Sweet baby Jane, this is how you came to be. Long before you were here, you were loved and wanted, not only by Mommy and Daddy, but by everyone in the family. I still remember when we found out I was pregnant – you were only the size of a poppy seed at the time, a tiny but very precious poppy seed. It…
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Dear Raegan, A Birth Story Letter
Dear Raegan, You are beautiful, and I love you to the ends of the earth. I had so much fear upon learning we were pregnant again. Between finances, balancing life, and figuring out how I was bringing you into the world, I was nervous. You were not planned, but you were loved from the minute we found out you existed.…
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Peregrine’s Birth Story: From Home to Hospital
An eternal 12 days after my due date, which contained both moments of patience and absolute cry-my-face-off, hormonal battiness, a complete lunar eclipse, two stretch-and-sweeps, two ultrasounds, and the looming likeliness of medical induction, it was finally starting to look like I was in labour. I had been having short, manageable contractions about 15 to 20 minutes apart for the…
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Rueger’s Birth: Learning to Give Into the Power of a Woman’s Body
First of all, I’m writing this on his second birthday. His birth is rather fresh in my memory even though so much time has passed. At about six AM on New Year’s Day, 2014, I started having mild contractions five to ten minutes apart. He was due on December 31, so it was exciting to think this might be the…
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I Am Strong {Emily Weber}
I am strong because at the age of 19, my husband and I became pregnant with our first child. I am strong because at our first ultrasound we were told that our son would be born with “myelomeningocele”. The most common and most severe form of Spina Bifida. I am strong because on July 05, 2011, I went in for a…
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Accidental Unassisted Birth, Down Syndrome, Mom Catches Baby Born En Caul
My pregnancy with Blake was discovered in October 2014; I had noticed clothes not fitting well for a while and was having to pull my t-shirts down when wearing Tyler on my back. I didn’t think much of it until one day I posted in a tandem nursing Facebook group, complaining profusely about how painful it was to feed the…
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A Healing Surgical Birth
In 2009 (with my first pregnancy) I didn’t know how to navigate the system and advocate for myself. I knew I wanted a vaginal birth. And since everyone one of my family members have had successful pregnancies and deliveries I knew it was obvious I would too. So when I found myself very pregnant nearly 43 weeks with ruptured membranes…
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Willamena’s Birth
Adoptive mother Davney Nowak shares the birth story of her first biological daughter – an inspiring natural childbirth at a birth center. I married my high school sweetheart. Every life choice we made was made with our future children in mind. We got married at 22, and immediately started to try to start our family. I had always been birth- and baby-obsessed. I…
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I Am Strong – Overcoming Abuse and Addiction for Motherhood
I am strong because I fell pregnant with my first son at 14 from sexual abuse. After being physically abused and pushed down a flight of stairs I lost my son at 17 weeks gestation, I was torn. I went off the rails and off the grid, developing a drug addiction and experiencing the worst drop in my mental health yet. I…