The Suffering of Internment in the Womb : หน้า 63/263

1.1 The Suffering of Internment in the Womb The foetus is seated upon the faeces of the mother passing through her intestines and has the food being digested in her stomach as a pillow. The foetus is forced into a squatting posture, hunched and hugging its own knees, with its back to the surface of the mother's stomach. Its face is against the mother's backbone — more like a monkey squeezing itself inside a hollow log to escape the rain, than a human being. The baby is bound up by its placenta and so is unable to extend its arms or legs, in the stinking darkness of the womb — almost like being subjected to a new sort of hell for nine months. The stench inside the womb, which the foetus must tolerate night and day is like the smell of a rotting corpse [asubha] — and all with the relentless burning heat within the mother's body, more like a piece of meat being poached in a casserole than a baby. This is the first sort of suffering every living being encounters and technically speaking, this first suffering in the womb is called 'gabbho kantika mūlaka dukkhā'. 1.2 The Suffering of Physical Shocks to the Womb Moreover, if the mother should happen to fall accidentally, or even the normal motion of the mother's walking up and down, or turning over in bed, getting up and sitting down inflicts further fear, shock and pain on the foetus in the womb — like the fawn of a hog deer terrified at the hands of a drunkard, or a baby snake at the hands of a snake-charmer — their whole body will be cast back and forth, shaken and tumbling, never managing to regain an upright position. When the mother eats or drinks something cold, the foetus will be frozen within the womb. Each time the mother eats or drinks something hot, then the burning only adds to the