Summary

In Chapter 12, Caitlin describes giving birth to her two daughters. Her mother gave birth to eight children, several of which left her with hemorrhages or pinched nerves. Caitlin develops an irrational fear of giving birth because of her mother’s experiences, which leads her to deny that she can even do it. She refuses to believe that her cervix will open, and she stays willfully ignorant of the birthing process. When her contractions start, she learns her baby is in the posterior position, and she must go to the hospital, despite planning a home birth with a midwife. Caitlin’s contractions stop, and her cervix does not open on its own; she continues to think birthing is magic and she is simply not a magician. After three days of failed labor, Caitlin...