Victoria discusses giving birth at a birth center, using the Bradley Method, and breastfeeding.
Jana tell her birth story and discusses switching care providers.
Alle had her heart set on an unmedicated birth. She spent her entire pregnancy educating herself on what that might look like with being overweight, however, she also had to deal with fear mongering from her OB. She was encouraged by her support team which included her husband and her mother, but constantly questioned by her medical care provider.
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.
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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!
Kayla shares her the story of her unmedicated hospital birth.
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.
Joanna shares her experience with gestational diabetes and an epidural hospital birth.
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.
Julia transferred to a midwife group at 30 weeks. She went into labour at almost 38 weeks, had a 30 hour labor at home with mostly back labor, and after a quick drive to the hospital, Frankie was born two hours later.
Jennifer’s husband was diagnosed with cancer two months after they were married. They were able to bank his sperm before he started chemotherapy and knew that IVF would be the only way to have children in the future. After years of battling cancer they decided they didn’t want to let cancer hold them back from living life. They implanted one embryo through IVF and were shocked when they found out their one embryo had split into two. They were expecting twins!
On this episode, Cassi shares her four hospital birth stories and some great resources.
Julia planned for an unmedicated, hospital water birth. After having to have her water artificially ruptured and finding meconium, the water birth was no longer an option. After laboring for nearly 26 hours, pushing for 4.5 hours and narrowly avoiding a c-section, Julia was able to have an unmedicated vaginal birth.
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.
Tash shares her two cesarean section birth stories, one traumatic, the other redemptive.
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.