birth!

On Friday, I saw a baby being born for the very first time. Don't worry, I'm not going to be super cheesy and talk about the miracle of life or something, but I think it was the best possible birth I could have observed at first, for the following reasons:

1) Mom had an epidural.
2) Baby and Mom were both healthy.
3) It was Mom's 2nd baby.
4) It was a lot cleaner than I expected, actually. Well, I guess with the exception of the amniotic fluid forming a projectile straight into the nurse's face. She probably didn't think the birth was so clean. But since I wasn't in the "line of fire," shall we say, I found it exceptionally hilarious. I know admitting this means karma might just slap me in the face with amniotic fluid someday, but it has to be said.

I took a reproductive health class in college (from an anthropology perspective, I might add), and up until this point I'd felt conflicted about hospital births. Are they actually superior to home births for healthy moms? Does hospitalization take something away from the magic of the experience? But I have to say that after observing a hospital birth in person for the very first time, I think an epidural plus someone else to clean up the mess seems pretty damn good. That's not to say that there aren't ways to improve the hospital experience for pregnant women, especially women who are not as compliant with the system as this particular family was, but I definitely saw the beauty in a hospital birth.

Also, I learned that there is no way I want the grandmas in the room when I give birth. Having them say "I see the baby's hair!" was just WAY too weird. I would probably shout "Stop looking at my va-jay-jay!" and that would be the end of that.