Excerpted from Birth as an American Rite of Passage
The Prep
This friend of mine and I had spent a lot of time talking...about IVs for example. So when the nurse said, "I'm going to put an IV in your arm," and she left the room to go get it, I said, "Laura, why are you letting her do this? You said you weren't going to have one." She looked at me with this real confused expression on her face and she said "I don't know." The nurse stuck her with an IV. She was given an enema. She was shaved and everything, and she just sat there and let it be done to her.
-Kim Lozenski
The "prep" is a multistep procedure that usually includes: (1) separation of the woman from her partner, as he is asked to go fill out papers while she is ushered into the "prep" room; (2) replacement of the woman's clothes with a hospital gown; (3) shaving the pubic hair of the woman in labor; and (4) the administration of an enema. These procedures all take place in the "prep room" or the labor room, one right after the other, but for the sake of clarity I will discuss each one separately.
© Robbie Davis-Floyd PhD, Used with Permission
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