and a "let's see how it goes" attitude was what we did to prepare for the birth of our first child. Somewhere in the middle of that labor, we realized we wished we had more techniques to cope with pain. We prepared a lot for the birth of our second child - yoga, our doula Leigh, a lot of reading, and the experience was much more rewarding. Labor and the birth of a child is not an event you ever forget; the time and money spent on preparation was so worth it.

Also,one thing that helped me manage the high point of each contraction was trying to recite or remember something in my head for distraction - old poetry from college, silly kids songs from my daughter's school, bits of prayers in Hebrew. By the time I thought of the word or line, the pain was lessening.

- Laura C., San Diego