Downton Abbey

I am still spending the morning thinking about the very emotional episode of Downton Abbey last night. Often I feel as thought the show sometimes presents huge emotional moments and then sweeps them under the rug as if they didn't happen. For instance Ethel accepts her post as an old maid after being left at the alter pretty quickly.

But, Sybil's death last night took on a different tone. It was clear from the beginning that things were not going to go well with the birth. After the baby was born and Sybil felt the need to tell her mom to help Branson fight his fight I knew she wouldn't last long, but I wasn't ready for her death scene. Watching her suffer through the seizures of eclampsia while the doctors hopelessly stood there and her family tried desperately to do something was nearly unbearable.



My daughter got "stuck" and had to be born by Cesarean. It truly didn't hit me until the next day when my mom asked my grandmother (who was a nurse) what would have happened in the past; she very bluntly stated that more than likely both myself and my daughter wouldn't have made it. When I was pregnant if I felt nervous about something it was so often written off with, "women have been having babies since the beginning of time." Well, then they have also been dying in childbirth since the beginning of time.

The show seemed to present how much men are in charge of women's lives. Cora knew unquestionably what needed to be done and she was ignored (to be fair Branson trusted her, but they took to long to tell him what was going on). It has made me think even more about if pregnancy would be treated differently if it were men going through it as opposed to women.

A very good friend of mine is expecting a baby this week or next and we are hoping the baby comes earlier rather than later. I hope she didn't watch the gut wrenching episode last night.

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