Bottoms Up for Classiness

Sometimes Western Australia is just so classy that I don’t know what to do with myself.  Take this conversation I recently overheard at my office for example:

M talking to A, a colleague who had just returned after a year of maternity leave, “So, what kind of birth did you have?”

A, “It was totally natural.”

M, “Wow, you’re brave.”

A, “Actually, I just got to the hospital too late for an epidural, I was begging the doctors for one.”

M, “Why were you so late, was it a quick labor?”

A, “No, my husband was drunk.”

Apparently the beer was just too tempting to A’s husband, despite her being nine months pregnant and bursting to give birth.

I told H about this conversation when I got home from work that day and he told me that I had already told him the story.  Impossible I told him, I had just overheard the conversation a couple of hours ago and I hadn’t talked to him since then.

Turns out H had heard a similar story at work, from yet another Western Australian colleague.  This guy was wondering if his wife had the right to be angry at him when he broke her no drinking during the last two weeks of her pregnancy rule.  He went out and got drunk one night during this period but she didn’t go into labor so he thought no harm was done.  She on the other hand felt just a little bit differently… 

What Do You Want? A Fair Go!

Something must be in the water at H's office because a huge number of his colleagues' partners (or former partners) are pregnant.  Moreover, the majority of these pregnancies are accidental, out-of-wedlock, may or may not have maintained a relationship with the to-be-born child's mother pregnancies.  We're not quite sure if the Hollywood trend of children before marriage is making its appearance in Australia or if there's a more casual attitude for parenthood here.  Or maybe it is a side effect of Australians' attitudes of just wanting a fair go. 

In surveys of what Australians value most, the right to a fair go is at the top of most citizens' lists.  This right to a fair go extends from everything including rights, social responsibilities, welfare, education, environment, work, health, housing, and social services to the ability to get what one wants during the course of day to day life.  There is a commercial on tv for a pawn shop type store where someone wants a new flat screen tv but doesn't have the cash to buy it.  He is asked what he wants and he says, "a fair go."  He is then asked when he wants it and responds, "NOW!"  Obviously it's an intrinsic right for everybody to have the latest largest flat screen tv available on the market.  There seems to be a blurred line between necessities and luxuries in Australia.   

H and I wonder if it's this desire for a fair go that is leading to all of these unplanned pregnancies.  Because when you think about it, it's clear that contraceptive devices don't give sperm a fair go.  And in Australia doesn't everybody and everything deserve one?