I still remember the first time I heard someone talking about birth in a positive light.
I was living in Mexico City at the time and I went to visit a friend’s country house over the weekend. My friend's sister was there with her kids. She had a very friendly and smart three-year-old son and a sweet little baby girl around 2 months old.
I had just graduated college a few months earlier. Having babies was the last thing in my mind at that point, so I’m not sure how we even got started on the conversation about labor. I think I mentioned something about how painful I imagined birth to be, based on all the stories I have heard. She shook her head gently and told me about her experience. “It was a unique sensation,” she said, “but I wouldn’t call it pain.” She went ahead and told me about giving birth in a big tub of water and how lovely it was. She said she had been so relaxed that she had often fallen asleep in between contractions.
Well, she definitely blew my mind a little bit. First, I didn’t have idea that babies could be born underwater and second, painless birth? You gotta be kidding me!