With my first pregnancy I remember being both in love with the new life I was carrying – and being terrified. Terrified of childbirth and whether I'd be able to manage a diaper or figure out how to bathe a slippery baby, or whether I'd really even like being a mom.

There was no need to worry. What I, and millions of moms before and after me, discovered, is that the magic of a new baby makes it all worth it. Aside from the fact that they are yours and you love them, there's so much that's wonderful and special about a newborn.

Bonding in the sense of learning how to be a mom and care for an infant may not be instantaneous or easy, but the connection is still there immediately.

"With my first son it happened the moment they laid him on my stomach and he looked up at me with his huge dark eyes," says Kelli Estes of Woodinville, Wash. "Somehow I knew the soul inside of him was one I've always known."

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