I put this out to all of you who were like me – conservative, straight arrow – didn’t vary from the main stream – doctors always knew best, were always in charge and had way more education than I did. I had no need to question them and why would I? When it came to pregnancy, I had 6 miscarriages before they finally discovered a simple folic acid deficiency that could be easily remedied with a high dose, making pregnancy attainable.  But with that first pregnancy came another discovery - I was allergic to most of the drugs that would be going into my “epiduraled birth.” Now what? I cried for two weeks after my perinatologoist told me I was going to have to have a natural birth. Who even did that and why would they? Scared “#@$&@less” – I was forced to look at the OTHER side of birthing. My birthing history: My grandmother had a twilight induced birth that was so terrible- she only had one child. My mother had “Cone of Ether” births with her first two babies and the next two were medicated to the point that she can’t remember them. Then I came thirteen years later and my mother wanted to change this birth & experience labor and the actual delivery. She asked the Dr. not to give her any pain medication. Problem was (and I only found this out in September of this year) – the Dr. induced her labor with Pitocin – didn’t give her any pain medication and then didn’t tell her why it was so excruciating! When she begged for pain meds – he reminded her that she wanted to feel everything and then walked out of the room (Army doctor – think he thought it was humorous). My mother regretted my birthing because it was so painful that she made sure the drugs were on board when my little brother’s birth followed just a year later. One of my older sisters had four, medication free, natural births and the other sister had five C-sections. So, I guess in my mind, I thought I would numb myself and have my babies vaginally – kind of a happy medium between all of my predecessors. After my two weeks of crying, my niece tipped me towards her method of natural childbirth which seemed way to hippie for me. But I was desperate so I bought “HypnoBirthing, The Mongan Method.” I read the book, was amazed at the simplicity, found a class and became committed (not to a mental hospital, although that’s where my mom thought I should be for looking into this). What other choice did I have? This baby was going to come out and I was SCARED of pain and needles. She was going to squeeze out of where? I was more than terrified. HypnoBirthing helped me deal with all of those fears and issues, to believe in myself and my body. The whole process and method felt right to me, almost healing in a way. I learned that our bodies were made to birth and that I, personally, was so out of touch with who I was as a woman. Was I ever taught that birth was a natural process or had I just ignored it and followed the white coat who was going to “take care” of the birth for me? I hired a doula (after I found out what that was) and began to prepare and practice my relaxation birthing techniques. I educated myself as best I could and started to see “their side” of birth. It was calm and gentle and was being done all over the world. I felt a new sense of power and belief in me and my baby working together to accomplish this amazing task. I moved from a hospital to a birth center- freaking out my husband but he went along with it. I became conscious that it was my baby’s birth, not my comfort level that was important during this process. A few days (10 to be exact) “overdue” but not in a hurry – nature was taking its course. And then – at 3:15 am on Feb. 24th, 2008, my water released. I was so excited I was jumping up and down! No fears, no panic – just looking forward to meeting our new little baby. I had a wonderful labor in the birthing tub and in two powerful pushes – birthed my 8lb 4 oz baby girl. I held her skin to skin for three hours and told her how much I loved her and how long we had waited for her. My husband and our 11 yr old daughter (whom we had adopted) and my best friend, held and cuddled little Finnie, the birth room was filled with pure joy.  My baby & I had the most amazing birth experience and I will always cherish it.