I think that women should be cared for when they are in labor.  I think that means that you should have people around you that protect your birth and care about making sure that you, and thus your experience, will be protected while you are giving birth.  Women are so much stronger than they know.  I hear women everyday tell me that they don't know if they will be able to take the pain.  They just don't know if they can do it.  Well I am here to tell you that you can.  If your circumstances are normal, if your Midwife tells you that you and your baby are healthy and doing great, then you CAN do it.  I know you can.  I see women do it all the time.  I like to think that I can help protect your labor and keep you feeling your strength.  The strength of your contractions is very big, but one at a time they are just hills.  Not the mountain that the whole experience is.

The mountain is within summit to all women if they take it one step at a time.  So read and prepare all that you need or want to, but at some point start taking things one day and one feeling at a time and you will summit the mountain of labor.  You will give birth.  And you will be stronger for doing so.