Not all women.
And men are just as capable of doing things like this to save their children as well.

My point? Not to diminish the amazing feat, but to try to avoid canonizing women as automatically being perfect, loving mothers. Because then how do you explain people like Andrea Yates, Susan Smith, and the lady who recently bashed her kids' heads with a rock? You can say they were "insane", but that seems a little too convenient. Oprah did an interesting little thing on mothers who kill their kids, and the number who are back at home within 3 years is scary. Interestingly, most husbands take their murdering wives back and forgive them; conversly, the mother usually never forgives the father if he kills a child...
But I digress.
Another bit o' evidence that a significant number of women aren't automatically perfect mothers is the number of women who deny father's visitation rights out of spite; the number of women who physically abuse their children also belies this Supermom ideal.
Don't get me wrong, there's something special about the tender love a woman shares with her children because she carried them within her. There's also a special love a man shares with his children. There's also a very real incidence of some women never being able to separate their identity from that of the child, usually to the child's clear detriment.

I apologize for hijacking the thread to make my point. I do agree that motherhood, at its best, is a wonderful, wonderful thing.

Nathan -- sheesh. Soapbox much?

If the thread's going to be hijacked, let's at least hijack it in an amusing direction, such as this:

Remember that Icelandic fishing boat captain, last October, who dragged the shark out of the ocean with his bare hands and then killed it with a knife? (Click here if you're interested.) I'm trying to imagine what would happen if that man and this woman ever had a child together. Kid would probably make Conan look ilke Urkel. *eg*

This is in stark contrast to Melissa Ann Rowland, who is being charged with murder for refusing a caesarean.

That's ok nathan, there really is something to be said about a bond of love a man has for his child. A good father would also do anything including losing his life for the love of his son or daughter. There is absolutely no doubt in my mind he would give his life!

Chuckg, I remember that story so well. That was amazing, and you are funny. Yes, bet the kid would be something!

My gosh Rosemary, isn't that story something!

How about the uncle who grabbed the shark and wrestled it up onto the shore so they could retrieve the boy's arm down there in Florida?
Or how about that hiker who cut off his own arm that had been trapped under a boulder?

Sure, in the second case, the guy was merely saving his own life, but it still took courage and enduring great pain.

Holy flarking whojamama!
Not so very long ago it was considered a miracle if a woman survived a caesarian section even when performed by the best of doctors. The fact that she survived a self...

Why exactly are you gals the fairer sex?

Cause I really don't know.

Women rock! The only reason men oppress and victimize women is because they fear women might harness their true power and take all this shit over! Believe that.

Thanks for the hat-tip Rosemary. The feeling is mutual.

:-)

First of all, I am pleased to report that Melissa Ann Rowland has been allowed a plea bargain of child endangerment, which does not strike me as unreasonable.

My son's birthing required two Ceaserians, and we suspect that complications from that have been a major factor in my wee wifey's health for the last 24 years. I have not passed any links to the story about the Mexican woman to her.

No man would do it. Merciful Mother of God.