I ran into a woman trying to decide whether to start a birth induction or wait. Instead of going home after my shift was over, I sat next to her. She started telling me that she was afraid and instead of trying to calm her down, I asked her what she was afraid of. She said that she's afraid of the pain and not being in control, that she'll need the Epidural and that she won't handle the pain. I asked her what else and what really really scares her. "The stitches", she said, and started telling me about her friends, that one of them had 16 stitches and couldn't sit down. It was like I've had a Band-Aid on my mouth so that I won't give her advice about what can be done regarding the stitches – which is normally my automatic response. I just continued listening to her stories about her friends, and I noticed that during this conversation she starting to have contractions.