Opinion | No shame in the pain of a difficult pregnancy

My butt cheeks throb in pain, bruised from too many shots over far too long. Today, as I take the little hormone-filled syringe and inject it into my muscles one last time, I won't wince or grimace. All I'll think about is the goal.

I've been giving myself daily progesterone intramuscular injections for the past six months. The purpose of these shots is to aid my pregnancy. Because I have previously had premature labour, my doctor put me on these shots early on. I'm not sure whether they will help, but I am deathly afraid of having a premature baby again and would do anything to avoid the neonatal intensive care unit.

As anyone who has ever had progesterone shots - or any kind of oil-based intramuscular injections - will tell you, they are no walk in the park. I often wake up in agonising pain. It feels like someone has punched me a million times in the same place and keeps punching me there.

Nevertheless, I soldier on because I want a normal delivery this time. I want my baby to be of normal weight, not the size of an iPad. I want to hold her in my arms, rather than wave at her from outside a plastic box. In my pursuit of the normal, I do what's not normal - shooting a foreign substance into my body every day.

A friend recently remarked that it was too bad my pregnancies have been so difficult. When I told her I was on daily progesterone shots, she looked at me with both pity and disgust. "How can you have babies this way? It's just … unnatural," she said.

Suddenly, I felt like Lance Armstrong. I instantly put my head down. With all these hormones, am I cheating in the baby race?