I learned today that 100% of my Facebook followers are women. 100%! Which got me thinking. If the comments y’all leave me are any inkling, most of you reading this post are also women (which may not be fair in this case, considering the post has birth in the title. Men undoubtedly ran screaming). I’m writing today to see if any of you lovely readers are interested in posting your birth stories on my new doula website.
When I was pregnant, the #1 source of help to me was hearing and reading mothers’ birth stories. I read Spiritual Midwifery from cover to cover, which is a collection of birth stories that took place on Ina May Gaskin’s farm in Tennessee. It was empowering to discover that many women not only gave birth without much outside assistance but that they frequently enjoyed the birth experience. Unfortunately being pregnant also seemed to draw out the random strangers (or even members of my family) who had very challenging labors, and I heard some traumatic stories too.
In the end, I’m not sure I’d have it any other way. It probably did me some good to learn what could go wrong so what could be prevented was, and I also think it’s helpful to moms to share a birth experience with others, regardless of interventions you had or things you wish had gone differently. Some blogs share birth stories (Design Mom, We Are Lovely, and Marvelous Kiddo, and perhaps others), so if you’re interested in reading about births, I encourage you to check out their sites. I shared my birth stories (Vivi’s and Charlie’s) on my blog, and I also shared a different perspective about Vivi’s birth over at We Are Lovely.
I would like to pass along the chance to learn from other women’s birth stories to my future clients and to any woman who is pregnant or thinking of becoming pregnant. If you’re concerned about privacy, I am happy to remove your identifying information, and it’s also completely up to you whether to include pictures from your big day. If you’re interested in sharing your birth story, drop me a line (or the whole story) at my email: lonehomeranger [AT] gmail [dot] com, and we can go from there. Even if you don’t see this post for a while, this is an open invitation with no end date.
Ciao, lovelies!
~J
