Twenty-five years ago to date, I awoke at two in the morning to a strange tightening of my stomach.
“Indigestion.”
I rolled onto my side and fell back asleep. An hour later, that strange tightening awoke me again, only that time the pressure was definitely more intense. I was in labor!
Being a mere sixteen years old, I had never been so scared in my life. I spent the next three hours tossing and turning as my contractions got closer together and stronger in intensity. By six in the morning I thought I was dying.
I alerted my mom and sister of my labor. They frantically ran around like chickens with their heads cut off. Eventually we loaded into my sister’s minivan and headed for the hospital.
After an excruciating eighteen hours of labor, I gave birth to my beautiful daughter. I named her Lauren Paige.
Some people think I gave up a lot to raise her as a teen mom…maybe I did. But she was worth it. The knowledge and love that I gained from her far outweighed what I missed. So I didn’t attend my senior prom…big deal.
Happy birthday beautiful daughter! I wouldn’t change being your mother for the world.
Rebecca Carpenter, copy editor and author 
I woke with a start, as my little sister quietly woke me…”Denise I am having cramps in my back, they really hurt”. I knew immediately that she was going into labor. I was a young mother myself, only 23, my baby was 8 months old and now my little sister at 17 was going to have a baby of her own. I cringed at the thought of her going through labor, she had opted to go for a natural delivery, not because she was into that , but because she knew that my parents and the fathers parents were covering the cost of the baby and she was always aware that this was costing them both money. Time seem to suspend as we arrived at the hospital and they checked her in, each stage of labor brought with it a new advanced intense pain and I wondered if she could go much more without any relief. I was suppose to be her coach and yet I would be so overcome with emotion I would have to leave the room. I knew what she was going through, I had endured 36 hours of labor with my son. yet knowing that I entered a silent plea to the father above to let me take her place, I would gladly go through the pain rather than see her suffer, and yet I couldn’t trade her places, she had to go at this alone and I ached with every contraction and I loved her more and more for her incredible strength.