The Irreplaceable Pregnant Woman
There was a beautiful letter to the editor this week in Family First, from a woman named Shira Speiser who spent 25 weeks of a high-risk pregnancy on bedrest. When she told a friend who visited her that she felt “worthless, unfulfilled, and incompetent” lying around doing nothing, the following words of encouragement from her friend, Malkie Wahl, kept her going and inspired for those long bed-ridden weeks.
That’s a really nice thing to say to this person in this context but I totally disagree: nobody is ever replaceable. Only YOU can do the tafkid that Hashem put you here to do. If it is to be in bed rest for 25 weeks to have a baby, that’s it, and if it is to parent a really difficult child then that’s it and if it is to spend your young years trying to get married and not succeeding then that’s it (because I know women like this who might never have kids because they just couldn’t marry until later and I’m sure they are not replaceable in Hashem’s eyes any more than anyone else).
I hear that, that’s true. I think her point was that every other job in the world–being a CEO, a doctor, a teacher etc.–if you disappeared there would always be someone to take over from you. But for the job of a pregnant woman, if she disappears, the fetus cannot survive.
True I can hear that, that is a very sweet way of seeing it 🙂