Today's birth story features Denene Millner, who is sharing her experience giving birth to her daughter at a teaching hospital in Harlem, NY. Denene had a doctor that she loved, the support of her husband and made plans ahead of time for what she thought would be a great hospital birth experience. Unfortunately, she was treated like a second class citizen for the majority of her time at the hospital. In this episode, she shares her story and discusses some of the issues that many black women face when it comes to pregnancy and childbirth in America.
Today's guest is Jamie Ivey who is sharing her birth story and three adoption stories. Her son Cayden was born in a hospital and while it was a good experience overall, Jamie says if she were to get pregnant again today, she would've done some things differently. Jamie felt strongly that she and her husband should adopt a baby not too long after Cayden was born and went down the path of domestic adoption to welcome their second son, Deacon. They adopted Deacon as a newborn and were present at the hospital for his birth. Jamie talks about how she planned to practice adoptive breastfeeding with Deacon and although he did latch on right away, it ultimately wasn't feasible long term with what was going on with their family at the time.
A few years later they felt called to adopt again and this time internationally from Haiti. The adoption process was much longer than they had initially anticipated and while they were matched with two children fairly quickly the finalization of the adoptions was a complicated and a long process. Jamie and her husband, Aaron, took turns visiting their kids in Haiti but it got harder and harder on both them and their children each time they had to say goodbye. Their daughter, Story, ended up coming home before their son, Amos even though they had been living together with the same family in Haiti.
Things changed suddenly when the 2010 earthquake hit Haiti and after being relieved of the initial concern of whether Amos was safe, they quickly found out that his adoption was going to be allowed to be finalized here in the States and that after 2.5 years of waiting, he'd be coming home to them immediately and their family would finally all be together. Watch this beautiful video to see them travel to Florida to bring him home and listen to Jamie's episode of The Birth Hour to hear her tell the entire story.
Elizabeth Quinn is married to Percy and they are raising their children in Jackson, Mississippi. Her daughters are Chesley Cox, 7 years old, Anderson Lillian ‘Anders’ 5 years old, and Adella Calhoon 2.5 years old and they just had baby number four — a son, Sims McCallum! Elizabeth Quinn returns to The Birth Hour to share her most recent birth story with baby Sims. Elizabeth had two cesareans and then a VBAC (vaginal birth after cesarean) and is really involved in the birth community in Jackson. She is super passionate about being educated about birth and helping women who have had c sections to know their options.
Today's birth story podcast guest shares how she planned ahead for her hospital birth by doing research, setting intentions and hiring a doula. Kristin's number one goal was not to have a cesarean and she educated herself on many of the ways to avoid a c secti0n and used that knowledge to self advocate with the help of her doula throughout her labor that lasted over 24 hours.