There is an amazing article in this week’s America magazine. (The Oct. 5, 2009 issue.) It’s called “A Fiery Gift: A spiritual case for natural childbirth.” Susan Windley-Daoust has a deeper perspective on the issue, one I hadn’t considered, and I think everyone (female, or otherwise, and likely to give birth sometime soon or otherwise!) ought to read this. I think she is absolutely right-on.
Tag Archives: Birth
Business of Being Born
This is a movie worth seeing. For me, it pulled up a lot of good and bad memories, and I could just watch babies being born all day. It’s really amazing to see. I tend to gasp when this squirming little one suddenly comes out, even though I know it’s coming.
Anyway, if I knew someone who thought they didn’t have time to research birth choices, I would recommend this movie, and hopefully by the end of it they would realize they had to find time to do this sort of reading and research. I found the discussion of the difference between the artificial hormones doctors use to induce labor and the natural hormones women get for and from labor particularly interesting.
Samantha’s Birth Story – Lucy’s Version
Lucy gave us the synopsis of Samantha’s birth this morning. It went more or less like this:
“We drove to that house, and Mommy pooped in the bathtub. You (Mommy) did a good job. And that was Samantha!”
And we laughed.
Later, I heard Craig doctoring Lucy’s scraped knees while I was feeding Samantha. He said, among other things, and over her screams,
“You know, a lot of your pain is psychological.”
And I laughed. Hard. Never a dull moment here!
The Power to Write
It’s strange to have the impulse to write again. For so long, I would say years, in fact, I have felt that not only do I not have anything to say, but even if I did have a topic to address, my words were doomed to inadequacy. Somehow, the birth of my second child has cured me of this fear, even if it has not given my words any more actual potency.
Beginning and End
I had the privilege over the course of the last two weeks to be present at two of the great moments of life conducted as they ought to be.
Less than two weeks ago, on November 5, our second daughter was born. Samantha Rose weighed 8lbs 4oz and was 20 inches long. She has a tuft of dark black hair, which shocked me after fair, bald baby we had met with in our first daughter. In any circumstances, she was our small miracle.
Samantha’s Birth Story
Reader beware: this is long and detailed!! I didn’t want to forget anything.
It took us a while to find the right environment for the birth of our second child, but after visiting three different doctors and still not being totally comfortable with the one we chose, we heard about a midwife who would do a VBAC. (Our first baby, Lucy, was breech so our planned drug-free hospital delivery had suddenly become a c-section.) We had to drive an hour across state lines to do it, but we had a “home birth” in another couple’s home and it was well worth all the trouble.
