(Originally posted June 2014. It held up pretty well, but you may wish to replace “Netherlands” with “Sweden” in #10)

Facebook sent me a message suggesting I write a post to reach soccer fans in honor of the World Cup. Challenge accepted.
Obviously, the World Cup and birth have a lot of similarities. There’s…..uh…..hmmm…..just a second…..oh! Here we go:

1. When 3 babies are born at the same time, the technical term is a hat trick.
2. Both birthing women and soccer players do some writhing around in pain. (One group is faking it, though.)
3. The U.S. lags other developed countries in several key performance metrics.
4. Like soccer players, babies have spent much of the previous several months practicing their bicycle kicks.
5. They’re both all about politics.
6. Both soccer players who’ve just scored a goal and women who’ve just had a baby whip their shirts off.
7. ‘Group of Death‘ sounds kind of like ‘Group B Strep‘. (I’m never going to make it to #10, am I)
8. Women used to be told to bite down on a leather strap; someone has apparently told Luis Suarez to bite down on the players of the opposing team.
9. The official World Cup song is “We are One” by Pitbull, whom we’ve already established is a birth enthusiast.
10. We could probably learn something from the Netherlands