Thoughts on birth - labor & delivery, drug-free births, birth centers, birth stories, etc.
I remember being in my ninth month of pregnancy with my firstborn daughter. I thought about the impending birth every day. What would it feel like? How would I react? How long would it take? Would I be strong enough? Strangely, I was curious more than I was afraid. I ended up having my baby […]
It was March 13. My husband and I drove up to the birth center at 7:30 p.m. It was dark. I stopped on the sidewalk to have an overwhelming contraction in the moonlight. We walked through the door and were greeted by warm lights and the gentle, assuring voice of our nurse. As she put […]
If I have one regret from both of my birth experiences, it is that I didn't have a designated "picture taker" around. Not so much for the labor. But for the birth and immediately after the birth. I think I would have liked to capture those early moments of life in all their messy glory. […]
"Is your hospital bag packed?" That's what everyone asked me in the final trimester of my first pregnancy. I almost always answered, "partly." I said that because my bag was partly packed and partly because I had no idea what to put in there!?! For my second pregnancy, I knew what I needed/wanted: Bikini Top […]
My first birth experience was attended by an OB in a hospital. My second birth experience was attended by a midwife in a birth center. The two experiences were black-and-white; night-and-day. There were countless differences between the hospital and the birth center, but perhaps the most significant difference was that the hospital treated me as a […]
A blogger from Our Green Nest recently said something that I can't stop thinking about, "It's so sad that many people still don't see the importance of the birth experience...they think that as long as the baby is healthy that's ALL that matters...obviously that's the most important thing, but nearly as important is the overall experience […]
"Lovely controlled birth; hands and knees in tub." Those are the words that my midwife wrote on my birth records under "Delivery Comments." I'm not sure I would use the word "controlled" to describe my labor experience. After all, it involved plenty of screaming and moaning (and singing, incidentally...). But I WOULD describe it as […]
The Big Sister proudly announces the debut of her Little Sister. Friday, March 13 8:30 p.m. 7 lbs, 8 ounces 19 inches More photos and the birth story to come...