Summary

Ree begins the second section, “Motherhood,” by reflecting on her experiences giving birth to her four children. In a chapter called “Pride, Prejudice, and Epidurals,” Ree states that when she began contractions with her first baby, Alex, she put on makeup, curled her hair, and chose a nice outfit before she woke up Ladd to drive her to the hospital. There, she experienced the pain of labor, a “total-body … incomparable suffering that’s quite impossible to put into words” (80). Ree received an epidural for both of her first two births to endure this excruciating experience. Later, she questioned why she had used the epidural and even felt guilty for it, because other family members had given birth without anesthesia. She researched this and found an article titled ‘Redheads Require Increased Anesthesia,’ which suggested that redheads were more sensitive to pain. Nevertheless, she decided she...