Be prepared not scared!

Here are some amazing resources to empower yourself with knowledge and skills if you are planning or thinking of having a natural physiological birth, a home birth or you just want to have a different birth story from your last one.

Our first birth was the tradition hospital birth with epidural (even though they never gave me the button for the epidural to release the medication). The whole experience left me very traumatized. I vividly remember my brain shifting from "this hurts" to "I'm dying." It was during that time when I was pushing and thinking I was dying that I looked up and saw two angels above me. I could here the OBGYN telling the nurse quietly to "call the pediatrician STAT we need there here for the delivery." A couple hours after I delivered my precious baby I fainted and passed out for a few minutes when trying to get up to go to the bathroom. Nothing like waking up to alarms and 6 nurses standing over you. There was interventions done to me with zero informed consent. It left me with a lot to unpack and process.

Everyone always says "a healthy baby is ALL that matters," and I say that is a bunch of B.S. A healthy baby is the most important thing, but Mama your emotions and your body matters too! You matter Mama! I know so many Mama's carrying around their painful birth stories and don't know how to process them so we carry those stories into our next pregnancy. It sucks! I carried the story of my miscarriage of our first baby into my second pregnancy and was so hard. I couldn't allow myself to enjoy the pregnancy because all my body knew to be true was miscarriage. Mama's we deserve better and more hopeful pregnancies and positive laboring and delivering stories.

After that experience I knew I wanted my futures births to look way different if possible. I knew I needed to prepare differently for my next birth. Home birth or birth centers are not for every Mama, but for the Mama’s contemplating it look into your options and see what resonates with you. Our homebirth was honestly one of the best experiences of my life.

Originally we were going to deliver at the birth center because the nurse in me thought that would be "safer." I ended up changing my mind around 16 weeks pregnant and hired a midwife to deliver our baby at our house because I just didn't connect with the midwives at the birthing center. Finding a good midwife you trust is KEY! All of my prenatal care and postpartum care from then on took place in the comfort of my house with my sweet two year old boy there helping her use the doppler to find the heartbeat. Each appointment was roughly an hour long and so peaceful. It was much different than my 10 minute appointments at the OBGYN office where I often had to sit in the waiting room for up to an hour just to be seen.

I went into labor around 40 weeks 4 days. I was in denial that I was in true labor. I'm pretty sure every Mama who goes past 40 weeks believes baby will never come. We were keeping our midwife updated on how I was progressing, but I was in such a peaceful zone that I didn't think I was that far along. We ended up having a free birth with just my husband and I there for all the laboring and delivery of our sweet baby girl. Our midwife arrived about 20 minutes after our baby arrived. It was magical and perfect in every way. Regardless though we were not planning a free birth so being informed, prepared and knowledgeable helped us feel confident bringing our sweet girl into the world by ourselves until our midwife arrived.

Being prepared and not scared is my moto! :) Here are some resources I used to prepare for my last birth which helped me mentally, physically, emotionally and spiritually prepare for the most redeeming beautiful home birth!

Weighing baby girl after birth

The Business of Being Born

EVERYONE should watch this documentary regardless of where you plan to give birth. It will arm you with knowledge regarding how hospitals operate so you can be informed and make the best decisions for you and your baby and not fall into the cascade of interventions. I wish I would have watched this before my first hospital birth, because looking back I can see how I fell into their business model and what was best for the physician and hospital and not what was best for my baby and I.

Christian Hypnobirthing

Her 10 tracks helped me mentally and spiritually prepare for birth soo much! I would listen to them every day before bed or in the bath while envision how I wanted my homebirth to look. I also found it really helpful to listen to her tracks while watching other women have beautiful peaceful homebirths. This helped allow me to not carry my first birth story into my next one and rewrite a new birth story. Go do yourself a favor and go listen to her free one called "Positive Affirmations." You will understand what I mean once you listen. The "Encouraging Scripture" one is my favorite. I listened to these while laboring, delivering and post partum with my homebirth. Nothing like beautiful scriptures being poured over you while you bring life into this world.

She also had a course to which is so beautiful.

"Experience a more relaxed, confident and faith-filled birth and postpartum.

20% OFF WITH CODE: HEIDI

Pain Free Birth Course

I signed up and starting working on this course almost the soon as I found out I was pregnant again. My first thought when I found out I was pregnant again was so much fear and anxiety of having to go through laboring, delivering and post partum again. I knew I needed to prepare differently this time both mentally, physically, emotionally and spiritually. This course helped me soo much! I learned so much more about birth. I learned about tools and ways to help manage the surges of contractions. I felt so much more empowered and hopeful after her course.

Pain Free Births mission is to shift the global culture of birth out of fear and into faith and confidence.

10% OFF WITH CODE: HOLISTICHEIDI

Favorite Books

Ina May's Guide to Childbirth

Active Birth: The New Approach to Giving Birth Naturally

Hypnobirthing