I am strong because my husband and I did not expect to have a baby this young (I was 22 and he was 20). We were not ready finically, but we made it work. I am strong because I got Medicaid at nearly 6 months and was assigned an OB who did not support my decision for natural birth. I am…
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The Birth of a Family {A Story of Foster Care Adoption}
My family story starts with a single mother of a sweet boy. When my son Zane was 14 months old I found myself suddenly parenting solo. During that 3 year journey I never gave up hope that I would have a Godly husband for myself and a Godly father for Zane. While feeling lonely and abandoned, I held onto several…
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Quick Unassisted Home Birth
The day before Lucia arrived was such a wonderful and memorable day; I will begin her birth story there. Elsie and I went to a birthday party at the movie theatre that morning, which was much needed. I had been feeling like her and I needed to spend some time together, just the two of us. After the show we…
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Hospital Birth turned Emergency C-Section
While my husband was away at basic training I was raising two sons, working and going to college full time. I had made the decision to not get an epidural with my third child due to the side effects I had the previous times. I was laboring from Friday to Monday. The hospital would not admit me because I was three days…
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Hospital Trauma and Healing at Home: A Story of Two Births (Part I)
**Trigger Warning: This post narrates a traumatic birth.** Sarah Robertson-Barnes, former contributor to the Pregnant and/or Parenting Through Adoption/Infertility/Loss (PAIL) blog collective and writer of Little Chicken Nuggets, shares two birth stories with us. With grace and humor she here describes the challenges of being pregnant after infertility and loss, and the traumatic hospital birth of her son, HGB. Tomorrow, Sarah…
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The Birth of Hazel Ann
I began having a few random contractions on October 31st, this was the day I hoped our baby wouldn’t be born. It’s not that I hate Halloween, I just didn’t want a holiday baby. I felt good throughout most of the day, a contraction here and there but nothing to think about too much. I left work to help Ida’s…
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VBAC Plan Turns into a Healing Repeat C-Section
I had a very traumatic cesarean section birth with my first son. He was induced at 39 weeks because of my rising blood pressure and labor progressed uneventfully. I had an epidural and got to the pushing stage, but he got stuck in my pelvis after pushing for 3 hours. I was terrified of the surgery but the doctors assured…
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Sticking Up for Myself and My Birth
I went to get induced on the 12th of July 2011, I was getting regular contractions but they weren’t painful. I was in pre-labour. They decided to insert the first lot of gel, I was fine with that and went for walks around the hospital. Then, while walking my hind waters broke, so the nurses/midwives checked to see if they…
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Birth Without Fear {It is Possible}
Wednesday the 13th of February, I couldn’t sleep. I went to bed at 9pm and I was straight back out at 9:30. I sat on the couch with Penelope and Shadow (fur children -dogs!), watching random stuff on TV and playing iPad bingo. At 12:30am, I felt a slight gush of liquid and I was a little suspicious. Thursday 14th…