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Over the weekend I was contemplating these awkward-sounding deliveries on public transportation and trying to decide if it would be more unpleasant to have a baby on the subway or above ground on the bus. I have not yet discussed the baby who was born on the R train with Felix, but I know he would be completely jealous of that kid, although given his current tendencies he would probably suggest that the baby should have held out for a brand new N train (complete with accurate electronic station signs). The other baby was born on the B61 bus in Brooklyn.
If pressed, I think I'd take subway over bus but I'm not sure why.
But then today, I became aware of a different sort of delivery decision that had never occurred to me (again, I'm not sure why). In Pakistan, pregnant women often try to find ways to come to the United States to have their babies to ensure that the children will have US citizenship. There is an article in Slate's new(ish) Double X blog about this, and it is full of things I never knew. I didn't realize, for instance, that this practice is called "birth tourism" (and it does mean making extended vacations to the US because it is difficult to fly too late in pregnancy and also can be hard to find OBs who will take on new patients late in the game). (It isn't just Pakistani women who travel to give birth in countries that have the sort of birth citizenship provisions that the US does, it is also not uncommon for women in Taiwan, South Korea and Hong Kong, according to the article.)
I also had no idea that the US policy about birth citizenship is a 14th Amendment thing. I had sort of assumed it had been around since the country was established since so few of the people who were making up the rules had been born here. But the fact of the matter is that the rule was put in place to give US citizenship to the children of slaves.
Anyway, it is worth reading.
As I understand it, being born on the subway doesn't confer any citizenship or anything beyond an intriguing or squirmy (depending on your and your audience's feelings about these things) birth story. You'd think a lifetime supply of Metrocards for the mother would help offset the embarrassment, but the MTA is always almost bankrupt and would never suggest such a thing for fear everyone hop on the trains during contractions, hoping for free commutes forever.
posted by Elise at 3:55 PM
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Becky Bridge said...
My Oliver (age 27) was like your Felix as a wee one -- the drive to master the precise attributes of physical objects that distinguish one from another. First it was every parked car that I pushed (or tried to push) his stroller by before ceding to his insistence that we stop and examine the precise attributes that distinguished a Chevy from an Olds (he wasn't a stickler for brands). Then came Chicago's skyscrapers where we lived in on the 71st floor. How many floors did one building have as opposed to another, how tall was one versus another and was that because of the number of floors or the antennae on top (and how many feet were the antennae themselves)? Finally it was airplane configurations -- how many engines on a 727 vs. a DC10 (long gone models, I know), how many aisles and how many seats on either side of the aisle(s). My younger son applied the same sort of intensity to historical events -- the American Revolution, the Civil War, WWII -- he's the one that became the musician; the older one is the teacher/mentor/amateur social worker. Interesting, isn't it? Exhausting as it was, I treasure those times and enjoy reliving them through your stories about your boys.
6/16/2009 6:41 PM
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Becky Bridge said...