5 things that surprised me about labor

When I was pregnant, I read ALL there is to read about labor. I read about other people's experiences, pain relief options, different birthing positions, I knew it all. I felt prepared. But I wasn't. When I found myself in the delivery room in the middle of contractions, there were quite a few things I was not expecting.

1. I did not see it coming. I guess I expected there to be some kind of sign telling me labor is coming. But there wasn't, at least not one I would notice. I actually went to see a movie with my mom the night before it happened. I went to bed that night thinking this baby was never going to come. And then I woke up at 3.30 a.m. with severe back pain...

2. I knew what to do. Wait, no, I actually had no idea what I was doing. But I was surprised that my body knew what to do. All these instincts I didn't even know I had suddenly kicked into full gear. It was weird and amazing at the same time.

3. I didn't care about anything. As I already said, I had done a lot of research during my pregnancy. By the end of my pregnancy, I had a pretty clear idea of what I wanted my labor experience to be like. I had this vision of a natural labor with practically no interventions. I knew exactly what I was going to let the doctors do and what I wasn't. But when it was game time, I didn't care about any of that. All I want was to be done. So I just went along with what the doctors would suggest and didn't really object to anything. And it turned out to be ok and pretty much what I wanted, anyway.

4. I can't remember the pain. When I was pregnant, I had all these women telling me that they'd forgotten the pain immediately after labor. I thought the were just saying that so that I wouldn't be scared. But you know what? It's actually true.

5. You end up with a baby in your arms. And that's when I realised that maybe, instead of focusing all my attention on labor and delivery, I should have learnt how to take care of a child. It might sound really dumb, but the little human in my arms was in fact the biggest surprise of them all.