Know what's less fun than being in labor? Sitting around, doing nothing, waiting for labor to happen. Which is why, despite popular mythology, basically nobody does that. On the contrary: Unless a doctor has specifically advised it, women who are 39 or 40 (or 41, or 42) weeks pregnant are not lying in bed meditating on the gravity of creating new life. Nope. They're working or eating entire pineapples or watching The Daily Show. You know: Living life. Maybe with a little more pineapple than usual, but whatever.
PSA: Super pregnant women do not simply drop out of their lives and errands and jobs and TV comedy habits just because they're hosting a watermelon-sized being atop their bladder. And guess what: Neither do super pregnant celebrities. Natalie Portman refreshingly drove this point home when she starred in a James Blake music video "just days" before giving birth, according to a press release obtained by Pitchfork.
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The black-and-white video is for Blake's song "My Willing Heart," from his album The Color in anything. In it, pregnant Portman swims, plays with her 5-year-old son Aleph, and, yes, does appear to lie in bed (in lingerie, of course) meditating on the gravity of creating new life. We even get to see a really cool close-up of Portman's unborn daughter — whom she ended up naming Amalia, which is a nearly perfect name in my opinion — kicking around in her belly.
And don't forget: While Pregnant Portman Character is spending the final days of her pregnancy in this way, Pregnant Portman The Actual Person is spending the final days of her pregnancy on a music video set, working. Bottom line: She, like every pregnant person, is a multifaceted human who gets to deal with the bizarre end of this bizarre nine-ish months however she damn well pleases. Pineapple(s) optional.
Welcome to Mothership: Parenting stories you actually want to read, whether you're thinking about or passing on kids, from egg-freezing to taking home baby and beyond. Because motherhood is a big if — not when — and it's time we talked about it that way.