angry post that will do no good

Dammit, I KNOW what I'm talking about. A woman in labor who is feeling her labor pain has a brain response that releases endorphins and relaxing, pain-relieving hormones that help cope with her pain and lessen the trauma of the birth for the child, who also recieves the hormones. It's a nerve response, not a muscle response, so it doesn't happen near to the same extent or at all when the mom opts to use medication to cope with her pain. If you're going to wave it in my face that the mom next door to you screamed with her natural childbirth and you had a pleasant time with your epidural, at least get your facts straight. I'm not trying to show off because I answered your challenging question with an honest response that I didn't scream at all. Just because I have my reasons to do it differently doesn't mean I think less of you for doing it the way that you decided was best for yourself, so please drop the defensive loftiness.

This is a response to a situation where I couldn't remember the specifics and therefore sounded like a baseless idiot on the subject. So I have to tell myself I am not an idiot, despite my embarrasment and the arrogant attitudes of this person and and her husband. Why is it that I can have good converstations with others on subjects we don't agree on (I don't care if you had an epidural or not! So sue me if I get excited about learning about different aspects of childbirth!), but if I mention anything interesting to me that I have recently learned or experienced with them, it becomes a cold and hostile atmosphere? IT MAKES ME ANGRY. And I doubt it will ever change...if our relationship, strained as it may be, is going to survive at all I will have to learn to just not talk. I will be a head-nodding "mm-hmm, isn't that nice"-er.

That's probably what they think about dealing with me, except I doubt they have these stupid re-hashing episodes, because obviously they only say the right things that they mean fully, and I'm the only one who thinks maybe she messed up and has to replay the whole stupid situation in her head wondering if she really comes off as stuck-up as they make her feel. We are the classic Mommy Wars.