will be the end of it. No need to involve a child in this horror. Isn’t that a nice outlook?
Then again, I hadn’t met Becky at that point.
Now that we’ve left the U.S. for good, the situation is very different. I don’t see the end of the world right in front of my face every minute of the day out here. In fact, I’m only reminded of it when I look at this computer screen. I’m not constantly wondering about how I’m going to be screwed over next. Not having to show up to an office is a life altering experience in and of itself. Living debt free is another revelation. Breathing clean air, drinking clean water and eating clean food; it’s amazing how living a sane existence can change one’s outlook.
We’re happy here. We think our baby will be happy here too.
