I spent my birthday shooting a Birth Day
My friends Raphael and Shushannah asked me to shoot the hospital birth of their daughter, which was also my birthday, and it was a very stellar day indeed.
My thanksgiving birth story
Somewhere around my 26th week of pregnancy, our midwife Heike taught us how to find the baby’s head in my belly. “It’s called ballottement,” she explained. His head was just under the right side of my ribcage, meaning he was breech. “Don’t worry about it,” my midwife said. “Most babies are breech in the second trimester. He’ll flip.”
Proving you can do it: a successful vaginal birth after c-section
Elizabeth and her son pulled off a successful VBAC and experienced birth the way she always wanted to.
A birth story in photos
Jessica is the photographer behind JRSD Photography (she’s also written about pre-baby body myths on Offbeat Mama). She’s also a brand new mama (as of October 8), and she shared a few of her birth photos in our Flickr pool. “I scheduled my birth…which is weird as hell to me because I had serious, false […]
What you’ll forget to pack in your birth bag
“As the time draws nearer for my son to arrive and I prepare to go to the hospital I can’t help but wonder what should you really take? Sure the hospital provides you with a list but I want to know what real offbeat mamas say worked for them or what they wish they had when they were in the hospital.”
Breaking plans: an “Unnatural Birth” story
Erika’s planned natural birth didn’t go exactly as she envisioned–and she wouldn’t have it any other way.
An epic unmedicated, hospital, and midwife-assisted birth story
The mother of all natural, midwife-assisted, hospital birth stories. Buckle in, because this one is long, challenging, and glorious.
Empowered by a caesarian birth
Caesarians are not always celebrated in the Offbeat world, but they are a very real part of the labor & delivery process many women experience. Gillie’s birth story teaches us that, with the right team and encouragement, a caesarian can be every bit as empowering as any other kind of birth.