Donna Lebano was at a Chicago Blackhawks playoff hockey game last week, and it was a good one. So when she went into labor during the second period, it would have been tough for the ardent hockey fan to leave ... so she didn't.

She was there with her three sisters for a girls' night out. According to WGNTV, she was only eight months along and thought she still had weeks to go, but her son had other ideas. And Donna had other ideas than most women in labor probably would have -- she wasn't about to let his impending arrival get in the way of her seeing the end of the game. 

Pitocin is too often given to women while at the hospital in labor. Watch almost any mainstream documentary type show on birth and you'll lose count how many times they say "pit." Pitocin is a drug. It's a synthetic hormone meant to mimic your natural oxytocin. We all know that nothing is as good as the real thing. Pitocin gives women more intense and therefore unnatural contractions. It tries to speed the body along in labor when it's not ready, often stalling it, and can lead to a c-section that probably wouldn't have happened if Pitocin was never given in the first place. Natural birth advocates know that there is an evil side to inductions and this drug, and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) have finally revealed the truth after an in-depth study.

Pitcoin is bad. It has adverse effects on newborns. It's dangerous for our babies and puts their health at risk.

Jenna Bush Hager, who gave birth to Margaret Laura 'Mila' Hager on April 13, recently shared her birth story with the Today show, and it turns out -- Bush actually went into labor at her baby shower. What are the odds?!

When I was a mother-to-be, one of my biggest fears was when and where I would go into labor. God forbid it happen when I was stuck down in the New York City subway or on a rainy night when there wasn't an available cab in sight.

Ultimately, I didn't have to worry about it. I had to have a C-section. Though, I was bitching out my building super about why he didn't let the Home Depot guy deliver blinds to my apartment right before my doctor called telling me to get to the hospital. It was surreal, but nothing like having your water break in the middle of your first grader's field trip to the zoo. I love hearing those wacky stories from other moms. Check out the 27 bizarre, surprising, and funny things our CafeMom members were doing when they went into labor.

If you don't give birth within an hour of getting to the hospital, clearly you are doing it wrong. Faster, mama, faster! Drugs, drugs, drugs! Speed it up! That's how it seems sometimes. Induction. Pitocin. Cervidil. And then there's cytotec. It used to be used a lot until the FDA said misoprostol (which is cytotec) is not approved to induce labor or soften the cervix. (It's approved to prevent ulcers.) But it's still used in L&D because the makers filed an investigation. Guess who just reinvented themselves? Misoprostol! This new form is supposedly faster than ever.

Brace yourselves, mamas, because synthetics in the labor and delivery room often mean the intensity of birth goes from 1 to 10 in minus two seconds, and if this gets approved, I think it will mean increased complications, c-sections, and more and more women and doctors not trusting our ability to birth our babies naturally. This is why we fear birth ... because too many think we can't do it.

Back when I was "preparing" for labor, I read all kinds of helpful stuff about managing labor pain. Like how I should practice by holding an ice cube in my hand as long as I could. Really? As someone who has Been To The Mountain And Back, that was totally unhelpful. Holding ice prepares you for labor pains my ass. Not the same thing, people! Not the same thing.

So what IS helpful? An epidural, obviously. But perhaps you want to attempt an unmedicated birth. Or maybe you just want to postpone that epidural as long as possible -- people have good reasons for doing that. Here are some pain management tips that will at least help you through the first few hours of labor before things get really insane.

I think it's pretty safe to say I was not prepared for labor. Oh, I sure thought I was. I read lots of books, and I did exercises, and I did loads of visualization (i.e., daydreamed about how Zen-like I would be in the face of contractions -- unmedicated!). But as long as you're unwilling to face how mind-blowingly painful and unpredictable labor can be, you're going to get your ass kicked.

I got my ass kicked.

Literally. I had back labor, which felt like a sledge hammer slamming into my tail bone over and over again. I did not anticipate that! It made me do crazy, crazy things. 

I thought being in labor for 24 hours was pretty exhausting, but I guess I really can't complain after hearing about a British woman who endured labor for nine weeks. Yes, nine weeks. NINE freakin' WEEKS, people!

Twenty-four-year-old Debbie Mills dealt with contractions from the 28th week of her pregnancy right up until when she gave birth to her son, Owen, at 37 weeks.

OMG. The poor woman had contractions for an entire nine weeks. Sorry, but I just can't seem to get past this one.