“The moment a child is born, the mother is also born. She never existed before. The woman existed, but the mother, never. A mother is something absolutely new.” – Rajneesh On January 4th 2010, my husband, Chris, and I found out we were expecting our first child and thus began our almost year-long journey of becoming parents. We read pregnancy…
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Facebook Removes Post about Breastfeeding {Discrimination on Women and Families}
This picture and story were shared on Birth Without Fear Facebook and received a lot of love. Unfortunately it was reported and removed by Facebook, even though it does not violate their Terms of Service. It is a beautiful story of a mother helping another mother. {Stacy} I am currently working on my certification to be a birth doula. My…
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Food Budgets and Meal Planning {Challenges of Motherhood}
Food. It’s important (just a little) and we all have to buy it. Most of us have to cook it as well (or at least make sure someone in the house cooks it). But when a family sits down to budget – or figure out where the money went – we can usually plan on a large sum going to…
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Finally a Diagnosis {Endometriosis: A Series}
I got my first period when I was nine years old. I had no idea what was happening to me because no one had explained menstrual cycles to me yet. But why would they?? I was nine, for Pete’s sake!! I had to have my period explained to me by the school nurse because it started in the middle of…
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Mothering the Mother, Part II: How Postpartum Care Helps Us Love Our Bodies
“A safe pregnancy is a human right for every woman regardless of race or income.” – Amnesty International “I have horrible [postpartum] stretch marks that I feel the need to cover and of course my breasts are nowhere near where I would like them to be.” – Courtney, Beauty Revealed Project. So here I am, sitting cross-legged with a computer…
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Plus Sized Unassisted Home Water Birth
The last weeks of my pregnancy were kind of crazy. After a perfectly happy and uneventful pregnancy it majorly sucked to have to spend the last weeks trying to arrange a care provider after my midwife DROPPED ME for refusing an ultrasound to “check for IUGR” when there was no reason to suspect that the baby was having issues. At…
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I Will Birth My Baby {Out Of My Vagina!}
I am STRONG because I spent 9. 5 years since my first babies traumatic birth educating myself and becoming informed. 7. 5 years since my sons unnecessary, failed induction leading to my second cesarean, I learnt to trust my body. I am STRONG because I knew I wanted a VBA2C, I also wanted a Homebirth as I had wanted to…
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Staying Ahead of the Mess {Challenges of Motherhood}
Let me start with a big fat disclaimer. I am not a perfect housewife. Pretty far from it actually! But, as time goes on (7 years cohabitation, almost 5 years of marriage, 2 years as a mom) I am finding what helps me keep a “groove” so that the housework does not drown me. Because lets face it – most…
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{BWF Self Love Project}
I decided to start a project. Something similar to our {I Am Strong} posts that we share on the blog and Facebook. What’s fun about this is it will be specifically for our Instagram. {BWF Self Love Project} We are encouraging mothers to take a step back, stop that negative self talk, and love who they are in the moment.…