My mother groaned, my father wept,
into the dangerous world I leapt.

There are unwanted emotions and pain that goes along with any birth.

There is no birth of consciousness without pain.

Thy friendship oft has made my heart to ache; do be my enemy - for friendship's sake

Birth is the sudden opening of a window, through which you look out upon a stupendous prospect. For what has happened? A miracle. You have exchanged nothing for the possibility of everything.

It is as great a crime to leave a woman alone in her agony and deny her relief from her suffering as it is to insist upon dulling the consciousness of a natural mother who desires above all things to be aware of the final reward of her efforts, whose ambition is to be present, in full possession of her senses, when the infant she already adores greets her with its first loud cry and the soft touch of its restless body upon her limbs.