contributed via Creative Reporter by Michelle Perry, mother of 4 beautiful children and the wife (of 9 years) of one very lucky man.

I remember thinking I would never make it. I knew I would, but I remember thinking I wouldn't. When he took his first breath and let out his first little cry I nearly exploded with joy and elation, which were - I must admit - responses as much to the fact that the pain was over as to the realization that my new son was here. It's a feeling no woman can explain, and even if we could no woman who hasn't been through it will ever be able to understand. To see your newborn child's face for the first time. To hold him in your arms. To see his tiny heart beat 140 times per minute in the soft spot on his head.

Some women say you forget the pain once the baby is finally there, but that's a far cry from the truth. You don't forget it. You'll never forget it. Every waking moment you can call back that pain like it was yesterday. It's a memory etched in your mind and on you heart, and it's the reason mothers love their children the way they do. Unconditionally. You don't forget the pain, it just fades into a byproduct of the most beautiful moment of your life. It becomes, in that instant, worth it. You know in that split second when your child takes his first breath that it was all worth it.