The Skriker Actor Packet

The Fear and Anxiety of Childbirth...
No matter what one’s opinion or personal experience may be, pregnancy and
childbirth are a terrifying and jarring reality that all women grapple with at one
point in their lives. While some women only experience a little anxiety of such
things, others suffer from tokophobia -- the fear of childbirth (both the physical
and emotional pain). Some sufferers have been quoted saying, “the truth is that
the very thought of having something almost alien-like growing inside me is
disgusting” (Albertella). Even women who do not suffer from such phobias and
anxieties recognize that during pregnancy one’s body completely transforms.
There is something foreign growing within and one’s body no longer becomes
one’s own.
Reflections on Pregnancy & Childbirth...
“In achieving the depersonalization of childbirth and at the same time solving the
problem of pain, our society may have lost more than it has gained. We are left
with the physical husk; the transcending significance has been drained away. In
doing so, we have reached the goal which is perhaps implicit in all highly
developed technological cultures, mechanized control of the human body and the
complete obliteration of all disturbing sensations.”
-- Sheila Kitzinger, Women as Mothers
“Childbirth provided the drama I craved, the thrill of peeking over the primal
edge of creation, the rush of the unexpected.”
-- Peggy Vincent, Baby Catcher
“Pregnancy demonstrates the deterministic character of woman’s sexuality. Every
pregnant woman has body and self taken over by a chthonian force beyond her
control. In the welcome pregnancy, this is a happy sacrifice. But in the unwanted
one, initiated by rape or misadventure, it is a horror. Such unfortunate women
look directly into nature’s heart of darkness. For a fetus is a benign tumor, a
vampire who steals in order to live. The so-called miracle of birth is nature
getting her own way.”
-- Camille Paglia, Sexual Personae