When I was 37 weeks pregnant with my eldest son, in severe pain from a bad back and sweating buckets through a heat wave in a tiny Manhattan apartment, my midwife asked me a seemingly innocuous question. Do you want me to check you? I quickly consented, eager to know if there was any progress or end in sight to my misery. 3.5 centimeters! Both of our eyes widened as she told me I would never make my due date. I left the appointment elated, quickly calling my mother and tellin