I gave birth to Yums at home. It was an incredible experience. I was surrounded by a beautiful environment and was able to participate freely in my birthing process. As wonderful as it was there was pain....a lot of it! I used herbal tea as my pain killers. The pain was the pull my hair out, use a profound amount of profanity and call upon God to deliver me type of pain. At one point I felt as if I were being torn apart; shortly after that I felt this great expulsion and then blissful relief. Right after that moment I said...ok, I can do this again! I gave birth to my son through a lot of pain and discomfort but it was completely worth it. I thought about this with our life experiences. There are times that we are in the midst of giving birth to something great....confidence, a new beginning, security...but it's too painful. We are unable to get through the birthing process because it doesn't feel good. We don't want to deal with the discomfort, the anxiety, the gut wrenching hurt in order to make it to the other side. And the amazing thing is that what we will birth will be beyond description. It will be inexplicably beautiful. We will understand that we had to experience the debilitating pain to bring forth new life. We are able to do it naturally. We don't need prescription drugs or alcohol or some other distraction to make it through the process. We need to remember that no matter how much it hurts in the moment, when the pain is over there will be a new life.