Sustainable living and being in a hospital
I am glad that another autoethnographic article of mine called Lived nuances and challenges of a voluntarily simple life: an autoethnography is coming out soon. In that article, I wanted to show that sustainable living is not perfect. At times, we might come close to some ideal or a benchmark that we have in our minds. But it is at times. And for a while. When I was writing this article, I was not pregnant. Many other things unfolded or were contributing to ephemerality of my sustainability practices. For example, moving countries and learning about new systems, dealing with stress, having temporary employment are some of those things. Now being pregnant, I feel, offers yet another example.
Before I became pregnant, I thought that I would continue my life pretty much as before. I would be walking everywhere, eating organic, seasonal, and local food, cooking from scratch, avoiding single-use plastic. My mother had two easy pregnancies. My family members remember those times with so much fondness. She would glow. She would walk a lot, spend much time with nature, eat healthy, whole foods. She craved carrots and tea with milk. For some reason, I was thinking (or hoping), that my own experience would be the same. After becoming pregnant, my wellbeing deteriorated very quickly. I could not eat, drink anything including water, take medication, or sleep. After some days, my condition was so bad that I was admitted to a hospital. I was diagnosed with hyperemesis gravidarum. I lived in a hospital for a couple of days. I was on strong medication and receiving iv fluids. To avoid coming back to the hospital often, I got medication that I can take at home.
As I was spending hours at the enormous hospital here in Copenhagen, I was contemplating my field (post-growth) and various arguments for small-scale, low technology societies. Yet, technology saved my life.
I was observing the amount of single use plastic that was used for my care. My food was wrapped in plastic. There was so much plastic! I don't feel guilty about it.
To go to the hospital and back, my partner, who was there with me throughout my stay, and I, used a taxi. I avoid using cars, we don't own one. But in this situation, we certainly thought that it was the best option. We checked public transport options, and they would entail walking 10-15 minutes. This is something I could not do.