BABYATION
Mind Over Birthing Matters
by Anna Lane
I don’t know if it was the pregnancy hormones or my Berkeley upbringing, but when I found out I was expecting my first child, I became obsessed with having a natural birth. This was only a few years after the release of Ricki Lake’s “The Business of Being Born,” and it only took one viewing of the said documentary to have me panicking about Pitocin and swearing off an epidural.
Giving birth naturally became the focus of my life. I read every Ina May Gaskin book from cover to cover. I interrogated potential obstetricians about their C-section rates and how many natural births they’d attended. I went to prenatal yoga every single day and breathed to my baby’s heartbeat while a guy dressed in white crooned in Sanskrit. I spent hours researching doulas and meeting with them over cups of Chinese tea that my acupuncturist swore would help open up my cervix. [Read more at Babyation.com]