Frederick Leboyer

This tragic brow, these closed eyes, eyebrows raised and knotted.

Birth may be a matter of a moment but it is a unique one.

These hands which stretch out, implore, beg, then rise to the head in a gesture of calamity.

This howling mouth, this head which rolls back and tries to escape.

Yes, hell exists. It is not a fairy tale. One indeed burns there. This hell is not at the end of life. It is here. At the beginning. Hell is what the infant must experience before he gets to us.