In every other country, pregnant women are goddesses...

...or so the author of a letter to Svenska Dagbladet's letters to the editor page wrote a few days ago. This woman, whose name I have sadly forgotten, complained bitterly at the injustices she suffers in Swedish society as a pregnant woman and made it sound as though pregnant women in Sweden are somehow mistreated and maligned. I read the letter three times, trying to figure out if this woman was serious or just being ironic. I am still not sure. I sincerely hope she was being ironic, else she surely has a lot to learn about the rest of the world and how good she has it in Sweden.

All I know is that when I read the article I found myself wanting to shake this woman by her shoulders and scream, a la Cher in Moonstruck sans the slap, "Snap out of it!"

Her main complaints seemed to focus on her feeling that people do not treat pregnant women like they are special enough. According to her, no one in Sweden ever offers their subway or bus seat to pregnant women (definitely not true--I have witnessed on countless occasions men and women offering their seats to pregnant women), that people in Sweden only view children as noisy and annoying (some are, but then again, so are loads of adults), that people behave as though pregnant women brought their pregnancies upon themselves and so have no right to complain.... Well, technically, they and their partner decided to have a baby so--in a way--they did bring it upon themselves but why should that stop them from complaining?

But what made me chuckle was her statement that everywhere else in the world pregnant women are treated like goddesses. Hmm... I don't know many other countries as generous as Sweden when it comes to maternity leave + maternity leave benefits, prenatal and postnatal care--there are even special movie showings called "Baby Bio" so mothers on maternity leave can still see a movie and not have to leave their babies with a childminder.

Sweden is not perfect but it is a country that is far from treating its pregnant citizens like dirt. I am suddenly reminded of an article I read in Vanity Fair around five or six years ago. The article dealt with the civil war in Sierra Leone and featured a macabre pictorial of the consequences of this war. One of the pictures was a pregnant woman who'd been raped and mutilated, her body left by the roadside. The caption for the picture informed the reader that the woman's baby had been cut from her body and kicked around like a football by soldiers stoned out of their minds. Here was a pregnant woman whose life should have been valued and cherished--she was carrying the future in her womb. She should have been treated like a goddess instead of having to run for her life, only to lose it at the hands of men so stoned they probably didn't remember killing her later.

So before anyone, pregnant or not, complains about not being treated like a goddess, they can think about that dead woman by the roadside and count themselves lucky they aren't a casualty of war.

Summer moved on...

Well, autumn has definitely arrived in Stockholm. Already the days are shorter and chillier. Evenings of sitting outside and enjoying a glass of wine are fewer and fewer as the autumn chill creeps in.

The tenants' association for the building I live in hosted an autumn garden party at the weekend. I managed an hour of sitting outside before I began to shiver and had to bail. It was just too chilly for me, and I was a wee bit too tired after a day of translating to focus on speaking Swedish without feeling like my mouth and brain weren't always connecting.

I usually love autumn in Stockholm, but this year it's a bit depressing. After such a wet summer, it would have been nice with a more gradual shift into autumn. But already at the end of August it was getting to chilly to sit outside. And the rain we suffered through in June and July has hung in there for September. We normally tell our friends that September is the best time to visit Stockholm--usually it's quite sunny and dry, though not as warm as it can be in August. But this year we haven't advised anyone to come here. The damp air we've had lately doesn't feel the least bit welcoming. I've already seen people donning winter coats, thought it's nowhere near cold enough for a parka yet!

But it's soon time to prepare for the winter darkness. I've stocked up on candles, renewed my Friskis och Svettis card, bought new sweaters to keep me warm, got loads of romantic comedies to cheer me up should the winter blues wear me down.

I shouldn't even say the "w" word...but there was a picture in the paper today of men playing golf in Dalarna and there was snow on the ground! Snow! And it's only the 16th of September. Luckily it will be a while before we Stockholmers get any snow. Last year, we had our first snow fall on 1 November. Traffic chaos abounded. Luckily, I had on my curling boots and my duffel coat. I hardly noticed the snow--but I did notice all the accidents on the road. I was glad I was walking then! Didn't have to worry about changing tires or sliding on ice...

Brrrr! Just thinking about ice and snow is making me cold... I'm just going to sit at my desk and channel images of Umbria in the summer sun for a while...