When I was pregnant with my first son, I was an absolute fanatic about natural childbirth.

My mother had delivered my brother and me naturally in the 50s, when that just wasn’t done.

I grew up in the 60s when everyone was completely devoted to natural childbirth. I think there were babies born at Woodstock, right? That was the idea.

So, when I finally got around to having kids, I just had NO other idea in my head.

That was a problem.

It was a problem, to begin with, because I lived in Mobile, Alabama at the time.

No one in Mobile delivered babies by natural childbirth.

It just wasn’t done.

Believe me, I interviewed every single obstetrician.

After a long, long search, I finally found a doctor at the Catholic hospital there who had a very very low Caesarean rate and who was completely willing to go along with my (for Mobile, mad) idea.

All set.

Except it didn’t work out that way.

It wasn’t my doctor’s fault. Or my nurse’s. Or mine.

Everyone tried.

But that just was not a thing that was happening.

When Dr. Almeida had let me push for two hours and there was not one single hair of my baby’s head showing, plus his heartbeat was weird, he said, “I’ll give you 15 more minutes.”

“Forget it,” I said. “Get this baby out RIGHT NOW.”

And they did. Within 10 minutes, I was in the operating room and soon my (almost 10 lb) baby was in the pediatrician’s hands while they put things back together.

Life is humbling.

Things don’t work out as planned.

Sometimes you need some help. Sometimes you need big help.

If you’ve tried to write a book, you know they can get stuck too. I’ve been with wrestling a book for quite some time now and, with my copyeditor’s help, I think it will finally be out later this year or early next.

If you are tired of trying it on your own, get some help.

There is lots out there.