Category Archives: natural births

natural births

Planting the Placenta

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According to our midwife, the placenta that nourished my little guy for 41.5 weeks was something special. Of course all placentas are miraculous, and I haven’t seen enough to know the difference, but our midwife was weighing it, and exclaiming over it’s large size.

Luna was born in a hospital so her placenta was thrown out, or burned, or whatever hospitals do with that sort of thing. This time around, we kept it wrapped up in a tortilla bag in the freezer at the birth house. A couple of weeks later it traveled in a cooler on a two day drive down to our home in Pavones where it was shoved into our freezer there and mostly forgotten. Continue reading Planting the Placenta →

natural births

Soleo Lanz Obermeyer’s Birth Story

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With Luna it was slow (read Luna’s birth story here). Contractions started after dinner and I was up all night dancing in the moonlight, too excited to sleep. I shared the sunrise with a hummingbird looking out over the lake, spent the day getting in and out and in and out of the tub, but my cervix just didn’t want to open. Ultimately, I ended up pushing her out partially anesthetized on my back on a hospital bed, 30 something hours after contractions began. It wasn’t the gentle home birth I had imagined, and I really hoped the second would go better.

screen-shot-2016-10-26-at-8-41-46-am Continue reading Soleo Lanz Obermeyer’s Birth Story →

natural births

Luna Suli’s Birth Story

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On September 14th at 4:55am I clutched a new little creature to my chest after 33 hours of labor. She seemed so foreign. It was so strange that just moments before she’d been inside me, faceless. Then that little face lit up! She opened her eyes, she cried, she latched onto my breast and as cliche as it sounds, I fell totally in love. Continue reading Luna Suli’s Birth Story →

natural births

Beautiful Home Water Birth Video

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I’m now less than a month away from my due date and the whole thing seems a lot more real now than it did a few months ago. I’m actually going to have a baby!

I’m really looking forward to the experience. Of course, there’s that little bit of nervousness. That little wondering of “what if something goes wrong?” But, I trust that everything will be fine. I trust that my body and baby know what to do. I know that my husband is amazingly supportive and will be right there for me. I have a great friend going through the same thing who will also be there and a very experienced midwife. I’ve read multiple books by midwives and studied Hypnobirthing. It’s going to be awesome.

My friend just sent me this video of a gorgeous home water birth that had me shedding a few tears. It’s so beautiful. Other than having many fewer spectators, this is what we’re planning.

natural births

Immersion: Lyric’s Birth Story

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A friend passed along this blog and I’m so inspired by this woman’s stories and writing. Here she describes the water birth of her son Lyric. It’s so beautiful that I had to share.

Mere Mortal {Mama}

Lyric’s birth story, like most stories, really starts much earlier than the morning that surges began.  Leave it to me to translate 2 hours of active labor into an 8 page birth story.   Consider yourself warned – ha! (Part One is HERE, though most of it is recapped in this post)

At the end of the post, I’ve included a link to a slideshow of his birth.  There ARE photos of me in labor (i.e. nude, boobs, yoni) as well as photos of Lyric’s head being born.   If you want to view real, raw photos of birth, then watch it. 🙂  The photos that are included in this blog post are not graphic.

From my journal:

Thursday, June 3rd (39 weeks)

At approximately 5pm, I noticed I was very tired and laid down while the girls played.  I felt the overwhelming need to nap.   I called Jason…

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natural births

Demand for Water Births on the Rise, Even In Hospitals

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The definition of “natural birth” in a hospital setting is essentially just “giving birth without pain medication”. In most cases, the woman labors on her back, attached to a monitor with an IV in her arm “just in case”, and a doctor or nurse telling her when and how to push. That doesn’t seem very natural to me.

Fortunately, it seems that the demand for water births is growing and despite many hurdles such as doctor inexperience, insurance concerns etc., sometime soon giving birth – or at least laboring – in a calming, pain-relieving tub of water may not seem unusual at all.

The article below talks about some things keeping water births from becoming the norm despite plenty of evidence that laboring in water makes the birth experience so much more pleasant.

http://commonhealth.wbur.org/2014/03/childbirth-in-a-tub

natural births

5 Hospital Procedures that Ruin Your Birth

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My midwife posted a link to an article listing five hospital procedures that ruin your birth. Based on the feedback i’ve been receiving after telling friends and acquaintances of my decision to have a home birth, i’ve realized that there’s a lot of ignorance out there as to what is actually necessary, what’s helpful, and what’s simply hurtful when it comes to having babies.
Continue reading 5 Hospital Procedures that Ruin Your Birth →

natural births

Video of a Calm Home Water Birth

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I hate hospitals. They just freak me out. Full of germs, sick people, dying people. I can’t imagine relaxing in a hospital, and the thought of spending so much time there was one reason why getting pregnant seemed incredibly scary. It wasn’t just the idea of giving birth that made me nervous, but the idea of spending so much time in a hospital. Continue reading Video of a Calm Home Water Birth →