I'm not ready for this (birth)

The as-yet unborn pup rested uneasily within the waters of her Home. Pressed against the ever-present Others she was, subject to their squirms and kicks no matter how little they moved. So little room for them in here, though she didn't even know what "in here" was, only that it had been getting steadily smaller and less comfortable. Then the squeezing had begun, pressing her again and again against the Others. Though she was far too young and hadn't the capacity to realize, they should have been in a different position long before the contractions began, headfirst and ready to dive out into the world, but there was simply not enough room for them to have turned about as instinct demanded. This one was closest to where the squeezing was forcing them, but facing sideways to it rather than right way out. The pressing did little but compress her most uncomfortably until the Home suddenly jostled, shaking them about and suddenly she was no longer sideways to where she was being guided, but frontways, and squeezed painfully all around, until suddenly she was released with a flood of red she couldn't see, into a cold, bright Openness. She squalled a fierce protest at the change, black-marked face whipping tremblingly back and forth in an effort to find.... something. But what? She could not see, did not know what seeing was. Could not hear, and didn't understand sound. All she knew was the cold and the Alone.