Thursday September 22nd 2011 I was 38 weeks pregnant with my first baby, had finished my last day at work on the previous Sunday as a midwife and was looking forward to relaxing for the last couple of weeks of my pregnancy. Most things were ready for the baby’s arrival, but I still needed the car seat put into the…
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I Am Wholly Here: The Healing Water Birth of Finn
There was a moment, just before Ellie reached a gloved hand inside of me, that I wondered if I was cheating. If my body was incapable of truly beginning labor on its own. 6 centimeters dilated, completely effaced, 42 weeks with him in my womb. I ached to feel the natural progression of things – the dance of intensifying rushes…
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Roaring for Aurora: A Hospital Birth Story
My entire pregnancy had been spent preparing my body and mind to bring a wonderful little girl into the world. Including the fact that as a first time mom, she would probably arrive later than her expected due date of April 10th! So in order to prepare for her arrival sometime in April I left my job on the last…
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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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Complete Pack of 3 Boys: Connor’s Birth Story
With each of my pregnancies, I have changed my goals for labor slightly. For my first pregnancy, I was concerned with having a totally natural birth without any medication. My labor was incredibly long and slow, and by the end I felt like a zombie lying in bed waiting in fear of the next contraction. With my second pregnancy, I…
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Selah’s Birth Story
Autumn shares with us the birth story of her fifth child. “Honey, we are pregnant!” And just like that, baby number five was on the way. Actually, it had taken over a year of trying after number four, but once that test showed positive, I was ecstatic. I’m sort of a pregnancy, birth and breastfeeding junkie, and we always wanted…
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A Home Birth Story
Robin shares the story of her daughter’s birth at home. Baby H’s birth story really starts with the birth of her older brother two years earlier. I had a very fast labor with him; and by the time I realized I was actually in labor, I barely made it to the hospital before he arrived. Despite him being born about…
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Hypnobirthing: A Drug-Free Birth Story
Eva tells us about the drug-free birth of her first child. At the advice of some friends, I prepared for my first baby by I taking Hypnobirthing classes and listening to the Rainbow Relaxation track daily. I did yoga weekly, had an affirmations wall, drank raspberry leaf tea in the third trimester, and ate dates. I hired a great and…
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A Long-Awaited Natural Birth: My VBA2C
Michaela shares with us the story of her son’s birth. My husband and I had our first child in 2006, when we were 18 and 17 years old respectively. I had a healthy pregnancy with no complications, but my doctor suspected fetal macrosomia and said that I wasn’t progressing at 37 weeks, and subsequently insisted I have a c-section because…