One hand held her husband's over the shower door. The other was between her legs, her fingers circling her clitoris. He asked her if she wanted to have sex—he'd read that it'd alleviate her contractions. She laughed, "F*ck no."
It was early, about 6 a.m., when Angela Gallo went into labor. She was dancing around her kitchen on the Mornington Peninsula of Victoria, Australia, eating strawberries, twirling her firstborn daughter's hair, and petting her dog. Hypnobirthing tracks lulled in the background while Angela sat to labor in a birth pool blown up in her living room.