When we first started this project, we weren't quite sure whether it would work. We hoped it would, of course, but asking nine women to bare their souls to a national audience — on a topic that everyone has an opinion on — is not an easy thing to do. Would they be honest? Would they get nervous and back out? Would they be hurt by readers' comments and inevitable criticisms?

For this, the final post of The Baby Project, we asked our bloggers to tell us just how this project has affected them; whether they're glad they participated; and if they learned anything — about themselves, their partners, or from other parents.

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Andrea Pike

When the blog began, Andrea, 31, wrote often, diligently and always with humor. She talked about her two sons, both adopted, and the overwhelming love she has for them. She wrote about her decade of infertility issues, and how she wept with joy when she found out that the first round of in-vitro had worked. And then, as she dealt with complications from her pregnancy, the frequency of her posts slowed. We didn't get her final thoughts on working on the project, so we compiled some highlights of her incredible story.

At 33 weeks, Andrea was admitted to the hospital after having contractions. The girls were weighing in at 5 pounds, 2 ounces and 5 pounds, 4 ounces. "Holy beefy babies, Batman!!" she wrote. But "even with all of this going on," she continued, "I'm not the least bit stressed or freaked out. The nurses are awesome, my boys are with their grandparents in Texas, Jeff is ever the doting husband, and we have free Wi-Fi in our hospital room. Score!"

But soon, being in the hospital started to wear on her: "After four days," she said at the time, "you'd go a little nuts."

Nearly two weeks went by until we heard from her again. She had been "down in the dumps," she said, but now, the clouds were starting to lift. She described looking at the cribs both of her boys had slept in until they graduated to big-boy beds — the cribs that were now ready for the girls: "As I stood there with my husband's arm around my waist, my lower back relaxed a little. My aching hips hurt a little less. The muscles that have a death-grip on my midsection seemed to ease up a little."

Then, on Aug. 3, she sent an email: "Admitted about an hour ago and my doc should be here in about 15 minutes to talk about delivery and stuff. SO freaking excited!!!"

But the delivery, we later found out, turned out to be traumatic and frightening, both for her and her husband. After delivering her first daughter, the second was transverse, so Andrea had to have an emergency C-section. As she later wrote: "After a few hours/minutes (who knows), a nurse asked Jeff back into a private room and said that if they didn't perform an emergency hysterectomy, they'd lose me. They also told him that in times like these, they suggest that the next of kin have some family at the hospital."

Andrea has since recovered, and her baby girls are healthy and strong. "I realized that I was one of the lucky ones, who not only had everything she wanted in life, but was fully aware of it."

Read some of Andrea's most memorable posts:

• 'We're Pregnant!' An Emotional Discovery After A Long Journey
• Blood Doesn't Equal Family, Love Does
• The Scariest Day Ever: A Twin Birth Story (Part 1)
• Terrified And Alone: Imagining Life Without My Sweetheart (Part 2, written by her husband, Jeff)
• Waking Up From Surgery: Cold, Confused And Aching For Loved Ones (Part 3)

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Ashley Charter

A few weeks before the blog launched, the youngest participant, 21-year-old Ashley Charter, said goodbye to her husband, Jesse, who was deployed to Iraq with the Army. The couple had suffered three miscarriages, so Ashley, from Lillington, N.C., was cautiously optimistic about the pregnancy. A full-time student, Ashley downplayed her struggles — from breast-feeding while coping with the effects of a childhood burn, to feeling like a single mom — by saying that other people were worse off than her.

I loved doing the project. While I was still pregnant, it gave me something to focus on other than Jesse being gone. I was able to keep my mind off of that by writing my own posts and by reading posts from the other participants. I never commented on any of the other posts, but just for the record, I loved reading about all the other families, especially Jolivette and Charlyne.

As it got later into the project, it started to get a bit difficult to find time to write. Jesse came home for R&R three days after Abel was born. And for the two weeks he was home, I was fighting for personal time with him, especially since his mother decided to come and stay at our house for a week. And then I went back to school three days after he left.

One thing I did discover is that I really stink at talking about myself. I realized that neither me nor my life is very interesting, so it was a more difficult than I thought it would be to write about myself.

Read some of Ashley's most memorable posts:

• Please Mind Your Business, Not My Belly
• Will Our Son Know His Soldier Daddy?
• Water, Pain And 'Oh My God' The Amazing Drugs: A Birth Story
• A Childhood Burn Adds An Extra Challenge To Breast-Feeding

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Christy Lilley

From being diagnosed with pregnancy-induced hypertension (and later, pre-eclampsia) to being put on bed rest — all while chasing a toddler around, Christy's first couple of posts were a study in frustration. Through it all, the 32-year-old lawyer and mother of two in Charlotte, N.C., very much spoke to the struggles of the modern-day working mom.

I was honored to be selected to take part in the Baby Project and be included among such a talented and diverse group of women. I enjoyed writing about my experiences, but sharing my innermost thoughts and feelings with a national audience was different than anything I have ever done before.

I'd be excited to finish a post, but as soon as I hit send, I'd start to feel anxious knowing that my post was about to be published. I felt particularly vulnerable and exposed, especially when my post was the featured post on the Baby Project. I felt like hiding under a rock until the next post was published and mine was no longer front and center.

At times, I found it difficult to read the comments, and I admit, I didn't always read them all. The positive comments were inspiring, and those with differing opinions really made me think — as did the other moms' posts, which made me question and think about a lot of my choices in pregnancy, childbirth and parenting.

All in all, I think it was a great experience, and I will end it feeling confident about my choices, and positive about who I am as a mother and a person.

My only regret about the project is that I did not have time to write more posts. I would often get an idea in my head for something I'd want to write about but just could not find the time to actually do it. The Baby Project inspired me to continue writing. I plan to revive a blog I started a few years ago for our long-distance family and friends to keep them updated while I was pregnant with James. Now I can write about our misadventures in parenting two kids. It's like free therapy!

Read some of Christy's most memorable posts:

• After A Smooth Delivery, A Host Of Medical Challenges For Mom
• The Breast-Feeding Ballet: Nurse, Supplement, Pump, Repeat
• Deep Breaths: When Chaos Is The New Normal
• The Ballad Of A Working Mom: Guilt, Anxiety, Exhaustion And Guilt

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Emily Grace Whebbe

None of the Baby Project bloggers fit neatly into any one category, but if we were forced to put a label on them, Emily would be our wide-eyed optimist. The 27-year-old freelance Web designer approached everything, it seemed, with enthusiasm and sincerity. In her final post, she wrote about her hopes for the future: "I hope next summer finds Revie and me in a garden, teaching her about plants and soil, maybe even in our own garden that grows enough food to sustain us," she wrote. "I know it's a far cry from the life we live now, but ... I remind myself that anything can happen."

Being a part of the Baby Project has been quite the experience. Just like childbirth, I still can't believe that I actually had a blog on NPR. Upon graduating from college, I ravenously applied for Minnesota Public Radio jobs, or any radio job that would take my voice, but alas I decided to go down a different career path (well, actually, radio decided it wasn't interested in me).

I'm honored to have been able to share my story among the other (much more interesting) mothers, and humbled to have had the support, encouragement and interest from readers. I'm no less than surprised that anyone was actually interested in my story, which caused some notable anxiety in the beginning.

Writing a story in which the main "climax" (labor and birth) was completely unpredictable was difficult, but I find myself wanting to write more about the unknown, because, in reality, everything in life is basically unknown until it happens. We can't really "plan" for anything except the inevitability of something happening.

I'm glad I participated, even when the comments were less than kind (it's amazing what people will say when they can remain anonymous). The only one that ever got to me, which I still think of today, was the one which said I should give my daughter up for adoption because I would be such a horrible parent. Now that I am a parent, I think about that comment often, knowing I could never give up Revie's pretty face. Mostly, I think of it because I feel bad that my child will have to encounter people like that person, who will be cold and outright mean to her.

I feel like the protective mother I always knew I would be — and at least the fact that those comments brought that out in me feels wonderful.

Read some of Emily's most memorable posts:

• Would He Ask A Married Woman The Same Question?
• A New Home For Baby, Just In Time For The Birth
• The Definition Of Perfection: A Baby's Birth Goes According To Plan
• 3 Weeks Into Motherhood, A Question Looms: Now What?

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Jolivette Mecenas

Jolivette, a 38-year-old college professor, wrote that she wanted to participate in this blog "to help bring alternative stories into the national conversation." And that's exactly what she did, writing about her relationship with her partner, Charlyne; the legal gray areas of being same-sex parents; and her pregnancy, achieved by using donor sperm. But in highlighting her "alternative" story, Jolivette also showed her story to be refreshingly ordinary. A recurring theme: family. Here, in excerpts from her final post, she reflects again on that theme:

The biggest surprise from participating in the Baby Project is the impact it has had on my relationship with my family. I come from an extensive (mostly) Filipino family that not only includes uncles, aunts and cousins, but also second cousins, old family friends, godparents — including several people who have known me since I was a baby myself. And although most of my family lives in Southern California, I have kept myself at a distance from most of them, never really talking about my personal life. I think no matter how loved one feels by their family, the fear of rejection can be gripping, even paralyzing.

In any case, writing about my pregnancy for a national audience has made me face that fear. Maybe I assumed that no one in my family would read the NPR blog. Boy, was I wrong. Several family members read it, asked me questions about details in the posts, brought up comments posted by other readers, downloaded photos from my posts, recommended my posts on Facebook. Overall, they love the blog, and they love me and Charlyne and Max.

What a wonderful, giant leap forward for me, and one that I needed to do not only for myself, but especially for Max.

Read some of Jolivette's most memorable posts:

• Forming A New Family, Emotionally And Legally
• Babymoons, Bikinis And Baby's Last Name: To Hyphenate Or Not?
• Turn, Baby, Turn: Techniques To Get That Breech Baby Head Down
• How We Chose Our Willing-To-Be-Known Donor
• A Final Farewell, Before I Fall Asleep

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Lateefah Torrence

Lateefah, a writer in New York who wrote about pregnancy and childbirth with an abundance of humor and wit, liked to pose questions to the readers: "What should we name our multiracial, urban, and probably geeky, kid of the future?" "How will this baby's head come out of me?" Lateefah, 38, wasn't afraid to point out the absurd, like her hideously swollen feet and the truth about what happens "down there" after childbirth. But she also shared her fears and disappointments — like her delivery, which went nothing like she planned. Here, excerpts from her final post, where she talked about how the blog boosted her confidence as a writer:

The response to my writing on the blog has given me a much needed lift in craft confidence. Since a stint tutoring kids in Harlem for the verbal section of the SAT, I've wanted to teach writing workshops for children and adults who tell themselves they can't write well. I suspected my own struggles with finding the right words would make me an empathetic teacher and tutor, but without an advanced degree or published works, I didn't think anyone would take my classes (thanks writing MFA adviser who told me to find another career). The idea of helping others find words for their feelings thrills me, and after reading the many positive comments on the blog, I look forward to turning my intention into an actuality.

I'm a bit melancholy over the project coming to a close just as Dalia and I settle into a routine that will allow me to write more. But I will continue to rant, rave and wonder on my personal blog.

Read some of Lateefah's most memorable posts:

• How Is This Baby's Head Going To Come Out Of Me?
• These Feet Weren't Made For Walking
• Advice From Over Here About Down There
• Pain And A Broken Epidural: A Mom Feels Alone And Helpless During Labor

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Loriani Eckerle

Loriani was the first Baby Project blogger to give us a scare. When the project began, the 31-year-old Californian's unborn child had been diagnosed with a potentially deadly illness, Mosaic Trisomy 16. Little did she know then that her own life would be the one at risk. Loriani told her story uncensored, from a pregnancy filled with unpleasant side effects and a terrifying delivery, to life in the neonatal intensive care unit, and the bitter feelings of inadequacy in not being able to breast-feed.

What a ride this has been. I found out about the Baby Project when my godmother Elina texted me, telling me NPR was looking for pregnant women due in late July to blog on their website. I applied because Matt and I wanted to share our experience with a not-so-perfect pregnancy. We knew we were taking a risk, in that no one knew how Mosaic Trisomy 16 would affect our baby or if she would even survive.

Matt worried about sharing the diagnosis with the world, but we went ahead and took our chances. Never did we expect it would be me who almost did not survive. What we did suspect was that our "Cupcake" would be fine. She surpassed our expectations by being, in every way, the perfect baby.

Writing this blog helped me get through the most difficult yet most rewarding moment in my life. I remember writing the birth story not so long ago and feeling physically ill. My head hurt because it was hard to remember any details, and I wasn't really sure if I wanted to remember. I found myself more afraid than ever of my own mortality.

Elina passed away unexpectedly Sunday July 31, at the age of 40. She was one of the most selfless and kind people I knew, and I can only hope Valentina will have some of her qualities. It seems fitting she was the one who told me about this project, because I really don't think I would have mentally recovered as quickly and peacefully without it. It's as if she left me one last gift.

And so I dedicate all my posts to my godmother Elina, who lived to help others and never stopped making us laugh.

Read some of Lori's most memorable posts:

• For A Family Under Stress, Another Difficult Diagnosis
• A Frightening Delivery, And A Healthy Baby Girl
• Life In The NICU: A Few Ounces Away From Coming Home
• Stumped At The Pump: When Breast-Feeding Doesn't Go As Planned
• Oh, The Horror: A New Mom Takes The Weekend Off

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Lucy Peck

After reading any post from Lucy, you pretty much felt like you knew her. The 27-year-old office manager from Logan, Utah, wrote often about being worried about money. She was grateful, she said, for government assistance like Medicaid and WIC that helped her and her husband afford a baby. And she raised one of the most controversial topics — whether or not to circumcise her son. While she hoped for a drug-free birth, it didn't go as planned. But in her first days with her son, she described wanting to smother him with kisses: "Every time I try to sing any song to him, the words take on new meaning because of him, and I start to cry. I love this boy so much that even 'Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star' can't make it past my lips. And so I hum instead."

It's been so fun to write for the Baby Project this summer. I must admit, I kept writing posts for a completely selfish reason — your comments. They were the highlight of my week, and so uplifting. You all had so many great ideas and great advice, it was like having a bunch of experienced friends sharing all their knowledge. I really appreciate it all — thank you so much.

I feel like I've been through so much with the other moms, it's like I'm saying goodbye to good friends.

So, best of luck with your new little ones Sarah, Lateefah, Jolivette, Christy, Emily, Andrea, Ashley and Loriani! It's been a blast following your stories this summer. Here's to success in raising our children!

Read some of Lucy's most memorable posts:

• Worried About Finances, But Thankful For Medicaid
• To Circumcise Or Not Circumcise, That Is The Question
• A Plan For Natural Birth: Hold The Drugs, Please
• How I Lost My Mind And Myself Before Meeting My Son
• A Mama's Boy Gets Smothered In Kisses

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Sarah Crossman

Sarah, 32, lives on an idyllic little island in Maine, where everyone pretty much knows everyone else. Throughout the project, she wasn't afraid to ask the big questions, like whether she was "completely and utterly unqualified" to be a mother. Although she had planned to have a home birth, health complications led her to decide on a hospital birth. Her disappointment about things not going as planned was tempered by the joy of delivering a healthy baby, assisted by medical professionals who were completely respectful of her wishes. Here are some excerpts from Sarah's final post, where she reflects on her participation in The Baby Project:

During these past 8 weeks, I feel like we've learned the basics of what it takes to be a parent — and then relearned them all again as things change over and over. And that what worked yesterday is not going to work tomorrow (that was Lesson Numero Uno). I've also learned just how little sleep I can survive on, what a kick-ass partner I have, and that I just shouldn't count how many bodily fluids I have gotten on myself in any given day.

... I've learned something from every woman on this blog, as well as those who have taken the time to leave comments. I read every single comment on my colic post and tried most of the suggestions (which is just about the time I learned Lesson Numero Uno).

I've learned how little sleep I can function on, where my breaking point is, and how to be gentle with myself when I've reached it. I've learned that I had no idea how fiercely I could love until I met Finn. ...

Finally, I've learned how much I like writing about this experience, and how taking the time to reflect on what's going on helps to put it all into perspective. I've realized how much I look forward to sitting down and writing, no matter how little time I have, and how I compose when I'm nursing at 3 a.m. or walking the dog. I've realized that I have a lot to say, and whether or not it's on a nationally publicized blog, I want to keep doing it ...

Read some of Sarah's most memorable posts (and follow along on her new blog, Growing up Vinalhaven):

• Will I Be Able To Teach My Child Right From Wrong?
• Growing Up On An Island Paradise, Where Everyone Is Family
• Guess What? Being A New Mom Isn't All Sunshine And Roses
• Mayday, Mayday! We Have Some Colic On Our Hands
• Who Is That Girl In The Mirror? From Feeling 'Ugly' To Beautiful Again

Guest blogger Barrie Hardymon, an editor for NPR's Talk of the Nation, sent us a note arguing that the Baby Project has placed too much emphasis on birth stories that are natural, or planned to be natural. "Birth has become so politicized," she wrote, "that it's not OK to even intimate that you had a scheduled C-section." She wanted the NPR project to reflect a variety of experiences, and so offered us hers — the guilt-free C-section.

There are women who love being pregnant. They feel voluptuous, earthy, secure. I was not one of them. I was nauseated, cranky and terrified.

I first knew that I was failing at pregnancy when I attended a highly recommended prenatal yoga class at a local studio. The room was filled with glowing, curvy ladies, calmly resting hands on stomachs. I sat on the mat and tried to look pleasantly confident. Before the class began, we went around the room and introduced ourselves. (This was not a good start. I had never had to do this in my spin class.) Several of the women were planning home births. I leaned over to one of them and whispered, "But how will you get an epidural?" She looked appalled and scooted a little farther away from me. When, at the end of the TWO-HOUR class, we began dancing in a circle and singing, "beautiful, bountiful me," I lumbered sulking out the door, and wondered if the bar next door would feel funny serving a visibly pregnant woman a beer.

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Last week, we asked readers to recommend must-reads on pregnancy and child-rearing. And readers responded in kind — we received more than 120 titles on topics from pregnancy to breast-feeding to health to sleep training to parenting. There was nothing scientific or even comprehensive about our poll — we just compiled the results.

What we discovered was summed up nicely by one commenter:

"Truth is, there are a billion books out there, and the best ones tend to be the most controversial. In the end, Mom is the expert and should never feel overwhelmed by what others say. Take everything the authors say with a grain of salt. No one book will work for everyone."

A few of the most popular titles recommended in The Baby Project comments are controversial.

Here are the Top 5 suggestions:

• Ina May's Guide to Childbirth by Ina May Gaskin
• The Baby Book by William, Martha, Robert and James Sears
• The Happiest Baby on the Block by Harvey Karp
• The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding by La Leche League International
• What To Expect When You're Expecting by Heidi Murkoff, Arlene Eisenberg & Sandee Hathaway

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Can we all agree on one thing? Having a baby is not just a fabulous, enriching experience that opens up your capacity for love and endless opportunities for personal growth.

It's also miserably hard work.

A baby is like the worst houseguest ever: endlessly demanding, keeping you up at all hours, needing to be fed and making a mess of the whole place.

And the little darling never leaves.

People don't talk about this enough. It's really hard, being a parent. At times, it's crushing. But you're never allowed to say this.

Admitting that the kids are wearing you down — even if you carefully point out that you're just going through a bad patch and will probably be fine in an hour — seems to be taken as some kind of statement that you don't love them.

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I'm a wimp when it comes to sharing. In fact, I wish you weren't even reading this right now. One of the reasons that I became a photographer, and then photo editor, is that I like to hide behind the camera, behind the keyboard, and not disclose too much of my personal life to strangers. But as one of the three blog hosts of The Baby Project, I've been inspired by the openness and honesty of our blog moms to share my own pregnancy story.

So yep. I'm pregnant. Right now, as we speak.

Much like Lateefah, I spent most of my adult life trying not to become pregnant. I didn't feel ready for the selflessness that being a mother desperately requires. I was still living my life, and wasn't quite ready to let that freedom go. A visit to the doctor a few years ago put things into perspective. During a regular check-up, the nurse taking my blood pressure asked how old I was and whether I had any children. When I told her I was 32 with no kids, her response was, "Honey, your eggs are old!" That line became a recurring joke among my friends whenever we started talking about age, family, career, etc. Inevitably, one of them would pull out the line "Honey, your eggs are old!" and we'd all have a good laugh.

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Over the past couple of weeks, we've gotten more than a few requests from readers to recommend some books on pregnancy and child-rearing.

Unfortunately, we haven't actually read many of these books ourselves. First of all, there are a gajillion of them. Second, none of the Baby Project blog hosts has reared any children yet (although two have babies soon to come!).

So we're punting it to you, our audience: What are the best books you've read about pregnancy and/or child-rearing? Tell us the name of the book, and why or how it affected you. It doesn't have to be recent — if Dr. Spock is still your man, tell us why.

We'll compile a list of the top choices. You've got one week — until Aug. 31 — to get in your recommendations. Please leave your thoughts in the comments section below. Remember, you're helping out future moms and new moms, so pick wisely.

Amanda Steen is a 2011 NPR summer intern who will be graduating from Ohio University this fall with a major in photojournalism. She and fellow intern Linda Thrasybule produced this documentary about a homebirth for the program "Intern Edition." In audio, photos and video, they present Shannon Earle's story of having a baby at home with a midwife.

**Note: This video shows images of live birth.

Babies. Babies. Babies. I've got babies on my mind.

I think my body has begun sending subliminal, instinctual messages to my brain that I need to start formulating a plan to have a baby. I'm only 20 years old! But I'm not the only one who thinks like this.

I have friends who are obsessed, friends who like to sift through racks of baby clothes at department stores with the anxious anticipation that one day they will mother a child. Where is this coming from? I used to be one of those people who complained about the likelihood of getting a seat right in front of a crying, wailing baby on a 15-hour flight. "Just my luck," I would think. But now? Sign me up!

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"Motherhood changes you." This statement is both a cliche and well deserving of that "well, DUH!" reaction you just gave it. But I don't think it's too far out there to say most mothers think of their lives in two halves: "BTK" (before the kid) and "ATK" (after the kid).

The transformation that happens once you become a mother is like metal being tempered — it's hard, hot, humbling work, even though it is ultimately fun and utterly amazing.

Unfortunately, before you have kids, you have no clue — no matter how clued in you are — of what's to come.

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Yesterday, All Things Considered ran the first part of a two-part round table with a group of parents (and one grandparent) to discuss child care. You can get descriptions of each participant on Part 1, which focuses on the emotional decisions of finding care and how it's a juggling act. Part 2 focuses on finances.

To tap into the hushed discussions about day care that take place alongside soccer fields or among trusted friends, All Things Considered co-host Michele Norris assembled a group of middle-class parents. (Part 2 of the conversation airs tonight on All Things Considered.) All are from Washington, D.C., where day care costs can be quite high.

But here's the conundrum: One thing that the group agrees is on is that nannies, babysitters and day care providers don't earn enough money based on what they do. And yet, the group also agrees that care costs too much money.

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Besides what the sex of the baby is, one thing that I'm constantly asked is how much time I'm taking off when I give birth to my baby. I'm due at the end of November.

In the U.S., federal law allows men and women to take three months. Some work places will allow for more, unpaid. But the law doesn't mandate that companies pay anyone time to spend with their babies — and many people simply can't afford to take time off.

So I was surprised to find out that almost every other country in the world — except for a few like Papua New Guinea and Lesotho — pays for either full maternity leave or a portion of it. It's either mandated that companies pay, or social security will dish it out (or it's a combination of both). Of course, the time allotted varies country to country. Some places, like the United Arab Emirates and Tunisia, give new moms 45 days or fewer.

As NPR's Phil Reeves reports tonight on All Things Considered, Sweden has some of the most generous parental leave laws in the world — and the government not only considers the mother, but also the father.

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As families prepare to welcome babies into their lives, one topic that inevitably has to be sorted out is child care.

Whether or not parents work outside the home, at some point they will have to turn to someone else to help watch their children. Will it be in a day care center or at home? Will a family hire a nanny or share a babysitter? And then, course, how will each family pay for it?

To dive into this issue, All Things Considered co-host Michele Norris gathered a group of parents (and one grandparent) at NPR's headquarters to talk about the logistical and emotional challenges of child care. (The conversation airs tonight on All Things Considered). All of them are from the Washington, D.C., area, where the cost of living is quite high.

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A number of moms in The Baby Project hoped for a natural birth, and wrote about their plans to avoid drugs during delivery. On the other hand, Ashley Charter wrote about the "amazing" epidural she received during the birth of her son.

We asked Dr. Rebecca Woo, a private practitioner in Virginia, to explain a bit more about the common drugs administered during labor and delivery, and tell us how and why they are used.

What is Pitocin and how does it work?

Pitocin (or pit) is a synthetic version of the hormone oxytocin. Oxytocin does a number of things — including stimulate warm and fuzzy maternal feelings of bonding — but mainly causes uterine contractions. Oxytocin is released naturally when a woman is in labor, in fact it drives labor. It can also be released during breast stimulation or sex.

Why is Pitocin administered, and what are the benefits of using it?

We use Pitocin to start labor if women need, or want, to be induced. In some cases, the natural pattern of labor is not moving as quickly as we would expect in a healthy labor, and the uterus needs some help to make stronger or more frequent contractions.

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One of the most oft-repeated stories of my own birth begins something like this: "We thought you were going to be a boy!"

That's not because my parents didn't want another girl, mind you — they'd already had three — but because my mother just knew, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that she was carrying her first boy. Why? Because, she tells me, she was "carrying low." For those who aren't familiar with old wives' tales, that's supposed to mean you're having a boy; carrying "high" means you're having a girl.

Most old wives' tales claim to be able to predict a baby's sex — the most common being the idea that a girl will "steal" her mother's beauty. You're having a girl if you "lose" your looks; if your face becomes fuller and rounder; or if you have a tough bout with morning sickness, for example.

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Today, Joanne Silberner has a piece on All Things Considered about postpartum depression and how surveys show that 1 in 7 new mothers in the U.S. have a prolonged period of overwhelming depression or anxiety after giving birth. She interviews one woman in the U.S. and one woman in Uganda who dealt with depression.

So here at the Baby Project, we were wondering how women who have just given birth can differentiate between the baby blues and postpartum depression — and when they should seek help.

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In August 2009, freelance photojournalist Toni Greaves traveled to rural Nepal on assignment for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation's Living Proof Project. This is the story she documented about birth in rural Nepal, and the country's efforts to combat their high maternal mortality rate.

What was it like for you covering this story?

Toni Greaves: Women in rural Nepal typically give birth in the family cow shed, so I expected that the birth would happen that way. In Nepal (and other places, frankly), when women are menstruating or giving birth, they're considered to be ritually polluted and must stay outside of the home, often in cow sheds or cement rooms near toilet facilities.

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