Regardless of whether labor is long or
short, whether it is hard or easy whether a baby is born vaginally or by
cesarean, most parents recall the first hours and days after birth as
crystal-clear images surrounded by haze. It is in this haze that you
first take in your baby and make a giant leap from pregnancy to
parenting.
Despite all the anticipatory parenting done before conception and
during pregnancy, despite weeks of feeling movement within and
fantasizing about your baby, despite months of having strange dreams,
worrisome thoughts, and musings about what kind of parent you will be,
the first time you hold your baby in your arms and call yourself mother
or father, mama or papa, mommy or daddy, an awareness floods over you
that life will never be the same again. Another human being is now
dependent upon you for survival. More than anything else, you want to be
the best parent possible.
