UCAN Birth meeting 3/25/09

We had our birth stories night this past Wednesday with a group of over a dozen new and experienced moms. Several inspirational stories were shared. One mother recounted the midwife-attended home birth of her 2-week-old son. Another mother shared the story of her second child’s midwife-attended birth center birth and her third child’s unassisted (on purpose) home birth. Additional mothers shared the birth stories of children born at home with midwives. The last story was of a great hospital birth experience.

We also spent time answering questions of pregnant moms wanting to know what they could do to help their upcoming births be positive, joyful, and healthy.

Join us at our next meeting on Wednesday, May 27th at 7:30 p.m. We will be discussing options for birth location and care provider (doctors, midwives, etc.). Find out more information and RSVP to get directions by contacting me at the info in this link.

She’s here! My fourth home water Hypnobabies birth.

Pics and a full story are posted here:

Clara’s Birth

Another great Hypnobabies birth! (video)

This is Michael’s home birth with her son, Willem. Notice how she laughs! Warning: There is nudity (which you might expect in a birth video, but I’m just warning you in case you weren’t expecting that).

Singing birthing mama who used Hypnobabies

She did the Hypnobabies home study course and chose to sing during her birthing waves prior to giving birth to her 10-lb. son at home. Lovely!

New Birth Stories Pages and Last Night’s UCAN Birth Meeting.

I’ll keep a few inspirational stories collected here on this blog. You can access them by visiting this page (or by using the Pages links to the right).

Last night’s UCAN Birth meeting was well-attended as well as very inspirational and uplifting. One of the women shared her three beautiful unassisted home birth stories. Her faith in birth is incredible. She also brought her mother, who has also had unassisted births after having c-sections with earlier babies. Another woman shared the story of her midwife-attended home birth. Both of the women who shared their personal birth stories talked about joy and laughter as being part of their birth experiences, which is awesome!

We also watched the video of Psalm & Zoya (unassisted home birth of twins). The birthing mother’s calm and confidence is lovely. It was wonderful to witness the birth of twins, born past 40 weeks, with one weighing over 7 lbs. and the second twin weighing over 8! That’s incredibly rare in a culture where twin births are treated as highly complicated and dangerous and few twin pregnancies go to term. While prematurity is a concern with twins, even women who manage to carry their babies into their ninth month are often manipulated by their doctors into inducing or having a c-section as early as 36 weeks. Of the small group of home born twins I’ve learned about, most are average size (7 lbs.+) and are born near their due dates. It is my firm belief that if mother and babies are healthy and well, it’s safest to allow nature to simply take its course.

The overall message of last night’s meeting was: Birth happens. We just need to get out of the way and let it unfold the way it was designed to.

Birth Story of the Month

Here is an excerpt from one of my Hypnobabies student’s birth stories:

“Right after the birth I felt so full of energy and excitement! I did it! I birthed my baby! And without any drugs whatsoever! This goal of mine had taken a lot of preparation on my part but really having my doula there made the biggest difference of all I believe. I feel so confident about my body and my strength as a woman. Having a child is an amazing experience… I replay that night so many times in my mind… It always makes me smile…“

You can read the full story here on my Hypnobabies classes website.