I was driving home from my third birth in five days, rocking out to a little “Timber”, when suddenly it hit me: Ke$ha and Pitbull were singing about labor! I have learned so much from them that I’ve been able to apply to other areas of my life. What new wisdom could I gather from these musical poets?

“Let’s make a night you won’t remember, I’ll be the one you won’t forget” — Clearly, Ke$ha is referencing the phenomenon of the experiencing self vs. the remembering self as described in Daniel Kahneman’s book, Thinking, Fast and Slow. Right after birth, women often marvel at how anyone would choose to go through labor more than once; Kahneman and Ke$ha explain that the remembering self is quick to gloss over the details of how long and intense the experience was, and focuses on the beautiful baby at the end instead.

“I have ’em like Miley Cyrus, clothes off” — Ideally, a woman should feel very safe during labor. When her privacy is respected, she should feel free to labor in whatever state of dress (or undress) she wants and assume whatever positions are most comfortable (for example, “twerking in their bras and thongs”).

“Face down, booty up” — Pitbull is clearly familiar with the ‘open knee-chest’ position, which is very helpful for repositioning babies who may be posterior (sunny-side up) or asynclitic (head tilted to one side or the other). 

“She say she won’t, but I bet she will” — All women, at some point in their labor, have moments of doubt that they can accomplish the task at hand. Many women will come to several points where they are sure they will not make it through. Again and again, I see women regather their strength and press on through to the end. Pitbull has similar confidence in laboring women.

“Swing your partner round and round, end of the night, it’s going down” — Another great position for laboring is the “slow dance”, in which the mother holds onto her partner’s neck and they sway back and forth. “Swinging” may be a little too vigorous for many mothers, but keeping upright and moving will certainly help things “going down” by the “end of the night”.

“We about to clown. Why? ‘Cause it’s about to go down.” — I was disappointed to learn that this line is not, in fact, “we about to crown”, because that would have been really awesome. I’m going to keep singing it that way.

Stay tuned for part 2 of this series, where I discuss what can be learned about the second stage of labor from Johnny Cash’s “Ring of Fire”.