I was 18 when I gave birth to Ella. I had absolutely no idea about pregnancy or giving birth, I was terrified and very unprepared. I had a fairly quick drug free labour but spent the whole time in bed on my back, bub was in a bad position and had become stuck, I pushed for almost 3hrs before she…
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A Shanghai Hospital Birth Story
From the time those two little pink lines appeared, my pregnancy had been so surprisingly easy and smooth. In fact, whenever I was asked, at various points throughout the forty-plus weeks of gestation, how pregnancy was treating me, I felt a bit guilty answering honestly, “idyllic.” It was only when forty-one weeks passed with barely the smallest hiccup of a…
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Cord Clamping {Give Me All My Blood!}
The Third Stage of Labor is one that is often forgotten. This is the span of time between the birth of the baby and the expulsion of the placenta. The typical medical birth looks like this for the third stage: baby emerges, cord is clamped immediately, baby is taken by a nurse to a warmer, mother is injected with pitocin, cord…
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Ava’s Story {TGA: Transposition of the Great Arteries; Open Heart Surgery at 3 Days Old}
Let me start by telling you a little bit about our pregnancy. We had an ultrasound at 11 weeks because of mild bleeding, which turned out to be a symptom of marginal placenta previa (a condition in which the placenta covers a portion of the cervix and if it doesn’t clear a c-section would be the only way to safely…
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A Valentine’s Day Unplanned Unassisted Homebirth
I was due Valentine’s Day but I never expected to go into labor that day. It’s an estimate – not an eviction date. My other 2 pregnancies had gone into the 41st week, and I fully expected this one would too. I felt great! I even wrote to a friend the day before “I could go another month!”. So when…
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The Birth Story of Finley Nathaniel {Planned Homebirth, Unplanned Unassisted}
I never imagined I would have an unbelievable birth story to share. I prayed for an easy, fast birth – who doesn’t! – but didn’t really think it was something my body could do. On Wednesday January 16th, I began feeling different enough to tell Michael that a baby would be here by Friday. Nothing painful or distracting, but I…
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Barely Made It {Military Hospital}
I was never one of those people that originally thought I wanted to have an all-natural birth. In fact I remember saying why would you go through all that pain when you can get an epidural? Would you want your leg broken without pain medication?! How dumb was I? LOL Anyways I went through with that mentality with the pregnancy…
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A Fast Hospital Birth with an ObGyn and Doula
In April 2012, we had an unmedicated hospital birth with zero interventions, save for a single dose of antibiotic that I wish I had refused. I spent the day shopping with hubby, got a manicure and pedicure, a massage, went out to dinner and visited my best friend who had just delivered her son. I did all this without a…
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A Fast Hospital Birth with a Doula and Nurse
I am a military wife who had high expectations for my second labor and delivery after a not-so-great experience of an induction (selfishly chosen) with my first baby at 40 weeks. I chose to be induced the first time on my EDD so that my husband could be there for it, as he was leaving for 5 months of training.…