Pastan, Linda : Notes from the Delivery Room

Literature Annotations

Genre	Poem
Keywords	Childbirth, Pain, Parenthood, Patient Experience, Sexuality, Women's Health
Summary	Amusing, and lovingly told in the first person, the poem describes the comically embarrassing physicality of giving birth and considers the profound implications of this life event: the sex act from which conception originates, the anguish of losing a child; the fearful joy of welcoming a new life into the world. During labor, the mother is also aware that the doctors expect her to perform, "the audience grows restive," but in the end they are of no consequence as it is "just me, quite barefoot / greeting my barefoot child."
Source	PM/AM: New and Selected Poems
Publisher	W. W. Norton
Edition	1982
Place Published	New York
Alternate Source	On Doctoring
Alternate Publisher	Simon & Schuster
Alternate Edition	1995, 2001
Alternate Editors	Richard Reynolds & John Stone
Place Published	New York
Miscellaneous	Also available in: Carnival Evening (New York: W. W. Norton, 1998)
Annotated by	Aull, Felice
Date of Entry	12/07/93
Last Revised	05/17/06