"Okay, your anus is fully dilated. We're going to start pushing now okay baby?"
You nodded in panic. Despite what the books had told you, there was no preparing your body for this. Not what the science was asking you to do, a boy becoming a mother. It was at this point your mom and sister flanked you on either side and held your knees apart.
You reached over for your sister's hand and held it tight. There is no one else you would have put yourself through this for if it wasn't her baby. You felt her tears fall off her cheeks onto your arms, the warmth of your mother's hand in your hair, rubbing up and down your head and neck, whispering gentle words of support.
You had tried to cling to some masculine dignity through this, that this all just a favor for a friend and that having a baby didn't make you any less of a boy. You had asked your father and brothers not to see you like this. But being here, surrounded by the ladies of your life, your midwife inside you, your bowels tensing in anticipation of pushing out your baby boy, you gave in. For at least that moment you were a complete woman, gushing with life.
"Okay! Ready and, push! push! push! push!"