Childbirth experience

I have to be honest. I do not have children, I do not remember my childbirth, and I only have one close friend that has had a child.

I am going to briefly talk about my friend's childbirth experience because she had her baby one month ago. However, I was not in attendance...this experience I will write about is all through conversation.

I have to say that  my friend was truly lucky with her childbirth. She started to have contractions around 1 am on a Friday and delivered her baby by noon on Saturday. She was admitted into the hospital around 4 am. She had a few contractions early on, received her epidural, and really had no pain. The nurses checked on her hourly and around 11 am she was 9 cm dilated. At this point the nurse also realized her water had not fully broken, so she "popped" the remaining. The labor really began then, and within 30 minutes the baby was born. The baby boy was healthy and my friend was ready to begin motherhood.

What I know from this experience is that prenatal care is important. My friend went to the doctor regularly and attended birthing classes. Again, I have not had much experience with childbirth so it is hard for me to truly comment on my beliefs about this.