If ye are prepared, ye shall not fear (D&C Section 38), a familiar and fairly well accepted ideology the world over. Preparation = lack of fear. Fair enough friends, fair enough.
Now enter child birth.
Hmmmm.
All the preparation in the world cannot fully prepare you for childbirth. And while this may appear a tongue and cheek quip, I assure you that I do not mean it in any comical fashion. Child birth is hard. Yep. There it is, but holy crapolla CHILD BIRTH IS AMAZING. And that my friends, far outweighs any talk of the arguable unpleasantness associated with bearing a child. All the preparation in the world, could not have fully prepared me for how incredible I felt as I pushed my son into this world and felt his warm little body on my rather exposed self. Nothing could have prepared me for the sacredness of the occasion. For the emotional outpouring of a loving husband and brand new father. For the rush of love that washed over me as I realized the tiny beginnings of motherhood. For the awe that I felt realizing that the medical staff present witness this miracle everyday.
This is not to say that things went as I planned. In fact, nothing went as I planned. Months of preparation and I can honestly say that my birth plan seems a bit of a joke in retrospect, but none of that minimizes the incredible experience of childbirth and how immensely grateful I am that in the end, we had a healthy beautiful little boy.
