I got pregnant in Oxford, England. My pregnancy was easy. I was cared for by a wonderful Scottish midwife; never saw a doctor. I maybe had 2 blood draws and 1 ultrasound. I felt healthy and like what was happening was normal. My husband and I took a Mongan Method, Hypnobirthing Class http://www.hypnobirthing.com/.

At 30 weeks we moved to Berlin, Germany for my husband’s MBA internship. I explored Berlin’s neighborhoods, increasingly slowly, took a German class (world’s most pregnant language student) and saw a local doctor once to check-in.

At 37 weeks we returned to Oxford to learn that my baby was breech. At the hospital at 38 weeks, a doctor tried to right him via ECV to no avail. So, my midwife advised that we schedule a C-section for 39 weeks because “only 2 doctors at the hospital have experience delivering a breech.” I trusted her, so that was that.

On the big day, we hopped in one of those cool English cabs, and en route I decided that if the baby was a boy he wouldn’t be Dimitri but Nikolai. The girl name was as locked in as my breech baby: Nadya. (She came 2 years later)

A spinal block, epidural and I was under the lights. Tugging, my husband’s blue eyes, and a baby put right on my chest. Perfect. Mine. Nikolai.