This was written as part of the Stephen King Project.
“Birth is wonderful, gentlemen, but I have never found it beautiful – not by any stretch of the imagination. I believe it is too brutal to be beautiful. A woman’s womb is like and engine. With conception, that engine is turned on. At first it barely idles … but as the creative cycle nears the climax of birth, that engine revs up and up and up. Its idling whisper becomes a steady running hum, and then a rumble, and finally a bellowing, frightening roar. once that silent engine has been turned on, every mother-to-be understands that her life is in check. Either she will bring the baby forth an the engine will shut down again, or that engine will pound louder and harder and faster until it explodes, killing her in blood and pain” (Stephen King, The Breathing Method, 1982).