Annie Ridout

Annie Ridout

Essays

My birth canal was a water slide

As my youngest child turns five, I reflect on his wild waterslide birth, in poem-form.

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Annie Ridout
Aug 11, 2024
∙ Paid
Where it all began.

My birth canal was a water slide and my new baby was up at the top, poised to shoot down it. 

But I didn’t know that, yet. 

The contractions were furious waves, 50-foot high and rising, and the anaesthetist was in her scrubs, ready to administer the epidural that would calm those waves and slow his journey down. 

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