Longer Births

I found this piece that NPR recently put out on the length of births fascinating. Before I had A, I was obsessed with the birthing process...reading about it, writing a birth plan, telling people not to talk about the "B" word because it made me too anxious. This time around it's been a little different. I'm still nervous about the whole ordeal (oh, because how that lack of control drives me crazy!), and starting to think about and plan for it more and more as of late, but their is a certain sense of relief about going through it all once and living to tell the tale. I remember A's birth like a foggy, watching from outside of my body yet most incredibly painful in my body experience ever sort of strange dream. And the dreamlike state helps soften somewhat the envisioning of what it all will bring the second time around. Still, I have and will continue to take great interest in (and sometimes, admittedly, that interest comes in the form of eye rolling at one extremely extreme mama activist or another) the politics around birth in America. And I appreciated the thoughtfulness and consideration behind this interesting piece. (p.s. A shout-out to my newly dubbed "registered nurse" and generally awesome friend Emily for sharing it)