We just had a new baby

And I sing hazzahs to midwifery. What a pleasure it was to be well cared-for during my gestation and delivery. My husband and I also hired a hypnobirth instructor about two months before my due date.

Intense, hypnotic, therapeutic concentration changed my life. I was so relaxed, free of fear and able to gently bring my girl into the world. I hope someday I can share this magical process with another pregnant mom so she can enjoy her birth as much as I enjoyed mine.

And the perfect book for post-delivery bliss: The Baby Catcher: Chronicles of a Modern Midwife by Peggy Vincent. This smartly-written account of a California nurse-turned-midwife was a love story to babies and birthing mamas. Vincent's prose is sharp and readable, and her stories of attending births brought me to tears and swelled my heart with pride and awe. It's a page-turner, and a great book to have beside the glider while the new baby latches on.