My mother works in a maternity hospital. And every time she tells a different story. One of the most recent is about a woman who gave up twins. Even though she already has a daughter who is eight years old. The woman herself was not yet forty. My mother has the ability to heal people who can’t even tell you what’s hurting them. My mom, on the other hand, knows.
She’s the head of the department. She still has to talk to women who are giving up their newborn babies. The mother has her own methods, which are impossible to describe in words.
And so she had a conversation with this woman. The woman realized that she couldn’t give her children anything because she had nothing. And this way they had a chance to go to a good family where they would be accepted.
The mother tried to explain that two people might not be adopted at once. Practice shows that only one child gets adopted. And outside laws say that twins and twins cannot be separated. Especially when they are different-sex children. Otherwise, there is a risk that they will meet and incest will happen.
The woman thought about it for a few days, but she didn’t change her mind: rejection. She was counting on being called to marry. They didn’t. The man refused to acknowledge the children.
And I silently continued to listen to my mother. She went on to tell me about a girl of eighteen who refused to have a son. Mom tried to talk to her in a different way. And she went on about how her daddy was in office, a respected man. That is why she cannot. Mom started asking about whether her parents knew about the rejection. Mom knew, but her father didn’t say anything. It wasn’t right for a respectable man to have a daughter out of wedlock.
So it turns out that a sense of shame makes you give up your child. Then why didn’t you have an abortion while you could? She was afraid that it would affect her health and she wouldn’t be able to have a baby.
Mom’s stories didn’t end there. Not long ago a girl of twenty-five gave birth in her ward. And she had oligophrenia. The custodial parents came in. The mother was crying, and the father only played with his cheekbones. They were quite healthy themselves, but the daughter was born like that. At one time she went to a special school. That’s where she met her boyfriend. Their passport said they were twenty-five, but in terms of development they were ten years old. And everyone knew they were dating. The doctors assured me that such a diagnosis guaranteed infertility for both of them. So there wasn’t much reason to worry. In the end, she gave birth to a son. The baby was small, but healthy.
It was almost a hundred percent certain that he would have a confirmed diagnosis, just like his parents. The grandparents showed up and decided to give up the baby. They were about to retire. There was no way to support a daughter and child. And when they die, who will take care of them? And where would they take the child in such conditions? But they did. But they did write a letter of refusal. Then the new mother came to the women’s department. She stood under the door and cried. She didn’t speak very well, all she did was cry. Her milk came out. Started feeding the baby. Held her very tight. Decided to make an exception, and let daddy in the room, too.
My mother told me that the two of them were standing over the baby, discussing something with each other. And the others were leaving the room in tears. So what if they were oligophrenic? They’re living people. They brought a cake to the whole ward for discharge. A very big one. And they wrote on it that God bless us. And my mom didn’t even know how to cut it. It was a pity.
