I was lucky to have my sister, ten years younger, living in town when I was pregnant. She came to all the birth classes with me, was there for my daughter’s first kick (which scared the shit out of me—I screamed), and came to the hospital when it was time. I was in labor for 18 hours before we decided to give Pitocin a try, and then the real show began. Three centimeters one minute and the next thing I knew, squishy things were coming out. My sister went running into the hall, “Something’s coming out and we don’t know what it is!” Turned out to be a twisted little part of the water sac.
Just as fast, the baby was crowning. I couldn’t see it at the time, but my sister told me later that she looked at the baby’s head in horror, not realizing that the baby’s skull overlapped in the birth canal and thinking that my child was misshapen. She looked at the doctor’s and nurse’s faces for a reaction that never came. Thankfully, my little one’s head smoothed right out and we share the best birth memories.
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