A middle of the night home birth with dad playing midwife
The final day (June 25, 2012) of the 2011-12 school year passed without an event. The typical feelings relief and accomplishment were strong, but overshadowed by the impending arrival of our baby. On June 27, I prepared a smoothie and the second dose of castor oil for my wife, who had chosen to sleep on the couch due to its close proximity to the toilet, before heading to bed. At 12:15 AM, I heard her…
Pain and happiness: my mom died five weeks before the birth of my daughter
My mother died five weeks before I gave birth. Most people’s birth stories begin when they go into labor, but my mothers death and the birth of our child are still inseparable in my mind. My mother’s death was a tragic accident (carbon monoxide poisoning two days before the baby shower my mother had been planning for eight months) and it landed my father in the hospital. I always expected my mother to be here for the birth of our baby and the compounded loss was almost too much to bear.
Born at home: a home birth video
Georgia Brizuela recently filmed the home birth of baby Oliver — and she’s sharing the video with Offbeat Mama readers today.
Our New Year’s Day baby was nearly born into the toilet
There’s a lot you don’t know as a first time mom and nothing showed how unprepared I was than my son Owen’s actual arrival. On New Year’s Eve in 2010 my husband and I met friends for a celebratory dinner. At dinner I ate an entire appetizer, entree, and dessert — in retrospect this probably should have been indicative of impending labor since I typically struggled to finish half an entree. Early that morning I wandered out of bed to use the bathroom. I had become used to needing to pee at least three times a night, and right as I entered the bathroom I felt a gush of water exit. I looked down and thought, “Hmmm…”
A Cesarean birth story told by the birthing mother and her doula
This birth story is told by two people: Ashley, the birth mother, and Andrea, her doula. Ashley intended to deliver in a hospital with her midwife, mother, and husband present — but as life (and birth) has a way of going plans changed.
I was my best friend’s surrogate
All of the events and relationships involved in my birth story were put into place nine years ago when my best friend and I met. I’ve watched my best friend and her husband struggle with infertility for years, and one day simply said: “You know I’d have a baby for you, right?” That sentence started the most amazing journey.
Birthing Without: a birth plan for the plan-adverse
It’s taken me a while to come up with a birth plan. I’m a daydreamy librarian (INFJ, Pisces, Type B — you get the picture), more at home reading a bunch of parenting and childbirth literature than actually putting any of it into practice. But since I had my first child almost five years ago, I think it’s about time I came up with something.
Our half-Mexican daughter was born at home on Dia de los Muertos
On Halloween night 2010, at 12:57am I rolled over in bed and felt my bag of waters breaking. I managed to get out of bed without getting the bed wet and as I was running to the bathroom, water gushed out all over the kitchen and bathroom floor. It was a gush like in the movies. As I was running I yelled to my wife Liz, “My water just broke!”