I gave birth to four children, all at home.  The third birth was painless and remarkable.

I should tell you that I had read Grantly Dick-Read's book Childbirth without Fear before my first child was born in 1980.  That was not a painfree birth, nor was the second in 1982, but the third one in 1986 was something special.

I went into labor at about midnight.  I could feel contractions which were no more bothersome than tightening muscles, and I called my midwife and she came over, bringing a friend who was an RN.  The nurse was stressed out and miserable, and I could tell she was afraid of what what happening, but the midwife and I were calm and comfortable.  I sent the nurse to go get my partner who was staying at his house that night instead of mine.  (We have since married and been together all these 22 years.)

They came back within an hour.  During that time we were timing contractions, and I was walking around the room, squatting or getting down on my knees on the bed if that was comfortable.  The thought entered my mind quietly and firmly, almost as though someone else were telling me, "this does not have to hurt," and I relaxed and I thought of what I had read in the Grantly Dick-Read book years earlier.  I had utter faith in that thought and in the stories in that book.

When my partner Greg showed up, I asked him to take off his outerwear (it was January;  he was wearing long underwear) and lay beside me, which he did, obviously confused and expecting the worst.  But I was happy and the next contraction I felt, I kissed Greg passionately on the mouth during the whole contraction.  By doing this, I cannot explain but I shall just report, each time the power of the contraction coming over me, it was channeled into a kiss.  We did this every contraction for about 45 minutes.  Then I experienced transition;  having had 2 babies before, I knew what that was.  Except there was no pain:  instead I felt rapture, utter bliss and was filled with light and love.  My mind was emptied of identity and there was nothing there but love, expansiveness and light.  I had read about states of nirvana and things like that, and had no doubt that some form of that was what was happening to me.

My son's head emerged right away from my body, much to the surprise of my attendants.  His face was covered with the amniotic sac and the midwife pulled it away from his face.  The next contraction, he slipped out.  I immediately announced that I was feeling great, and that I wanted to do that again !!!!.  My fourth and last baby was born in 1988.

It took nearly an hour for the placenta to come out, and that kind of worried me.  Consequently it was uncomfortable, just a little bit.  But it passed out and there were no complications.  Happy birthday!  I named my son Roue, pronounced Roo, which means "wheel" in French.  I named him that because I had a dream shortly before he was born, and in that dream a nurse handed me a baby and insisted the baby's name was ROUE.  It was spelled out on a card and in my dream, the nurse was emphatic, so I remembered and took it to heart.