Being Born

Being born is important
You who have stood at the bedposts
and seen a mother on her high harvest day,
the day of the most golden of harvest moons for her.

You who have seen the new wet child
dried behind the ears,
swaddled in soft fresh garments,
pursing its lips and sending a groping mouth
toward nipples where white milk is ready.

You who have seen this love's payday
of wild toiling and sweet agonizing.

You know being born is important.
You know that nothing else was ever so important to you.
You understand that the payday of love is so old,
So involved, so traced with circles of the moon,
So cunning with the secrets of the salts of the blood.
It must be older than the moon, older than salt.

- Carl Sandburg

Being Born IS the BABY's experience. Giving Birth is mother's. TWO BEINGS, TWO BEING'S experience TOGETHER. And, what about the father? What's his experience, perspective, and needs?

Fathers stand "at the bedpost and have seen a mother", his partner, "on her high harvest day, and the day of most golden of harvest moons for her."

The baby "groping towards mouth nipples where white milk is ready" is the fruit, the harvest of his seed. He is the father of this baby, made with this woman. This is HIS HARVEST. Why is he treated so poorly in American hospitals? Why is the father of duct tape, vinyl records, the spinning loom, the microchip, and the father of this country or that religion or a philosophy given more reverence and regard than a man at his seed's harvest?