THE LAMAZE METHOD OF PREPARED CHILDBIRTH

(Page 4 of 4)

May/June 1971
By the Mother Earth News editors 
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At 8:00 our doctor came in. He said the birth was taking too long and that I'd exhaust myself, so he gave me a shot of Pitocin to speed up contractions. I doubt that I can describe the feeling of the next few minutes: I suddenly felt a great, primeval force in me telling me to PUSH! I gasped it out to the doctor-he nodded-and I pushed.

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I have never experienced anything like that before and John told me later that he was dumbfounded.

I made an animal-cry with the sheer effort of giving my whole being over to that moment of intensity. I had the dimly-conscious, mostly body-realization that I was about to repeat what the whole animal world before me had done: to give birth to a new and separate life. The Lamaze course had not prepared us for this and I don't know if it could have . . . and anyway it didn't make any difference because we were experiencing it then, completely, totally.

As each contraction came and I pushed, my body became more aware of itself and of what it was doing. Then came a great moment of calm . . . followed by a feeling of hugeness as my body emptied. And then—as I leaned over my legs to watch and John stood close to me—there was Caitlin. She squirmed a little and gave a little cry, and coughed, and breathed.

She was our child. We had connected with the heritage of life.

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