Telling a pregnant woman in the "home stretch" that birth will happen any day now is like saying "Any day now I'm going to give you a wonderful gift and take that fifty pound weight off your back. First, though, I'm going to punch you in the gut for a few hours. I won't tell you how long the beating will last, but it will probably be somewhere between six and sixteen hours. Probably."

The hardest part is the not knowing. I could handle a lot more waiting if I knew when the waiting would end and a lot more pain if I knew how many hours of it to expect. It's like a cross between Christmas and getting picked up by the Gestapo in the dead of night.

Here are some suggestions for surviving the waiting:

1. Be pessimistic. From your first glimpse of that double line on the pee stick, assume that you'll give birth at 42 weeks (except when packing your hospital bag, which you should do, pessimistically, at about week 34). That way you won't feel like the world is frozen in time when you wake up, still egg-shaped, the day after your due date. (First-timers are especially likely to pass their due dates, by the way.)

2. Stay busy. Like many pregnant working women, I left my job a couple of weeks before my first daughter's due date just to be safe. And sat around an empty apartment staring at tiny socks and an empty crib. By the time I was pregnant with number three, I knew to keep my mind off that pot that wouldn't boil while I watched it.

3. Stop counting. Most women have practice contractions, also called Braxton Hicks contractions, toward the end of pregnancy. They're how the uterus stretches its muscles for the big show, and they feel like less painful, less frequent labor surges. They increase in power and frequency toward the end of pregnancy, and will drive an attentive woman crazy. If you can avoid analyzing your every twitch and discharge like a fortune teller gazing at tea leaves, you won't feel quite so frustrated when they taper off or don't lead to immediate birth.

4. Don't rush. First-time pregnant women are especially likely to have long labors. Most are at least 12 hours long (or longer). So there's no need to rush to the hospital or page your homebirth midwife at the first sign of action--wait until you're sure. Knowing you have time to act once labor gets going allows you the luxury of following the advice in suggestion number three. You don't really need to focus your full attention on labor until it's difficult to focus on anything else. (April's birth story in the Bradley chapter of My Birth Choice gives a great example of how to wait for that point in labor.)

5. Get positive. A great way to pass time when you run out of projects is to read empowering birth stories (like the ones that will make up My Birth Choice). Hearing how other women overcame the challenges of birth will help you believe your body is also capable of amazing things.

Good luck and hang in there. You're going to do great at this (any day now)! Tee hee hee.

Have any tips for getting through the end of pregnancy that I haven't posted here? Leave a comment and tell us all about it!

I agree especially with the tip to keep yourself busy. Plan outings or special treats that you won't get a chance to do after baby comes, like a movie with friends, a date with hubby, and spa treatments for yourself!

Personally, if I had it all to do over again, I would start Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone about a week before I was due and then try to finish the serious before baby comes. Ah that would pass the time!

I love Chanda's Harry Potter idea! If I were pregnant again, I would think of my due date as 42 weeks. I would play a really long video game, such as one of the Final Fantasy games. Trying to finish a game that can take 100+ hours before baby arrives would make me not mind at all if baby were a little late!