As a schoolteacher expecting my first child, I had attended natural-childbirth classes. One of my classmates was in the hospital in labor at the same time I was.
She quickly requested drugs to ease her pain, while I gave birth aided only by my husband's coaching. When the nurses rolled me out of the delivery room, I spotted a chalkboard. Beside my classmate's name was an A-; next to mine was a B+.
"Alan, look at that!" I complained to my husband. "She took all the drugs they'd give her and made an A-. I did it naturally and only got a B+." My patient husband rolled his eyes. "Kathy," he said, "that's your blood type."
