My labor contractions started on Halloween morning, 2002. I remembered girlfriends describing their contractions like period cramps, and that was what I felt. They were coming on regularly so I started timing them - I still have the little scrap of paper with times scribbled on it. What a magical experience to see my baby's birth developing on a little scrap of paper! At first they were every 5 minutes, as regular as clockwork.

I called Stefan to let him know and ask him to come home by around 4:00 pm so we could take a walk together on the beach. That had been a vision of ours for labor - taking in the sounds of waves together and breathing in the sea air with each surge. Little did we know Gianna would be born by 6:20 that evening! There would be no beach excursions for us that day!

My surges started getting pretty intense by 11:00am, so I asked Stefan to come home. I also asked Marcelle, my mother-in-law, to come downstairs (we lived in the same house) to help me with some cleaning. By noon I was really interested in starting to focus inward - to practice what I'd learned about Hypnobirthing. I relaxed on the couch and created peaceful images as each surge came. I felt very connected with the experience, but pain was absent - replaced with a loving feeling about the birth and a meditative calm.

When Stefan got home I talked to him a lot between contractions - asking him for things and experimenting with positions. All the movement and conversation really distracted me from the meditation, so I refocused my energy on relaxing. Stefan was next to me telling me affirmations and supporting my progress. A magical day was unfolding.

We called our midwife, Maria, when my surges were regularly 3-4 minutes apart. She arrived at 3:00 pm to find me in a restful, deep Hypnobirthing moment. She checked me and I was at almost 5 centimeters. This was great news and it inspired me - that and Stefan and Maria's beaming smiles. I was doing great work.

I went back to meditation on the couch, imagining with each surge that I was a mermaid in the ocean. I would swim down to the sea floor, pick up a seashell and bring it to the surface where my baby was sitting on a float. Each time the baby would be delighted at mummy bringing a gift, and I felt a strong sense of loving connection with the baby. Sometimes, when a surge was particularly strong, I'd imagine a sea creature stuck to my abdomen as I was swimming down for shells - but it would smile at me and I'd acknowledge that it was just taking a little ride and that it would be gone soon.

It was truly amazing relaxing through the surges, because I realized I had a choice: I could respond to the pain by freezing up, screaming, tensing my body (which all made it unbearable) or I could go into a deep level of relaxation. The relaxation and visualization actually made me much more aware of the experience (as opposed to being taken away from my body). I looked like I was asleep (as we saw in the many Hypnobirthing videos we had in our class).

At one point our midwife, Maria, asked Stefan, "Is she even having any contractions?" Stefan knew that I had had 3 in the last 10 minutes she had been observing, since he was right next to me and knew how my breathing changed when a contraction hit. Maria was amazed and later called me Amazon Woman of the Month.

At around 5:30, Stefan and Maria and Marcelle prepared the birthing tub for me. I was pretty oblivious to the process. By this time, when I'd stand up to use the bathroom my state changed completely. I'd get a sense of what labor is like without hypnotheraphy! I was able to meditate on the toilet, but I'd let out some powerful groans and I felt my body tighten against the blow of pain. Relaxing my body in the meditation took me away from the intense desire to react to pain.

I got in the tub and it was heaven! I said, "You guys are missing out!" The water was at 100 degrees and felt absolutely wonderful. It was close to 6:00 when Maria checked my cervix. I was almost 9 centimeters dilated! I started wanting to push, but she explained that I shouldn't for about 3 contractions. Boy, was that hard - but it wasn't as hard as I thought it would be. In one of our birthing classes, the instructor described holding back from pushing like "really wanting to poop but 400 times more difficult to hold." Yikes! It was difficult, but not as bad as that!

Speaking of poop, at one point I exclaimed, "I feel like this baby is coming out of my ass!" Apparently, that was a completely normal feeling, but it didn't feel that way at the time.

I took everyone by surprise when, between pushing surges, I spontaneously exclaimed, "I feel great!" Maria said that statement is the stuff of midwifery legend - the kind of experience midwives talk about to inspire other clients.

My bag of waters ruptured only 10 minutes before Gianna was born. The water was clear and it was wonderful to know it had held in place for so long!

I pushed for a total of only 25 minutes. When Gianna's head was halfway out, I heard Marcelle say, "I can see the ears!" I think that made it real to me and inspired me to push harder. I also had a flash of not knowing whether the baby would be able to handle only having her head out under water. So at the next surge I pushed really hard and the entire baby came out! Suddenly, this beautiful, pink angel was on my chest - I was overwhelmed. It was the most amazing, profound experience of my life. A little person had come out of me and was there on me in the warm water.

The next few minutes were a blur. Stefan declared that the baby was a girl, and we waited a while before he cut the cord. I was floating her in the water, trying to make sure she was warm but that her mouth didn't go under the water. I wanted to nurse her, but that waited until I was out of the water and on the bed. I also had a first-degree (minor) tear that Maria sewed up, and she administered a Vitamin K shot to Gianna later in the night. Maria said Gianna was the pinkest newborn she'd ever seen in her career.

Everything was perfect - a 10-hour labor, 25 minutes pushing, a healthy baby, and an enthusiastic nursing instinct. Like every birth of every animal and human, it was a miracle. Stefan and I were so glad we were at home.

We started co-sleeping that night, responding to her instantly and instinctively. Her name didn't come until 3 days after her birth, and we changed her middle name a few days thereafter. Gianna is a translation of Jane and Grace, two names I adore. (There's also a little-known baseball team that happens to share the first four letters of her name - but that's just coincidence.:) Her great uncle, Michel, died over the weekend and we wanted to honor him by naming her Gianna Michelle.

I love being close to her all the time, and tears come to my eyes when I look down at her nursing. Every morning brings the gift of her presence.