As a family doctor, I’ve spent a lifetime at both bookends of life — welcoming new arrivals and accompanying people at the end of their journeys. Over time, I’ve come to see how closely these moments mirror one another. The same emotional currents that Elisabeth Kübler-Ross described in dying — denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance — also flow through birth and the making of a family. As with the stages of dying, these emotions can appear at any time and in any order.