My #breastfeeding journey has been an amazing one. I did not get the birth I had imagined, but breastfeeding healed that. I had pictured this beautiful, natural, no-intervention birth. Instead I got every complication I could.
[Read more…]The Home Birth of Sweet Wyatt William
By Sally Sites
In October 2005, I met the first love of my life- my wonderful husband Jake. On August 19th 2010, my second love was born (plans for a natural, relaxed birth center birth were derailed by a pitocin induction at the hospital…I still birthed as naturally as I could while tethered to an IV lying in a bed but it was everything I didn’t want). My passion for all things pregnancy/birth/breastfeeding developed as I grew into my new role as a mom to my darling little man. [Read more…]
Lea’s Birth Story
By guest blogger Lea
I was 25 and had just gotten out of an extremely abusive relationship. I hooked up with someone who was only 5’6″ and 120 lbs thinking that if it came down to it I could protect myself. Come to find out he was popping holes in the condoms. I found out I was pregnant at 6 weeks. I spent two weeks throwing up every day at least 405 times a day before it struck me what could have happened. I took 6 store bought tests and all of them came back negative. So I finally decided to go to the health department. They did a urine test that came back negative, but things weren’t lining up so they did a blood test. It came back that I was pregnant. I immediately got myself insurance and found an OBGYN. My OB was my mom’s OB when she had my baby brother and had delivered most of my cousins. He was someone I trusted and still do.
This is LeAnn 1 hour after I had her. She seemed so tiny. Measuring 21 inches long and weighing 7lbs 14ozs.
Alice’s Twin Birth Story by guest blogger Alice
I have been putting this off for 3 & ½ years. For a long time, I couldn’t even think about the birth of my twin girls without crying and I could barely talk about it. I realized at one point that unless reminded, I went through my life as if those first 5 days didn’t happen. I was pregnant and then they were here; everything in between was just a dream.
Now it has become a dull sort of pain that is just another part of my tapestry. I don’t dwell on it or even think about it much, and I often forget how open and raw the wound is until something reminds me and the tears flow like I flipped a switch. These sudden reactions always catch me by surprise. [Read more…]
Our Birth and Lactation Story
by Bethany
I had planned to have a drug-free water birth at The Birth Cottage, a freestanding birth center in Milford New Hampshire. I had watched documentaries such as “The Business of Being Born,” “Gentle Birth Choices,” and “Orgasmic Birth,” and therefore was very well-informed of what goes on in many hospital settings. I didn’t trust hospitals and knew I wanted my baby to be born in a safe environment where the baby would remain with me and not be separated after birth, and where I wasn’t at risk of having unnecessary surgery. I had taken childbirth classes in the Bradley Method to prepare for a drug-free birth, during which we read about the many possible dangers to the baby of drugs during labor. I had interviewed and chosen a doula to provide labor support. I even chose to go to a birth center in New Hampshire, rather than having a home birth in Massachusetts where I live, because the laws regarding midwifery are different in New Hampshire and I knew that should I need to transfer to a medical facility, a New Hampshire midwife would get a lot more respect at a New Hampshire hospital than a Mass. midwife at a Mass. hospital. Midwives are actually licensed by the state of New Hampshire, and therefore are acknowledged providers there. [Read more…]
Big: That’s Birth For Ya
Back in high school my friend asked if I wanted to do acid. I asked him what it was like. He said “well, it’s… Big.” “Big? What the hell does that mean?” I asked. “I don’t know how to explain it, it’s just… Big,” he responded. I did acid with this friend and a few days later another friend asked what it was like. I said “well, uuuuh, it was…. Big.” I have read all the books by the writers who have experimented with acid. I have tried myself to explain it to people. Just as our reality is impossible to explain, all other forms of it are twice as hard. [Read more…]
Jack Jack Attack: My Birth Story
41 weeks and another doctor appointment. My doctor had this way of telling me when I was going to go into labor. The week before last she said “you will go into labor next week.” Last week she said “you will go into labor next week.” I knew she was full of shit, but it didn’t help when week after week went by and nothing happened. Last week we decided if there was no baby by today then we would induce. I knew there were risks to induce and I knew there were risks to wait. I put my faith in my doctor to steer me in the right direction. So when she told me today that we were not going to induce I was confused, angry and felt alone. [Read more…]
