I get ask questions constantly when dealing with first time pregnant women.  Here are some of the more interesting ones.

Does labor hurt, like a lot?

Let me just say this, its like fitting a grapefruit through a hole the size of a quarter (according to my doctor son)….so now that you have that mental image in your head the answer is yes, it does hurt.  It’s different for everybody, but to say that you don’t feel some sort of discomfort would just be lying.

Why do they tell me not to eat or drink before labor.  Isn’t that unhealthy?

I want to tell you that childbirth is full of sunshine and rainbows, but it isn’t.  Theres a lot of blood and placenta.  The reason why you shouldn’t eat or drink before labor is because if you don’t, the baby will literally push fecal and urine out of you.  Meaning that you will literally empty your bladder and bowels all over the floor.  Have that mental image in your head yet?   The doctors and nurses do not want to get covered in enough bodily fluids that you are already excreting.

I have constant cravings, should I indulge them?

Surprisingly, you shouldn’t.  Every person has cravings for different foods, most women use their pregnancy as an excuse to eat whatever they want.  In fact, you really shouldn’t as you have to think about the babies nutrition.  Technically speaking, you only need a little more.  Think about it this way, your hormones are throwing your body chemistry through a loop.  Most people cope with emotional stress by eating.  It’s not necessarily a bad thing, but what you eat, your baby eats as well.  A baby is not a ‘second person’, so you do not need to eat for two.  You are more like eating for one and a quarter, or one and a half people.

Episiotomies, yes or no?

I have never gotten an episiotomy, but a fellow birth mother did get one.  According to my son and her (This one was one of the more interesting conversations with my son) it is to save the vaginal wall and vagina itself from tears and shears.  The cuts that they do surrounding the vagina is literally to make it bigger for the baby to pass through.  Better to have cuts and blood then to have pieces of your vaginal wall hanging out.  There are some images you can’t erase from your mind