Category: Birth Stories

Ten years ago today, I first held my daughter, Madigan. In honor of her birthday, I’m sharing with you the event that changed my life in so many ways and set me on this path as a childbirth educator, doula, breastfeeding advocate, intactivist… and gave me the best title of all: mom. This is her … Continue reading “My Birth Story: Madigan”

{second baby, birth center water birth} A Mother’s Birth Story of Her Second Son: August 18, 2011 I was driving to work on my last day of work. It was two weeks before the baby’s due date. I felt a few contractions on my way to work but they stopped when I got to work. … Continue reading “Birth Story: Elijah”

[first baby, birth center turned hospital transfer, vaginal birth} Healthy Mom, Healthy Baby The experience of a laboring mother, father and a grandmother at Sarasota Memorial Hospital Brief Overview: “You have your birth plan, I have mine. When yours does not agree with mine, we will go with mine,” Dr. Abu declared. We were at SMH … Continue reading “Birth Story: Katherine Elizabeth”

There is this nugget of not-so feel good wisdom my mom likes to drop on me occasionally which goes like this: “They say, if you want to make God laugh, tell him your plans.”       – Unknown Having a natural birth was something I didn’t have to give second thought to. Naturally, it felt like … Continue reading “Birth Story: Naomi”

{planned home VBAC turned CBAC} January 4, 2012 {Valerie & Jason welcome their second son, Levi} Our second little boy arrived just like his older brother! We’d planned a home birth, and ended up with a swollen cervix, and c-section. But thank God my babies came out big, healthy, and perfect! The labor may not … Continue reading “Birth Story: Levi Edward”

August 7, 2011 {Brandy & Mike welcome their daughter, Rayne} Let me start by saying that in the beginning, I never dreamed I’d be having a cesarean section to have my child. I wanted no drugs, no painkillers, all natural birthing. However, things change and you have to adapt to whatever life throws at you. … Continue reading “Birth Story: Rayne Leigh”

August 6, 2011 {Christy & Ed: A beautiful baby girl waterborn and caught by dad.} Friday evening, I started having contractions that were more intense than normal, but very irregular. Although they went away when I went to bed, I had a feeling labor was coming soon. Saturday, they started again as soon as I … Continue reading “Birth Story: Athena Rajah”

June 21, 2011 {Chantal & Andrew: 4th homebirth, on the summer solstice} Our fourth baby was due around June 13, 2011, but I fully expected this baby to be a week or so late like the sister and brothers before her. Maybe this would be a Father’s Day baby on June 19th? Or a summer … Continue reading “Birth Story: Rhiannon Amerentia”

May 28, 2011 {Brittany & Frank: A big baby boy born at the birth center while his father serves in the military.} I was sitting outside when my father said “Let’s have a father-daughter day since your mother is ill.” So I went out to Publix to grab us some shrimp steaks and some veggies. … Continue reading “Birth Story: Brycen Anthony”

May 26, 2011 {Diana & Ben: A beautiful waterbirth to welcome this precious baby girl.} Be sure to check out the beautiful slideshow of this birth here: Tessa Rose Being pregnant for nine whole months always seems to feel like a year, but when you go an extra week past your due date, it seems … Continue reading “Birth Story: Tessa Rose”

May 17, 2011 {Brittny & Jason: A sweet baby girl born in the water at the birth center.} Jason and I found out we were pregnant on August 27, 2010. From that day on we decided that we did not want to find out the sex of our baby. I began my morning sickness at … Continue reading “Birth Story: Emersyn Mae”

March 21, 2011 {Jen & Mike: This gorgeous little one had a rare face-first presentation.} We experienced the best of both worlds. Christopher’s birth didn’t turn out as we planned but we wouldn’t have done anything differently. I’ll try to make this short…. I listened to hypnobirth CDs during my last trimester. I think they … Continue reading “Birth Story: Christopher Lee”

March 16, 2011 {Nyssa & Rob welcome their third child} At 3:00am, on March 16th, a strong contraction pulled me out of sleep. I lay in the dark, tried to go back to sleep, when another hit. I decided to get up. I got a drink of water, and took some of my labor prep … Continue reading “Birth Story: Lorelei Jane”

{birth center turned to hospital transfer and cesarean} March 4, 2011 {Elizabeth & Bryan welcome their son.} So Lucas’s Birthday Weekend was such an amazing, unplanned journey. I went for a long walk with my good friend and neighbor, Jennifer Cook. We walked a good hour and a half and then we came home… I … Continue reading “Birth Story: Lucas Bradford”

{planned birth center birth turned hospital transfer and cesarean} January 21, 2011 It’s hard to imagine now how slow time passed the few weeks before you were born. I sat with nothing to do wondering when you were going to come, wishing it was now. A true test of my patience, I wandered around the … Continue reading “Birth Story: Ephraim Brydon”