The marvelous Kitty Muto and her son Joseph (9 months). Kitty wasn't certain she wanted to have children until one day she knew she wanted nothing more, as if a switch had flipped biologically. She was able to conceive relatively quickly and had a pretty uneventful pregnancy. She experienced a lot of nausea and tiredness her first trimester which she was able to get a hold on with medication. Her second trimester she really came into her own and felt more comfortable in her body than she ever had. She had a couple of preterm labor scares in her third trimester but was able to hold on to term and actually ended up having to be induced. Her induction went well as she was already having quite a few contractions. She had a relatively quick labor, only 8 hours with 45 minutes of pushing, and found the birth experience to be quite awesome. At one point Kitty fainted during epidural placement due to a drop in blood pressure. Multiple attempts to place the epidural never took and she was able to have the natural birth experience she had hoped for but was quite afraid of. It was an empowering experience and she felt amazingly supported by her husband and care providers. She had to pump for the first 7 weeks of Joseph's life as they worked through latching issues, and is pumping again due to her return to work and is happy to have sustained a healthy breastfeeding relationship with her boy. Kitty has struggled with disordered eating in the past as well as depression but was able to really check in with herself particularly in her postpartum period and things went much better than she'd expected. She said that in the past she's experienced a lot shame and negative feelings in relation to her body but has spent the last year falling in love with and in awe of all that it's accomplished. She said that it turns out, love is a lot less work than shame.