To conclude the main points:

1. The risk of contracting herpes from an infected partner is unknown, but does appear more likely with longer relationships and thus more instances of exposure. People with vaginas are more likely to contract HSV due to easily viral penetrable mucosa.
   • Using condoms and having a partner on antivirals does reduce transmission rates, but does not eliminate.
2. For a pregnant person who already has recurrent HSV before pregnancy, risk of transmission to the baby is >1%.
3. For a pregnant person who contracts HSV late in pregnancy transmission is 30-50%.
   • Of those baby’s infected 45% of cases will not involve the central nervous system (CNS) nor disseminate through the body. Almost 100% of those cases will have a normal outcome (normal developmental milestones by age 24 months) when treated and remaining on antivirals.
   • 55% of cases will involve the CNS and disseminate through the body. Of these cases, even with antiviral treatment morbidity is upwards of 20%. The rest suffer permeant illness and disabilities.     

     First and foremost, what is herpes and what are the risks of becoming infected? Genital herpes comes from the sexually transmitted herpes simplex virus largely as either HSV-1 or HSV-2. HSV-1 is typically seen as an oral infection, but can be transferred and cause a genital infection. HSV-2 is typically seen in the genitalia. HSV, when active can cause one or more sores that blister and break taking sometimes over a week to heal. Most people remain asymptomatic or mistake symptoms for another skin condition like acne. Even when no active lesions are present, the person still sheds the virus 10% of the time in consistently asymptomatic people, and 20% of the time in symptomatic people. According to the CDC 11.9% of people are known to be infected with the virus, but 87.4% of people who have the virus never receive a clinical diagnosis(CDC Herpes Facts, 2019). This is largely because the CDC no longer recommends proactively screening for herpes in a standard STD screen. They found that someone diagnosed when not having active symptoms will on average not change their sexual behavior such as wearing a condom or remaining abstinent (CDC Screening, 2019).

They say smell is one of the strongest senses tied to memory. I think music is even stronger. 

Think of when a song comes on that you haven't heard in forever, and bam you're right back to jamming at your middle school homecoming dance. 
You know all the words, even though you can't remember geometry; but your jam, it will forever be in your soul. 

I had a specific Pandora station I listened to towards the end of my pregnancy and during my birth. This is now my daughter's station, as she is familiar with all the songs. When we played this familiar music to her in the early postpartum period it soothed her better than any shushing. 

One song in particular we call the baby song - What a Day (2008) by Greg Laswell.
"What a day to welcome a baby to begin breathing." 
​
This lyric stuck with me and I knew I needed to hear it while I was in labor. And there was a time during my labor I had this song on repeat. It was my day to welcome my baby to begin breathing. Whenever this song comes up on our Pandora station I am brought right back to a very special time surrounding the introduction of my baby to this world. 

Should you make a labor playlist? It's up to you! You never know what you might want to listen to, and you might not want to listen to anything.

I had an Enya playlist all set up, and I listened to it a bit, but found I actually wanted my normal playlist on with my lyrical songs I could get into. If you have time and enjoy making playlists, go for it! But if it's stressing you out to have one more thing on your "must do" list. Skip it. Your doula probably has a playlist set up anyways ;)

My top baby playlist songs:

• What a Day (2008) - Greg Laswell 
• And Then You - Greg Laswell
• Days Go On - Greg Laswell
• Yesterday was Hard on All of Us - Fink
• Foot in the Door - Fink
• Hanging by a Thread - Aaron Espe
• All I want - Dawn Golden
• Young and Beautiful - Lana Del Rey
• Every Kingdom Album - Ben Howard
• Heartbeats - Jose Gonzalez
• More than Life - Whitley
• Broken Brights - Angus Stone
• For You - Tin Sparrow

Not the most standard labor songs, but these touched my heart and will forever bring me back to the birth of my daughter in our little Colorado apartment during the snow of winter.