Zahra Kassam, an early childhood education entrepreneur, delivered her two children with unmedicated hospital births using midwives and the hypnobirthing method.
After 10 years with her partner, Liz was facing two daunting life changes simultaneously: a failing relationship and a positive pregnancy test. Liz shares her story.
Logan shares her four birth stories.
Isabel went into labor while working a night shift as an L&D nurse at the hospital she was delivering.
Every month I'll be publishing an 'Ask Me Anything' bonus episode for our listener supporters! Become a listener supporter to gain access to these episodes every month via patreon.com/birthhour!
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Listener favorite, Caitlin Shrum, is back to share her second VBAC birth story. You can hear her first two birth stories (episodes 185 & 244) in our archives. Archives are accessible to listener supporters via Patreon!
Simone prepared to have a typical, long-and-late birth, but Mother Nature had a different idea. Nothing could have prepared Simone and her husband Gregg for their little boy to come 10 days early, fast and furious, with a precipitous labor.
Lindsay and her husband, Jeff, live in Detroit, Michigan, with their son, Rivers. Lindsay has had type one diabetes since she was a child, and with it came some obstacles to navigate in order to start her journey to become pregnant. Lindsay became pregnant shortly after her team of doctors gave her a green light; and, her pregnancy went well until she was unexpectedly hospitalized at 27 weeks due to pre-eclampsia.
Danielle shares her two cesarean birth stories
On this episode, Victoria shares her pregnancy, birth, and postpartum stories. After dealing with Gestational Diabetes that was insulin dependent for her fasting numbers and finding out she had Group B strep, Victoria had the most amazing, beautiful birth. She labored for 24 hours, pushed for 3 hours, all with the wonderful support of her doula and birth center. Unfortunately things got harder postpartum.
Carrie, an experienced doula, had an unexpectedly emotionally-difficult pregnancy. She worked hard throughout to release secondary trauma from being a birth worker, all in hopes of having a home birth with a truly community-centered birth team.
Before getting pregnant with her first child, Brittany had hoped and planned for an unmedicated birth. Due to an unnecessary induction and several interventions her first birth ended in a cesarean. Immediately following that birth, she began preparing for a VBAC.
At 37 weeks, Katie went in for an induction due to an ICP diagnosis (thanks to learning about it from this show and Nicole Phelps' story!) Hoping for a very low-intervention birth experience, the team of midwives and nurses were amazing at Mount Auburn Hospital in Cambridge, Mass in providing as gentle of an induction as possible.
After Shannon found out she was pregnant with her first, there was no question that she wanted an unmedicated, untouched birth. The questions were: where, and with who.
Rebecca is the founder of Evidence Based Birth® and the author of Babies Are Not Pizzas: They’re Born, Not Delivered! On this episode she shares two of her birth stories and discusses the impact those experiences had on shaping her life.
Hannah shares her surprise road side delivery and homebirth stories.
While planning on an intervention free birth center birth, Taya and her husband prepped by doing the Know Your Options childbirth course. At 39 weeks, Taya was diagnosed with preeclampsia and, after being turned away from a local hospital for refusing certain medical treatments, finally ended up at the university of Washington medical center.
Katie and her husband, Dave, conceived twins through IVF after four years of intensive fertility treatments. Katie’s conception story includes a vasectomy reversal, two rounds of embryo generation, miscarriage, embryo loss, genetic studies, and seemingly endless trans-vaginal ultrasounds.
On this episode, Valerie shares her two birth and postpartum stories.
On this episode, Lina shares her hospital and home birth stories.
Rachel shares her birth story and discusses using the Ava bracelet to get pregnant, as well as being diagnosed with both Hyperemesis Gravidarum & Dysphoric Milk Ejection Reflex (D-MER).
Kyra and her husband Oscar uploaded their first video to OKbaby in 2015. At the time, they were 18 years old and expecting their first child, dealing with the challenges many teen parents face, such as finishing high school and finding financial stability.
After years of sharing their lives with the world (as well as two more babies), they have engaged millions of devoted fans and now host two wildly popular channels and have a massive Instagram following.
OKbaby features the entire family as they share their experiences - from everyday activities to travel and adventure. Fans love watching the family grow and explore life together as they face the challenges of being a young family with love, humor, and tons of fun. Connect with Kyra on Instagram and YouTube.
On this episode, Valerie shares her loss and birth stories.
Sierra shares her experience with two early miscarriages as well as her birth story. She discusses being diagnosed with placenta previa, her resulting cesarean section, and postpartum complications afterwards.
After an easy pregnancy with few complications, Melissa endured prolonged labor with Group-B Strep, leading to her son contracting bacterial meningitis after birth. After a three week stay in the hospital, he is now 18 months old and happy and healthy! Melissa dealt with Postpartum Depression and anxiety stemming from her experience, and hopes to shed light on GBS and its possible complications at birth. She hopes to encourage women to be their own advocate and take charge of their own health research as they prepare for pregnancy and birth.