People keep asking me if I’m going to take a break soon. “Are you going to go on maternity leave before your due date?” they ask. And when I tell them, politely, that I intend to keep working until I can no longer function, they always throw their “professional” opinion on me. “You should at least leave a week before, you know, so you can have time to prepare.” Prepare?! Let me tell you how much we have prepared over the last 6 months:

• Replaced a 20 year old roof so that it won’t leak on small child’s head
• Replaced all electrical outlets and switches
• Cleaned out a room to create a nursery
• Had a garage sale to get rid of junk and make room for baby
• Rearranged and organized garage into storage bins
• Replaced carpet and painted walls in nursery
• Drove 3 hours to procure nursery furniture
• Took five, three hour class sessions in child birthing
• Took a two hour breastfeeding class
• I have done prenatal yoga since week 13
• Washed all 0-3 month clothes and folded them into drawers
• Toured the labor and delivery facility of our hospital
• Pre-registered with the hospital so they have all my info when I arrive in labor

I have read this book and this book, as well as some other info my doctor gave me. We have five magazine subscriptions. Personally, I think it’s a bit of overkill. Are we prepared? We’re knowledgeable. We have the essential items (minus a nightstand and lamp for the nursery) and as a couple we’re as prepared as anyone six weeks from their due date can be.

Am I prepared? I think so. The same people who ask when I’m going to go sit on my fat ass until the kid pops out are the same ones who whole-heartedly condone an epidural. I am not anti-drugs. In fact, I’m definitely going to tell the nurses that yes, I would like to keep that as an option. However, I am – at the moment – planning on going au natural. I feel fairly confident that I have the mental wherewithal to accomplish this feat. This site can tell you a little more about it but I am putting my faith in my yoga practice, my past accomplishments, and myself to push through this apparently excruciating experience. I’m sure it will hurt, I do not deny this. Most people say that it could be the worst pain ever. Well, how many women have given birth – in the history of the universe – without drugs? We’ve only just forged into the era of modern medicine within, what, the last 50 years? If that. I don’t even know when epidurals became the norm but I seriously doubt my grandmothers had drugs. I almost need to do it this way. Unhindered by medication is what childbirth means to me.