Heidi’s water broke Thursday at 12:30am. She woke me up saying “Uh baby, my water broke.” I sat up and said, “Tell me more about that,” and looked over to see the soaked sheet on her side of the bed. We did a few things to get ready for labor while having everyone in our house. Then we tried to…
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Empowering VBAC from Dad’s POV
Part II of a beautiful VBAC story, as told by Elspeth Ridout McCormick’s husband. Elspeth had been having contractions all month, really. They would come in the evenings, mostly, and then they would stop around bedtime. This Friday, though, the contractions didn’t stop. Elspeth had them throughout dinner, and as the night got a little later we started to wonder…
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Empowering VBAC from Mom’s POV
A beautiful VBAC birth story, as told by Elspeth Ridout McCormick. Like all VBAC stories, the story of my daughter’s birth really starts with her big brother’s birth. In 2012, we were expecting our first child. We took Bradley classes, practiced relaxation techniques, followed the Bradley diet, and took yoga classes and nightly walks to stay fit. My water broke…
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The Birth of Mason
After a very difficult pregnancy, including pregnancy-induced hypertension (landing me in the ER twice and putting me on 3x the normal dose of BP meds starting at eight weeks), kidney stones, and morning sickness for 23 weeks, I was happy to have made it to 40 weeks with no serious complications. I was in no hurry for labor as long…
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The Hospital Induction Birth of Ida Mae
This is terribly long and I could have gone on and on… Todd and I went to an appointment with my midwife August 14th. I was 40 weeks and six days pregnant, so basically a week overdue. Our midwife had us do a non-stress test where they monitor the baby’s heart rate for 20 minutes. They like to see that…
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Prepping for Your Home Birth Without Fear {The Ultimate List}
One of the most common questions about homebirth from those considering it is, “What do you need?” While the list of supplies varies from midwife to midwife, there are some basic things that almost everyone is going to need to gather in preparation for the birth. There will also be things you will (probably) want to do for your comfort…
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A Natural Hospital Birth with an ObGyn and Doula
My second son, Gabriel Lee, was born on February 12, 2013 at 6:58 pm. Before I get into the details of how he came into the world it is helpful for me to recap the birth of my first son, Anderson Matthew, and review a little of what my pregnancy was like with Gabriel. Anderson was born in December 2006…
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5 Hour Home Birth
{Editors Note: This story comes to us from Elizabeth. I have to say that I really connect to the start of the story – my own labor started after a long walk around IKEA!} Our first daughter, Penelope, was born in 2010 in the hospital – natural and with no intervention. I knew that for our next birth, I didn’t…
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Logan’s Birth Story {Med-Free Hospital Birth}
My husband and I had been through two early pregnancy losses before we found out I was expecting again. The early days of my pregnancy were full of fear and living with Hyperemesis Gravidarum, which meant weeks of endless nausea, vomiting, dehydration, IV treatments and needle pokes from a Zofran pump. Around 16 weeks that subsided, and at 20 weeks…