Birth and midwifery

The last entry on this list leaves the ward altogether. Das war eine schwere Geburt is said of a coalition agreement, a timetable, a letter that three departments had to sign: anything that arrived only after long effort and a few raised voices. Nobody in the meeting is thinking of a baby. The phrase is informal and a little wry, and it is nearly always spoken afterwards, in the past tense, once the thing finally exists; while it is still being fought over, the verb is sich ziehen, as in das zieht sich. English has « like pulling teeth », which describes only the effort. The German picture carries the outcome as well, because a hard birth is still a birth: one phrase admits the struggle and announces the result in the same breath. Said of an actual delivery it means exactly what it says, and there the words of the ward take over.