Reasons we have been told by Russian people we know that our baby died:
I rode in an airplane to Krasnoyarsk.
My body was too cold.
Reasons why people have miscarriages in general:
The young women these days wear low rise jeans and midriff tops which exposes their bellies and backs and they get infections because of this and have miscarriages. (yes, infections just from being cold)
Men drink a lot of alcohol and smoke and this affects the woman during pregnancy somehow. (the problem wasn't that alcohol or smoking affected the man's sperm, no the problem happened somehow during the actual pregnancy)
To put this in perspective, or to help you understand the "medical reasoning" of many Russians, I'll tell you about an experience that Thomas had recently. You may or may not know that he "threw out" his back. He was in terrible, awful, no good shape. When we returned from Krasnoyarsk, he could barely walk. We were pretty sure that the mattress that we slept on for 3 nights was at least partly at fault. (It was the 2nd or 3rd worst mattress that I've ever slept on. The worst one being a sheet of plywood with a bed sheet on top of it, but that's another story.)
Anyway, he was explaining to a bunch of Russian women at the language institute where we study what had happened with his back. Unanimously and almost in unison they told him,
"No, that's not possible. A mattress has nothing to do with any back problems. Your back was hurt because it was so much colder there than you are used to."
Granted it was about 20 degrees colder there, but hmmm. What can you say to that. When Russians pull out the "it's because of the cold" card, we've discovered that there's really nothing you can say to convince them otherwise. It's really very interesting.
So when God blesses us with another child, I wouldn't be surprised if my language teacher encourages me to wrap an extra scarf around my tummy. I'll let you know.
2 comments:
every culture has some cure all or something. Lebanese people all seem to think that if you are suffering from any ailment you must sprinkle water on your face. Heart attack? Put some water on his face. It is like the windex on "my big fat greek wedding".
Jeremy's great grandmother told me that I had Jack premature because I lifted my arms over my head too often. She had nine children, and she had one baby die when she was a few months along. She swears that the one child she miscarried had a chord that became knotted because she lifted her arms above her head to hang laundry.
She also tells Jeremy not to throw the kids up above his head, because she new a man who did that to his child and the child's liver flipped over.
It is amazing what people can grow up believing. She has provided us much comic relief over the years.
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