Shelby Shankland shares the story of her her daughter's hospital birth that initially left her feeling empowered, because she had overcome such a difficult experience. But as she processed it, she became more and more angry about the way her care was handled. When she became pregnant again, she knew she wanted a different experience and shares the story of her son Jack's waterbirth at The Farm birth center in Summertown, TN. She ended up going 3 weeks past her due date and faced some scary moments after her son was born, but she trusted fully in her midwives at The Farm and felt empowered after her birth. Read more about giving birth at the farm.
Shelby Shankland lives in East Tennessee with her husband, 8 yr old daughter, and 3 yr old son. Prior to moving to Tennessee, she lived in San Francisco for almost 20 years, having moved there to attend the Conservatory of Music, and stayed on working in various office jobs until switching careers to postpartum doula work and lactation counseling after the birth of her daughter. Shelby is now a Certified LifeWorks Life Coach, a Reiki II Certified Reiki Practitioner, project manager for a learning and development company, and professional flutist. She enjoys all of her various means of bringing home the bacon, but in particular enjoys coaching and empowering women.
Today's guest is Laura Dearman who is sharing her birth story that took place at The Farm in Summertown, TN.
Laura Dearman is a mom to three children ages 7, 5 and 2. She has experienced a wide range of birth experiences from a mainstream hospital birth, homebirth with a postpartum hospital transfer, natural miscarriage at home and a 3 week stay at The Farm in Summertown, TN for the birth of her youngest.
In her native Mississippi, Laura was a birth activist focused on birth options and midwifery care, including a short time as a professional doula and childbirth educator. Now living in sunny Florida, Laura is dedicated to helping women successfully breastfeed as a volunteer accredited La Leche League Leader. Laura wrote a little more about the history of The Farm and her reasons for choosing to give birth there in a blog post for The Birth Hour.