A story that speaks to fears and beliefs surrounding home birth
In a land called Baa, there existed a small humble town known as Alpha. It was common knowledge across the land that there was no road through the rugged forest to Alpha. Rumors trickled thru the people now and then of an adventurous soul who traveled to the town, but it was generally regarded as a stupid thing to do – after all there were many wondrous cities to visit throughout the land, with wide highways and plentiful gas stations and repair garages. When the citizens of the land planned their road trips, they consulted with maps and travel organizations, which all warned against driving into the forest surrounding Alpha where the map was blank. Since there was no road, it would be foolhardy at best, and lethal at worst, to drive into the forest at all. Everyone agreed, “You can’t get there from here. Drive north, or south instead, there is a great highway and mechanics in every town in case your car needs fixing.”
One day someone found a very old map at the back of a shelf in an old bookstore. To their surprise, the map showed a road to Alpha. But everyone knew there had never been a road, and the mapfinder was very curious about what the map might mean. She made inquiries into the existence of the map, and in researching who the mapmaker might have been, she found that buried beneath the public perception that there was no road, a road might actually exist. Searching further, she began to talk to people who claimed they had seen the road. This led her to people who had actually traveled the road, and eventually, she found that not only was there a road, but a well traveled one, and not only that, but that certain individuals with many years of traveling experience offered their assistance to travelers. The mapfinder was skeptical, but with each new discovery, her old belief that “There is no road to Alpha” was proving to be more and more inaccurate. After speaking with an expert travel guide, looking at travel research about the safety of the route, and communicating with many who had been down the road, the mapfinder decided to make the journey herself.
All the mapfinder’s friends and family were horrified to find out what the mapfinder planned. “You can’t get there from here! There is no road! Your tires could go flat, you could run out of gas! Your transmission could give out, your radiator hoses might blow out! Your engine could overheat, you could drive around in circles lost til you starve to death. Mrs.Smith’s friend’s cousin’s sister in law drove her car off a cliff trying to drive to Alpha, and the car exploded and they all died!! Don’t go, please, there is no road, and we don’t want to lose you.”
The mapfinder was grateful for the concern her friends and family showed, since she knew it was an expression of their love for her. She decided to share with them all she had learned in hopes they would feel less frightened. She showed her friends and family the map. She showed them information from travel researchers who had studied the route to Alpha and how it affected travelers and their vehicles. She reassured them and offered them any information they needed to address their concerns. She suggested they come and meet with the travel guide so that they would have a chance to speak with someone expertly familiar with the route.
Some looked at the map and were amazed that all this time, there was a road there and they did not know it. They found that their old belief about there being no road did not hold up under scrutiny, and they gave their support to the mapfinder, saying, “I wish I’d known about this route during my traveling days. I never knew you could get there from here”. Others, however, were skeptical. They told the mapfinder that the map was probably phony and the road could not exist. They claimed that for every phony map you found, you could always find another that showed the exact opposite route. They remained more comfortable believing there was no road, and no matter how much information the mapfinder shared, they would not change their minds. They focused not on the evidence but on the frightening things they believed were bound to happen if a person drove off the road into the forest. They told the mapfinder many discouraging things to try to persuade them that the road probably did not really exist. They insisted that if any road was there at all, it was not a safe road but a rugged narrow track barely fit for a mountain goat, and that they should not risk an attempt at reaching Alpha.
Others seemed to reluctantly go along with the plan but wanted the mapfinder to go about the journey differently than the evidence suggested was safest. They wanted her to haul a trailer behind her vehicle that she could pack with campstoves, tents, sleeping bags, food and water, extra tires, communications equipment, gasoline and spare parts for the vehicle as well as diagnostic machines to monitor the condition of her vehicle during the journey. They felt this would protect her from the possibility that she would discover there was no good road to Alpha. But what they did not realize is that the handicap of hauling a trailer was known to cause more problems and hardships to the performance of the vehicle, and would make it more difficult to complete the journey. No expert on the route to Alpha would recommend hauling a trailer and they advised that it decreased a traveler's chances of ever reaching Alpha. The mapfinder knew that to do so would introduce an unnecessary level of difficulty and stress to her journey. If she needed any of those things during the trip, she could take one of the route’s exits to find a supplies shop or repair garage. It made no sense to haul it all along with her. The route to Alpha was not a one-way street, a traveler could change their mind and leave the road if they needed or wanted to.
The mapfinder began to see a very interesting thing: that what the skeptics believed she was planning was not, in fact, what she actually intended to do. They were frightened of her doing something she wasn’t ever planning to do – driving through a roadless forest, over rivers, through briar patches, swamps, fallen logs, boulders, ponds, and cliffs. She had no intention of doing that, since she had found a safe road and a skilled travel guide. She was not willing to change her plans simply to make them more comfortable, once she realized what her fearful friends thought she was doing was not at all what she actually meant to do.
The mapfinder was upset and stressed that her friends did not believe her information, they had always known her to be a smart and careful woman and it was difficult to now have them express doubts about her judgement. After such intensive research and exploration, there was no doubt in her own mind about the best route to Alpha, and she was not alone – there was an entire community of intelligent and reasonable people who knew the route and used it. To have friends and family dismiss and discredit the hard work she had done to discover the new information was disappointing, but she knew that no amount of fear from them could change the facts she had learned. She wanted to be able to prepare for her journey in a relaxed, peaceful and enjoyable way, instead of having constant stress from those who continued to insist that there was no road to Alpha.
If your journey has been completed, feel free to add your ending to the story!
In a land called Baa, there existed a small humble town known as Alpha. It was common knowledge across the land that there was no road through the rugged forest to Alpha. Rumors trickled thru the people now and then of an adventurous soul who traveled to the town, but it was generally regarded as a stupid thing to do – after all there were many wondrous cities to visit throughout the land, with wide highways and plentiful gas stations and repair garages. When the citizens of the land planned their road trips, they consulted with maps and travel organizations, which all warned against driving into the forest surrounding Alpha where the map was blank. Since there was no road, it would be foolhardy at best, and lethal at worst, to drive into the forest at all. Everyone agreed, “You can’t get there from here. Drive north, or south instead, there is a great highway and mechanics in every town in case your car needs fixing.”
One day someone found a very old map at the back of a shelf in an old bookstore. To their surprise, the map showed a road to Alpha. But everyone knew there had never been a road, and the mapfinder was very curious about what the map might mean. She made inquiries into the existence of the map, and in researching who the mapmaker might have been, she found that buried beneath the public perception that there was no road, a road might actually exist. Searching further, she began to talk to people who claimed they had seen the road. This led her to people who had actually traveled the road, and eventually, she found that not only was there a road, but a well traveled one, and not only that, but that certain individuals with many years of traveling experience offered their assistance to travelers. The mapfinder was skeptical, but with each new discovery, her old belief that “There is no road to Alpha” was proving to be more and more inaccurate. After speaking with an expert travel guide, looking at travel research about the safety of the route, and communicating with many who had been down the road, the mapfinder decided to make the journey herself.
All the mapfinder’s friends and family were horrified to find out what the mapfinder planned. “You can’t get there from here! There is no road! Your tires could go flat, you could run out of gas! Your transmission could give out, your radiator hoses might blow out! Your engine could overheat, you could drive around in circles lost til you starve to death. Mrs.Smith’s friend’s cousin’s sister in law drove her car off a cliff trying to drive to Alpha, and the car exploded and they all died!! Don’t go, please, there is no road, and we don’t want to lose you.”
The mapfinder was grateful for the concern her friends and family showed, since she knew it was an expression of their love for her. She decided to share with them all she had learned in hopes they would feel less frightened. She showed her friends and family the map. She showed them information from travel researchers who had studied the route to Alpha and how it affected travelers and their vehicles. She reassured them and offered them any information they needed to address their concerns. She suggested they come and meet with the travel guide so that they would have a chance to speak with someone expertly familiar with the route.
Some looked at the map and were amazed that all this time, there was a road there and they did not know it. They found that their old belief about there being no road did not hold up under scrutiny, and they gave their support to the mapfinder, saying, “I wish I’d known about this route during my traveling days. I never knew you could get there from here”. Others, however, were skeptical. They told the mapfinder that the map was probably phony and the road could not exist. They claimed that for every phony map you found, you could always find another that showed the exact opposite route. They remained more comfortable believing there was no road, and no matter how much information the mapfinder shared, they would not change their minds. They focused not on the evidence but on the frightening things they believed were bound to happen if a person drove off the road into the forest. They told the mapfinder many discouraging things to try to persuade them that the road probably did not really exist. They insisted that if any road was there at all, it was not a safe road but a rugged narrow track barely fit for a mountain goat, and that they should not risk an attempt at reaching Alpha.
Others seemed to reluctantly go along with the plan but wanted the mapfinder to go about the journey differently than the evidence suggested was safest. They wanted her to haul a trailer behind her vehicle that she could pack with campstoves, tents, sleeping bags, food and water, extra tires, communications equipment, gasoline and spare parts for the vehicle as well as diagnostic machines to monitor the condition of her vehicle during the journey. They felt this would protect her from the possibility that she would discover there was no good road to Alpha. But what they did not realize is that the handicap of hauling a trailer was known to cause more problems and hardships to the performance of the vehicle, and would make it more difficult to complete the journey. No expert on the route to Alpha would recommend hauling a trailer and they advised that it decreased a traveler's chances of ever reaching Alpha. The mapfinder knew that to do so would introduce an unnecessary level of difficulty and stress to her journey. If she needed any of those things during the trip, she could take one of the route’s exits to find a supplies shop or repair garage. It made no sense to haul it all along with her. The route to Alpha was not a one-way street, a traveler could change their mind and leave the road if they needed or wanted to.
The mapfinder began to see a very interesting thing: that what the skeptics believed she was planning was not, in fact, what she actually intended to do. They were frightened of her doing something she wasn’t ever planning to do – driving through a roadless forest, over rivers, through briar patches, swamps, fallen logs, boulders, ponds, and cliffs. She had no intention of doing that, since she had found a safe road and a skilled travel guide. She was not willing to change her plans simply to make them more comfortable, once she realized what her fearful friends thought she was doing was not at all what she actually meant to do.
The mapfinder was upset and stressed that her friends did not believe her information, they had always known her to be a smart and careful woman and it was difficult to now have them express doubts about her judgement. After such intensive research and exploration, there was no doubt in her own mind about the best route to Alpha, and she was not alone – there was an entire community of intelligent and reasonable people who knew the route and used it. To have friends and family dismiss and discredit the hard work she had done to discover the new information was disappointing, but she knew that no amount of fear from them could change the facts she had learned. She wanted to be able to prepare for her journey in a relaxed, peaceful and enjoyable way, instead of having constant stress from those who continued to insist that there was no road to Alpha.
If your journey has been completed, feel free to add your ending to the story!
