Conveying the unconveyable?
It strikes me that my account of LB's birth doesn't really convey what it feels like physically to labour and give birth. That's partly because I'm just not a good enough writer for that sort of subject matter. Does anyone know accounts that they feel do convey it? Either that resonate with your experience if you have given birth, or that make you feel that you can imagine what it's like to give birth if you haven't?
The only one I can think of is in A.S.Byatt's Still Life where there's an account of Stephanie getting into a rhythm of concentrating on the contractions that I recognise. And of how much worse the pain gets when that rhythm is disturbed. The description of the rest of the birth may be equally good - Byatt is one of my favourite writers - but I don't remember that. Must re-re-re-re-read.
The only one I can think of is in A.S.Byatt's Still Life where there's an account of Stephanie getting into a rhythm of concentrating on the contractions that I recognise. And of how much worse the pain gets when that rhythm is disturbed. The description of the rest of the birth may be equally good - Byatt is one of my favourite writers - but I don't remember that. Must re-re-re-re-read.