Of Midwives, Kale, and Breakfast

Soon, I will present my essay — elementary school style — titled “What I Learned About Morning Sickness, and How It Kept Me In My Bed and Away From My Blog For Six Weeks”.

But for now, I want to share this story about Matt’s and my first appointment with one of the midwives at the great midwifery center we’ve chosen for prenatal care and beyond.

The midwife and I were chatting about the pregnancy.  (Appointments with midwives are 30-45 minutes of question-answering, information-sharing, and camaraderie-building, and I LOVE THEM — they are nothing like the hurried, harried, clinical 10-15-minute appointments I’ve had with previous OB/GYNs.)

I mentioned that through my first blissfully-morning-sickness-free seven weeks of pregnancy, I’d been able to eat my favorite breakfast of eggs and kale every morning, but that ever since the morning sickness hit, I hadn’t been able even to look at most vegetables.

She reassured me that this was normal, and not a concern.  “Your hunger for vegetables will have to return on its own, and it will.  If it’s not back by 20 weeks, let’s talk.  But otherwise, rest easy.  We don’t really know, but I have a hunch there may be an evolutionary explanation for the vegetable aversion, since long ago, raw vegetables were quite likely to harbor parasites and bacteria that could sicken pregnant mothers, whose immune systems are suppressed.”

Then she added, “And I must say, you are the only other person I know who makes kale and eggs for breakfast!  I eat them every morning, too!”

I clapped my hands with delight.  “Oh, isn’t it a wonderful breakfast?!  There is a small but growing group of us dedicated to eggs and kale in the morning — you aren’t alone!”

“I like to eat my kale raw with lemon and a little olive oil,” she said.  “It’s the only thing I can put in the fridge and know that my teenagers won’t touch before I can get to it myself.”

“Sometimes I eat mine with a little brown rice or wheatberry toast,” I said.  Then I sighed contentedly.  “Oh, we are really going to get along!”

And that, my friends, is how a midwife won my heart.  With kale.  Of course.

I’m still looking forward to the day when I can eat that green wonder without turning green myself.  But I am hopeful that day is coming soon!  Not being able to eat vegetables in the height of summer’s bounty is a torturous thing.