I am the mother of three beautiful daughters, ages 6, 5, and 2.  Each of my daughters was born without the aid of pain medications or epidurals, and the experience was absolutely beautiful.  My first child, "Kristen", was born in a little over 12 hours of labor.  It was so much easier than I had expected, and she weighed in at 8lbs 12 1/4 oz.

My second was more difficult since she was in a posterior position and her head was stuck.  She had a very large head and the posterior position she was in did not help matters.  I pushed nearly three hours and finally succeeded in delivering her.  I would not say the pain was great, although I did have back labor because of her position.  Rather, it was exhausting, and if I had accepted the drugs they tried to offer me I am sure I would not have had the stamina to go on pushing.  What was wonderful about my second child's birth was that an audience of medical staff had heard about my ordeal with pushing my baby out and had gathered outside my door, and when I delivered "Stephanie", who weighed 8lbs 3 3/4 oz, the whole room was echoing with applause.  They commended me for having such a calm and positive attitude throughout everything and for refusing the pain medications.

The birth of my third daughter was a piece of cake!  I phoned my husband who was working the graveyard shift at the hospital at the time, and he told me he would call me a taxi and meet me out in front of the ER.  So the cab picked me up and the driver knew I was in labor.  He was telling me jokes and I was laughing, and I got this incredible tugging sensation a few times.  Luckily he got me there, and my husband was waiting with a wheelchair.  He wheeled me past some coworkers and I smiled and said hi, and up we went to Labor and Delivery where first I was to be monitered.

As he was wheeling me in, a lady was being wheeled out screaming and upset because they had told her she had to go back home and wait.  Well, here I was calm and smiling.  I got myself into my gown unassisted.  I was hooked up to the monitors, and the nurse kept looking at me funny (as if I was not in labor).  A small amount of time passed and she stated, "Well, I will check you now, but if you are not dilated you may have to go back home and wait."  Suprise, suprise!  A look of horror crossed her face when she discovered I was already dilated to 7!!  She was in disbelief since I was so talkative, happy and seemingly calm.  So she ordered the nurse to get me to Delivery right away, knowing this was a third baby and it could come quickly.  So they got me there, and the doctor on call was eating his bagel and telling them he would be there shortly.

I felt so much at ease, though, that the nurse even let me walk.  They checked my dilation again about an hour later and I was already at 9... transition time was near.  The nurse stated she hoped the doctor would get there soon.  Well, I had to go to the bathroom or so I felt, and the nurse felt that since my water hadn't broken yet, I could.  She let me walk, and as I was walking back from the bathroom I felt a great pressure, just as the doctor was walking in.  He asked me how I was.  I told him, "Great."  I told him I felt like I needed to push, so he helped me back into bed and checked me.  Sure enough I was at 10 and he broke my water right then, decided he didn't need to give me an episiotomy, and told me I could just go with my body's urge to push when I was ready.  Two pushes and my baby "Caitlin Rose" entered the world weighing 7lbs 7oz.  She couldn't have been more perfect!  In all, I only labored with her for almost 4 hours.

I am trying to let all of my friends know that childbirth needn't be something scary.  There are so many myths and misconceptions that relate to something that should be so natural for a woman to endure.  We are strong and our bodies are capable and our minds have instincts to rationalize and cope.  I feel more relaxed trusting my own body than trusting a medication and its negative effects on my body.  And I learned something when I was pregnant with the first:  your perineum is naturally numbed from the pressure of your baby's head during childbirth, mother nature's anesthesia.

Childbirth is a truly beautiful experience!