Birth stories

Our journey started at 10:00pm on January 5th, 2006 with our water breaking with a full gush of fluid. My husband called our midwife and doula to let them know and to see what we should do next. We are Hypno-Birthing parents and were excited and ready to labor. By midnight the surges were productive and coming closer together. I remember talking on the phone to my friends and laughing with my husband. I was not in pain. I was in a total hypnotic state, fully aware, yet in a blissful calm. My parents, midwife and doula arrived at our home as we got closer to the birth.

I woke up at 5:00am that morning thinking, "Here we go again, another false alarm." I had been having prodromal labor for a few weeks at this point and was getting frustrated and emotional by it. I just wanted things to be real already!

My four births have been life changing. The first was in a hospital, with all the interventions you might expect. He was overdue and I was young. I had read “Spiritual Midwifery” by Ina May Gaskin when I first found out I was pregnant. I had four hours of labor, an epidural and forceps, but nonetheless I felt it was a good birth.

Khyah Kahmari Bliss is my fifth child. My third was a miraculous homebirth and my fourth had been scheduled to be a homebirth but my midwife went out of town and my rising blood pressure led me to be frightened into going to hospital and ending up with a c-section. I waited 9 years to have another baby and I healed my body and became the healthiest I have ever been in my life because I didn't want another c-section ever again.

I was planning a homebirth. I had two wonderful midwives, no doctor at all. I had even heard Ina May Gaskin speak in person!

But my son decided that he wanted to be born around my extended family rather than in the privacy of my home. I lived in NYC, but that Fourth of July weekend we were in RI, four hours away. My water broke in the backyard on a lawn chair. He chose that moment to come seven weeks early.

My sweet Shaiya,

My husband and I planned our first baby's birth at home. We try to do things as naturally and healthily as possible. We found a great midwife in the area and my pregnancy was wonderful. We attended Bradley Method classes and I really liked and used the self-hypnosis method. During active labor I just closed my eyes, listened to Enya's CD and transported myself to a beautiful river with my husband. We were in a canoe and looking at all the beautiful sights of nature.

I had all of my four children at home with midwives in attendance. Each birth became a more joyous and easy experience as I learned over the years to allow the energy of birth to take over, and to surrender to it. I also learned to limit "observers", and to take time alone to get into a transcendent place inside myself.

My birth journey began in 2005, when I became pregnant with my first daughter, Arwen. My husband and I believed that there must be a better way to birth than is so commonly portrayed in today's society. So, after a little searching we found ourselves on the Cornish shores, with a beautiful midwife and HypnoBirthing Practitioner, Olivia Secks. She enlightened us on how birth should and could be for all women; gentle, calm and sensuous.

The Affirmations are from the HypnoBirthing® Institute and have been used with permission from Marie Mongan.

Here is our story…

Our family would like to share the great news that Clark Douglas Arthur arrived Thursday, March 20th at 1:45am at the time of the Spring Vernal Equinox. He was received into the hands of his mother and father. Clark weighed 7.2lbs and was 19” long at birth.

Fully expecting to carry our baby beyond 40 weeks, Todd and I were both very surprised when my membranes released at 11:45pm on the evening of March 19th.