Previously by Carly Lane. Growing up, I can’t remember a time when I wasn’t surrounded by birth. I’m rarely a latchkey kid who frequently comes home to an empty house at the end of a school day. My little sister and I make the trek home from the bus stop, let ourselves in, and ease our backpacks from our aching shoulders. Our mother greets us from wherever she was in the house, asks us about our…

In the hospital, they give me what one of the nurses calls “flu in a bag.” The description fits. Magnesium sulfate, or mag, truly makes me feel awful. I’m seasick, and I can’t eat solid food, and my hospital room has no window, and my baby might be in danger. They give me the mag to stop my 14-week-early contractions, which it does, but they can’t keep me on it for more than a couple…

To Prevent Changelings, seek a basal body temperature as cold as iron or a virgin woman's suffering. To Ensure The Birth Of A Child With A Caul, A Most Fortuitous Blessing, seek to conceive within 12-24 hours of ovulation or touching the cloak of a master thief. To Ensure Your Child Is A Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son, abandon your daughters by the banks of a river with only a ring and a blanket as markers…