Labor Day – What it means to women

Labor and delivery nurses work a lot of holidays and each one has it’s own significance and arsenal of humor.  On Thanksgiving, the babies born are often affectionately called  “little turkeys” for which everyone is extremely grateful.  On Christmas they’re “little angels” and “gifts from Santa”.  Fourth of July babies are always “firecrackers” and Halloween babies are “little pumpkins.”  On Labor Day, however, there’s a little less humor and no silly nicknames because the truth is, raising a baby is a ton of work for which there’s little recognition.  Heck, at the end of most days of parenting, there’s not even a finished product to represent your labor.  The kitchen’s a mess, the kids are cranky and you have to do it all over again the next day.

According to the US Department of Labor, Labor Day is dedicated to the social and economic achievements of American workers.  It’s a tribute to the contributions they’ve made to the strength, prosperity, and wellbeing of our country. Originally, it was kind of a guys’ holiday, a chance to take off work and party with friends and family in appreciation for all the hours they put in on-the-job. Labor Day now includes and recognizes women’s social and economic achievements, but despite working double shifts at home and in the labor force, women’s contributions are universally undervalued.  Maybe that’s because the fruits of our labor in the home aren’t always as visible as say, a bridge, building, book or business we may produce in the workplace.  Instead, there’s a never-ending stack of laundry, a mountain of dishes and children who need tending in addition to reports to file, patients to see and bridges to build.  Much of our work goes unpaid while the work that does garner a paycheck is usually paid at a rate considerably less than men’s work. 

For pregnant women who have babies on Labor Day, it’s a holiday that marks their entry into a level of service on par with nothing else.  It means accessing strength they didn’t know they had and sacrificing their own wellbeing for the sake of their baby and family.  It signifies that only if she puts in the time and labor, will her finished product, a well-raised child, contribute to the strength, prosperity and wellbeing of the family, community and country.  It’s a huge job that most mothers in the world perform beautifully even without pay, adequate support and resources. 

We generally see three kinds of pregnant patients over Labor Day weekend:

• Mothers who spend too much time in the sun and then come in with dehydration and mild contractions. 
• Mothers who come in queasy, crampy and exhausted after a weekend spent juggling end-of-summer celebrations with back-to-school preparations.
• Mothers in active labor whose families inevitably joke, “Every mother’s due date is Labor Day, right?” and “If you think this is Labor Day, wait until you take this baby home from the hospital. Wait until they keep you up all night.  Wait until they’re teenagers.” 

Doctors, nurses, families and friends always offer up a courtesy chuckle, but they’re not really joking.  Labor and delivery is just the beginning of the years parents will spend raising a child to be a productive citizen; a child who one day will take off the first Monday in September to celebrate his or her own strength, prosperity, wellbeing and contributions to her country.  

When you celebrate Labor Day this year, raise a glass to all the parents who work night and day to raise the next generation of citizens and workers.   Celebrate the aunts, uncles and friends who play supporting roles and show parents, “We’ve got your back” even when they don’t have children of their own.   And to the women who find themselves in labor on Labor Day, it’s true, motherhood will be some of the hardest and most rewarding work you’ll ever do and because you’ll do it so well, we’ll hold a barbecue in your honor every year.  

Photo by Alice Proujanksy