I'll take your pressure wave and raise you a contraction!

Yesterday I spent some time perusing babycenter.com (my "all things baby" website of choice), and I stumbled across birth stories that members have written. Being a person that likes to be uber prepared (I don't over-pack because I love clothes. I over-pack because I like to be prepared for EVERYTHING), I read through a few. The last story I read was titled, "An unassisted, painless birth." The skeptic on my left should immediately pipped up. In the story, a women explains how she used hypnosis, or hyponobirthing, to aid natural childbirth. If you don't feel like reading her story, I'll summarize: She followed a hypnobabies self-study program throughout her pregnancy. She went in to labor at home, which progressed so quickly that her midwife wasn't able to make it in time and her husband delivered the baby. Once she realized she was in labor, she began what her hypnosis studies had taught her, and her pressure waves (contractions to the rest of us) were an enjoyable experience for her.

Before reading this birth story, I'd never heard of the Mongan Method, just Bradley, Lamaze, and Water. I had only researched Bradley and Lamaze, deciding I'd prefer a Lamaze class to prepare me for what's the come. I'm big on "to each their own," so I am by no means refuting the fact that this woman was legitimately able to achieve a pain-free labor. After years and years of preconceived notions that childbirth = pain, I'm not sure that I'd be able to convince my psyche otherwise. For this technique to work, you need to completely buy-into it. Maybe I'm taking the easy-way out with my plan (Am I dilated enough for the bleeeeping epidural yet?!?!), or maybe I'm just too scared that it wouldn't work for me. Part of me thinks it would be really amazing to own that fact that I delivered my baby boy naturally. And then the other part of me remembers my mom telling me it hurts like hell (she went natural with both of us when, quote, "natural was in vogue"). When women all across the world are giving birth naturally, it's hard not to discount my likely epidural-assisted birth. But does it really matter as long a Liam is born safely?

On a very different note, I realized today that I am very much like a newborn right now: I eat, sleep and pee.