I love it when my clients share their birth stories with me and the public. It can be so inspiring to hear how other women did it. It is something we miss out on when we live in big cities or worse you only hear the scary negative birth stories from the “crazy” lady on the bus or worse your mother in law.
I have a hard time as a doula and birth photographer telling women their birth story. If my clients don’t share their story, I don’t write it for them. Each person at the birth will have a different story of how the birth unfolded. It is important not to change that for the mother and father. They should get to have their birth story the way they remember it. Lucky for my clients they have images which can help stir memories of how everything did unfold.
My client shared her wonderful home birth story with me. I have taken out a few paragraphs that touched my heart. To read her full birth story click here, it is worth the click .
“For two hours I labored and moved through each contraction on my own in the solitude of our bathroom. I thought my labor would consist of time in the bath or shower but neither of those things happened. I labored through each contraction swaying back and forth breathing in the only way my body knew how.”
“After Mister and I worked on laboring together for about an hour and half I had a moment of clarity in what I believe was a transition period. I knew I was moving into the pushing phase of my labour and suggested to him that he call our doula and midwife again. This was close to 2:30 in the morning. ”
“My doula was amazing. She knew exactly how to position me to help me deal with the pain and I could hear her calming me with words of encouragement while Mister held me close.“
“After some time of pushing they announced that I needed to slow everything down. That was the most difficult thing they could have asked of me, but somehow my body knew exactly what it was supposed to do. I looked at Mister for support and his eyes were glistening full of excitement and awe. I knew without a doubt that I was the most amazing woman he had ever seen. With one last breath I felt her slip out and I was washed over with the greatest feeling of relief and joy.”
“I looked down and saw a beautiful pink face confused by what had just transpired. Between her cries she stared at me and I knew she was mine and I kept on repeating the words that were just said to me just moments before “you are safe, you are loved” “
“Once everyone had settled down and we settled in, we said goodbye to our birth team. They left us tucked in our bed, the three of us under a clean white duvet. I expected that we wouldn’t get much sleep – everyone talks about how all they want to do is stare at their new baby, but we smiled at each other, slid her up the bed so we wouldn’t roll over and all drifted off into a deep sleep.”
To read her full birth story click here I promise it is worth the click. 😉
To read another inspiring home birth story here.
Morag Hastings is a Doula and Birth Photographer located in Vancouver, BC Canada. Come check out more of her work on her facebook page at www.fb.com/vancouverbirthdoula or feel free to email me at moraghastings@gmail.com.
