An email from Maria

Here's what my friend Maria wrote when I told her that I'm pregnant.

30 years of age? Childless? Then you are at great health risk if you are a Filipina. The only thing that could be worse is being Filipina, 30, single and childless. Consider having an army of relatives whose only reason to talk to you is to egg you to marry and breed. Consider being robbed of your self-esteem after reading a magazine about relationships--or worse, about how children "complete" their parents. Consider being asked to take care of your nephews and nieces. Consider having a father who cries over the fact that you have not given him a grandchild.

First hand experiences bear witness: Cha-cha, 32 married. Aga, 30, married. Both have relatives who keep reminding them how age is fast overtaking them on such important social contribution as childbearing.

Both women decided to play the game--and win. Sadly for Cha-cha, she lost round one. Her 7-week fetus decided that it was cozier to stay outside the proper place in the womb and ended up altogether expelled. Aga hangs on still. Two months into the pregnancy game, she may be hoping to get her victory at last.

And we support her. We cheer for her. Because pregnant women need love and support, and, well, candies for the nausea attacks, assurance that they still resemble human beings despite the growing orb in their abdominal area, and perhaps some company on nights when they feel so alone cracking the puzzle of sleeping positions for the pregnant.

And thus I end this by saying: Happy and safe pregnancy to all those concerned, and especially to Agatonika. (May she get it that the solution to the puzzle of "sleeping position" is to close her eyes first!)


--Maria, with love