Last night I finally heeded the advice of my younger sister, Lisa, and opened the book “Ina May’s Guide to Childbirth” by Ina May Gaskin.

This is my second baby with which I am about to go into labor and having read so much on the subject of labor and delivery the first time around and taken my labor class, my desire to read anything regarding how it is all done was next to nill.

But I figured I should listen to Lisa.  She did, after all, surprise me to no end by having a natural childbirth last year.

Not only that, she actually said that it wasn’t that big of a deal!  This coming from someone who has one of the lowest pain thresholds of anyone I know and who also has been known to vomit at first sight of a needle.  I would have bet money that Lisa would opt for the drugs during the delivery of her son, so needless to say the fact that she made it through naturally was a shocker.

As my due date is approaching and is now only days away, I was starting to get pretty nervous about the delivery.  My last delivery did not go as smoothly as I had wanted, and although I made my greatest effort for a natural birth, in the end I needed the pitocin and the epidural to get me all the way through.

This week I have been wondering, could I have a similar (long, drawn out, back laborious)experience again? And if this labor is smoother and faster than the last, do I really want to experience this “ring of fire” that I have heard so much about?  Maybe the drugs aren’t so bad after all?  How long will it last?  How painful will it be?  Could it possibly be one of those super-quick second births I have heard about where the woman barely makes it to the hospital in time?  ARGH!!

As you can see, my current nervousness was really starting to weigh on me so I thought maybe this Ina May could be of some help. Certainly couldn’t hurt.

In the beginning section of Ina May’s book, there is story after story of natural childbirths written by the women who went through them.

I am not exagerrating when I say that as I read last night, my whole emotional outlook about this birth changed. These stories are so inspirational!

Each one of these women had the same fears and apprehensions as I, and each one had a natural birth that fell somewhere in the range of manageable to (believe it or not) orgasmically wonderful!

One lady actually spoke of making a decision to have fun with her contractions!  This was a concept that I had NEVER considered but one that actually makes so much sense to me.  She realized that it was her tone that would set the tone of the whole delivery and that if she decided to have fun then others could, too. Amazing.

As I went through these tales one by one, I developed more courage, more smiles and more knowingness that I could do this and that any amount of fear that I had was not needed and not helpful.  Mind you, this all happened in the span of about 45 minutes.

And today I even had a little fun with my early contractions, forcing myself to smile through them.

If you are about to venture into labor, be it your first or your fifth, I would recommend this book HIGHLY.  It was kind of magical that way it changed my outlook so quickly.  And just in the nick of time, too.  I am having a contraction right NOW!