“At least I’ll have an epidural.” That’s what Alexandra Frost told herself over and over again while she was pregnant with her first. Only, as she discovered at the last minute, she couldn’t: “The first few times didn’t work and fired up searing nerve pain worse than any childbirth I experienced later, essentially traumatizing both myself and my husband, who was looking on. The third try worked on half my body, so my pain was imbalanced.” Her next deliveries were unmedicated.

Now she’s about to have a fifth, and she’s learned a lot from this experience: “Don’t get me wrong — none of this was fun, close to pain-free, or something I’d choose to do on a chill Saturday morning, but it was always life-changing, each time.” Read it and find out why.

Kelly Faircloth, Executive Editor