What began as a rather typical pregnancy ended in a slightly complicated birth. Nicole was one week past her due date, and had an induction scheduled, when she went into labor in the early hours of her birthday. She labored at home for six hours before she and her husband Christopher made their way to the hospital.
After suffering a chemical pregnancy, Nikkie was determined to learn more about her birthing options and to become an advocate for her own healthcare. As a result, she chose to have her first child at home. After four hours of pushing, her baby boy was born, but her placenta was retained and would not deliver naturally. She was transferred by ambulance to the local hospital where medical staff attempted to extract the placenta manually; but, they only managed to remove half, which caused her to hemorrhage. Nikki had to undergo general anesthesia to have her placenta successfully removed. After a double blood transfusion, she was sent home, with her baby boy, to recover. The whole experience was in stark contrast to the low-intervention home birth she’d hoped for.
Two years later, Nikkie discovered she was pregnant again, but when the results of her 10-week blood test came back abnormal, she learned that the blood transfusion she’d received in the hospital had caused her body to create an antigen that could put her pregnancy at risk. Thankfully, her baby girl did not carry this antigen and her pregnancy ended up being normal. Through hypnobirthing, Nikkie was able to overcome her birthing fears created by the trauma following her son’s delivery. In an empowering and healing hospital birth, Addison was born in under three hours on a beautiful day in May.
Andrea used hypnobirthing for her two births. Her births were similar in that they both lasted about 8 hours with 20 minutes of pushing. Her first birth to her daughter ended with meconium presenting and a third degree tear. Her second birth was started via induction. After a failed epidural, Andrea gave birth to a surprisingly huge 10lb 12oz boy.
Larissa shares two birth stories: a non-emergency c-section w/ a traumatic week of complications following birth; and, a redemptive, healing VBAC birth w/ zero complications.
On this episode, Jenn shares the story of how she advocated for, and successfully had, a vaginal twin breech birth.
Natasha (COO of bebo mia inc and Baby & Me Fitness) is a super talented creative genius that turned her passion for babies and fitness into a lifelong career. On this episode, Natasha shares two birth stories: a planned homebirth with a transfer to the hospital where she still felt supported; and, a cesarean section where she felt like a lot of choices were taken away from her
On this episode, Erika discusses her three pregnancies and the birth of her son.
On today’s episode, Shalome Doran shares the stories of her three births. The first was a highly medicalized hospital birth, and the second two were homebirths, one of which was actually an orgasmic birth!
My son was born at home in Oregon with a wonderful midwife in attendance. My labor was FAST and was a walk in the park compared to my 34 hour labor with my daughter but that story is for another day! After my first homebirth with my daughter, I knew I wanted another homebirth and I was really interested in having a waterbirth. I wasn’t able to give birth in the water with my daughter and I felt strongly that it would be really helpful to be in the birthing tub during the transition and pushing stage.