looked at me, his eyes filling with tears, and said, “Are you sure? I know how much you wanted to have the vaginal birth. I know you can do it.” He was doing exactly what I had asked him to do. To remind me of what I wanted, to be held accountable to myself. It broke me a little to hear him say it. What he didn’t know, and what I had unconsciously come to realize, was that I was already a different person.
