Expecting a Baby, But Not the Pain

Anne Marie Chaker:

When she gave birth to her daughter last July, Cassie Friesen, of Broomfield, Colo., imagined she was inside a bubble and repeated the word “peace” with each contraction.
The 25-year-old former nanny learned these relaxation and visualization techniques in a hypnotherapy course she took in hopes of minimizing the pain of childbirth. “It’s so corny-sounding,” she says, and yet it worked. She describes her daughter Aster’s July 7 arrival as “fun–even enjoyable,” words not many other mothers use when describing the experience.