"By writing my story I am not saying that my experience is, or should be, the same experience as anyone else who has been through the same things I have been through. Maybe my experience will help someone, maybe it won’t. At the end of the day, I am recounting things as they’ve happened to me..."
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Hypnobirthing Through Horrible Back Labor: A VBAC Story
I have been laboring for an entire day. Lying in the bathtub completely relaxed listening to peaceful music and meditating. I hear the door open quietly. I open one eye and take a peek. My oldest son Cash is sneaking in. I close my eye and get back to THE work of relaxation. Feeling a surge coming, I know it…
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Eloise’s Birth Story: Finding Healing & Hope
By the time I became pregnant with my second child, I knew the kind of birth I wanted. I had spent most of my life hating my body. For not being thin enough. For not being pretty enough. For not being good enough. I hated my body for its infertility and, most of all, for the miscarriage that I had…
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Embracing the Unexpected: Akash’s Birth Story
Life has a funny way of taking what we plan and completely turning it on its head. Akash’s birth was no exception to this rule. Throughout 2016, William and I had taken several leaps of faith. However, even in the midst of moving hectically four times, navigating an unexpected job change for William, and rolling with life’s other twists and…
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Strong and Beautiful and Nothing to Regret
When I first found out I was pregnant, I knew immediately that I wanted a natural, drug free birthing experience. Months leading up to the birth, I was reading birthing books and articles, Mike (my husband) and I practiced labor positions and relaxation techniques and I felt like I could totally tackled this labor like it was nothing more than…
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A 45 Minute Home Water Birth
I had four hospital births, all with an epidural. That’s what I thought you were supposed to do when you had a baby – get an epidural and escape from the pain. No one likes pain, so why not skip that part? My first birth was at 41 weeks and three days after my water broke. The second birth was…
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A Baby Who Cried: Birthing Without a Plan
All three of my births were far from empowering experiences. I never felt like some sort of superhero. I never felt strong. In fact, after my daughter’s birth, I think I just barely showed up for the others. I checked myself out, terrified of the pain and what was going to happen in the hospital. I mentally stepped out of…
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Our Home Birth, Turned Hospital
We were having an amazing homebirth with our midwife team. I had reached 9 1/2 cm, and my body was ready to push. What we didn’t know was that Emma-Leigh had turned “sunny side up” and her head was creating a lip on my cervix that was swelling with each contraction. I swelled all the way down to 6cm, but…
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I Am Strong – Enduring 30-Plus Hours of Full Blown Labor
I am strong because when I was in labor, I was in back labor for nine hours and wasn’t progressing so I had to go home. I am strong because after laboring another 10 hours at home I went to the doctor to get checked and was in full blown labor but only dilated to 3 cm. I am strong because I…