If you haven't already, you will soon be giving birth to your child. You probably have a good idea by now of what this incredible experience will be like for you, but imagine, too, what your baby will be going through. Up until now, your unborn child has lived in a warm, dark, fluid world where every need has been filled instantly. Suddenly, your baby's liquid environment disappears as the amniotic sac ruptures and the fluid gushes out of your vagina. Uterine contractions, stimulated by the brain hormone oxytocin, become stronger and more frequent with every passing minute, squeezing and constricting baby's body. Another hormone is released by your ovaries to relax the cervix. It will widen from .5 cm to 10 cm to accommodate your baby's head, which must distend and elongate to pass through it.

After hours of labor your little one is propelled into a strange, bright, noisy world. Organs like the stomach, intestines, and kidneys, untested until now, must start functioning without delay. Blood entering the fetal heart has to be shunted to the lungs at once, and the openings in the heart it used to pass through must be sealed immediately. The infant nervous system instantly begins making use of information from eyes practically blinded by a blizzard of incoming data. Cold air rushes into tiny lungs for the first time, baby cries out--and a new life begins. Congratulations, mom! You've produced a miracle.