Lack of Education on Necessary Topics

Today, I was reminded why I am so glad I was raised the way I was, weirdness and all.
A girl I work with, 24 years old, told me her mom was going to have a hysterectomy and wanted her to come home. She can't, but asked me about hysterectomies. I asked her whether it was a partial (uterus only) or full (uterus & ovaries). I warned her about the change in hormones, etc. This discussion somehow led to questions on pregnancy, prenatal testing, childbirth, and anesthesia during delivery.
I
was stunned by how little she actually knew. Apparently, the confluence of military / public schooling and conservative parents meant her only images of the whole process were from TLC and some movies. And, if she's watching these "Baby Story" people, with their elective c-sections and drugs for manicures, how will she get a realistic picture?

The girl insisted that she is scared of needles and of pain, and would like an elective cesarean with general anesthesia. (what she actually said was, they should knock me out and take the baby out the stomach). She said she'd want pain drugs, but didn't want that needle in her back (her understanding of an epidural). She didn't understand the placement of the uterus, the cervix - location and how it functions, the amniotic sac, or the basics of delivery. I drew a picture, very basic, of a baby in the bag of waters, inside of a uterus. She asked how me the baby ate, and I drew a placenta and an umbilical cord. She also asked about genetic testing, and I explained about amnio testing, but that it involved a needle going way in to get fluid from around the baby, and was generally only undertaken in women over certain ages or with known risk factors.

I know my upbringing, with childbirth lessons and babies born at home, was unorthodox. But I never understood the implications of not having my upbringing. How many other young women, sexually active, don't understand the basics of conception, gestation, and delivery?

I told her that my mom had most all of her children without drugs, and with minimal intervention. She was shocked. I asked her how she thought people had babies before the last two centuries, when men and medicine got all mixed in and made pregnancy and childbirth a pathology?

It was an eye-opening experience, really. I don't know how else to describe it. I'm just glad I was around to educate her, just a little. And I thank my upbringing for that.