I was sitting in Izy Coffee this morning with my friend Prabigya when in walked Larisa, the co-owner of Izy with her husband Bart.

Larisa is pregnant.  She knows her child will be a girl, and she’s thrilled about that.  The young one will be making her appearance on this earth around the beginning of April.

As Larisa talked about the differences between her two boys, I thought about the lives of women, historically and now.  Having half of the planet’s human beings considered “less than” by some members of the other half is tragic.  The pain of centuries.

And the physical pain of bringing a new life into the world.

Although I see myself as empathetic, I haven’t felt into what it’s really like to be pregnant, to be sick a lot, and to experience contractions.  I just haven’t paid attention.  But I wanted today to be different.

I wanted to know how much pain Larisa experienced during the births of her sons.  She told us that the contractions, lasting maybe thirty seconds, were spurts of pain upwards of seven on the pain scale (out of ten).  And they just kept on coming.  Plus there were definitely some moments of ten.

And what about the length of labour?  Larisa said that a short one would be about four hours.  Maybe ten hours would be average.  What?!  Hours of pain way up high on the scale!

Every human being has been born through the pain of a woman.  I’d heard the statement but before today I never got it.

I’m surrounded by heroines … those who have given birth and those who have not.  The glass ceilings have been real.  Not being allowed to vote has been real.  Being beaten up, ignored, treated like a thing …

Here I am, a white male – the epitome of dominance in this skewed society.  A man who is only beginning to wake up to what women have faced, and still do.

I am humbled