Daria Lazovskaya is sharing three birth stories, all of which took place in Russia. Daria was born in Siberia, raised in Sochi, and is currently living in Moscow. Her three children were born in Sochi which is more rural than Moscow, and I was very surprised at how birth takes place in a Russian hospital. Listening to her stories, it was like I was traveling back in time 60 years in the United States. Their approach to birth is very medicalized and institutionalized. There is very little attention paid to prenatal care, and the majority of women give birth alone with the medical staff and are generally not allowed to have their partner or another support person in the room with them.
Daria's did mention that there were more options available in Moscow and suggested that any expats living in Russia try to get to a major city like Moscow for their births. You can connect with Daria on Instagram @feedthezoo.
In this episode, Miranda shares her three very different birth stories featuring the Bradley Method, an epidural, and water birth. Miranda Anderson is a wife and mom of three living in Austin, Texas. She is also a seamstress, compulsive DIY-er, believer, and adventurer, who shares stories and tips for living a simple, creative life on her blog One Little Minute. She also teaches local craft and sewing workshops in Austin. In what feels like a former life, Miranda graduated with a degree in nursing and worked several years as a nurse diabetes educator. She loves her family, food, and the next project, whatever it may be.
Kacey shares the birth stories of her two boys. After her first birth resulted in an unplanned c-section, Kacey felt that so much was missing from her birth experience. It wasn't until she found out that she was expecting again that she realized just how traumatic that experience was and how badly she wanted to have a vaginal birth the second time, if possible.
Today's birth story episode is with Vanessa Merten of Pregnancy Podcast.
Vanessa was planning a birth center birth and wanted to labor at home for as long possible so when she finally got to the birth center she was already 10 centimeters dilated. But the birth wasn't quite over yet as she pushed and pushed and pushed for much longer than expected. Listen to her tell her story in her own words!
Today's birth story guest is Phoua Moua. She and her husband have been married for 8 years and had been trying to conceive for 5 years. Phoua had put getting pregnant towards the back of her mind and didn't realize she was pregnant until she took a test after noticing a linea negra. She called her doctor and they asked her to come in and draw some blood. The day after she went in for blood work, they called and told her she was pregnant and was about 6 weeks pregnant. The doctor then scheduled the first ultrasound for when she was "9 weeks". Even though she called the clinic back and told them she thought she was further than 6 weeks, they insisted she wait another 3 weeks to come in.
The day finally came and she and her husband went to her ultrasound on May 15, 2014 where they were told she was already 33 weeks! Her baby was due the end of June which was the very next month!!!
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Today's guest is Nicolette Gawthrop who has two home birth stories to tell with another baby on the way! This episode was so fun for me to record because Nico and I had the same midwife. We ended up talking so much that I'm only sharing her first home birth story in this episode and will be back to share the rest of her story later in the year.
Subscribe to The Birth Hour to hear new episodes every Tuesday and Thursday!
Subscribe to The Birth Hour to hear new birth stories every Tuesday and Thursday!
Today's guest is Amelia Barnes. Amelia is going to share the stories of her two children's births. Her son Landon was born in July of 2014 and lived for just four days and her rainbow baby, her daughter Lily was born just a few weeks ago. She began sharing Landon's story on Instagram during his pregnancy and continued after he was born and was so unbelievably honest and raw about all of her experiences and emotions that she quickly found herself surrounded by a virtual support system of women who had also experienced a loss.
Amelia's story is especially close to my heart because it helped me navigate the unbelievably hard journey of supporting my best friend through the loss of her son around the same time. Amelia shared her most private thoughts of everything from grief to jealousy and anger to love and healing in ways that not every mother who's experienced a loss is able to express but most are feeling. It was so helpful to me to read her posts and know some of the things my friend was struggling with and be able to offer support in the right ways.
Both Landon and Lily's stories are beautiful, emotional and so worth the listen but if you are not in the right emotional place to listen to a story of loss right now please just skip over this episode and return to it when you are ready.
In this episode, Monica shares the birth stories of her two births. Her son was born via cesarean section and after much preparation and research her daughter was a VBAC (vaginal birth after cesarean) birth. Listen to Monica tell her stories in her own words.