Any mother knows, birthing a child is a labor of love. Inspired by a discussion amongst the writers on Eco Child’s Play about our births and the safety of home births in particular, we decided to share our labor experiences with our readers. One of the things we hold in common as eco parents is our desire for a natural birth, however, we may not always experience the birth we envisioned. From VBACS to home water births, our experiences are diverse, and we want to share them with you. We believe what is important about birth is that parents are given an educated choice about how and where their baby is born, as well as be flexible to deal with any medical issues that arise.
We don’t only want to tell our birth stories; we want to hear your stories too! As a pregnant woman, I could not read or hear enough women’s birth stories, because they were all unique and different. The experience is not the same for any two women. By sharing our stories, we hope to build a community of parents who can support and share with one another. Therefore, we are hosting a Labor of Love contest!
Did you know that there is an Eco Child’s Play Green Family & Child board on the Green Options Forum? As part of our Labor of Love series, we would like you to participate in our forum discussion by sharing and/or commenting on birth stories. Each time you participate in this forum thread, you will be entered to win a pair of IsaBooties or Envirosax. We will be randomly selecting two winners from the forum participants. We want to hear your birth stories!
Beyond birth stories, we will be sharing our thoughts on other natural birth topics. Courtney will be interviewing doulas and midwives, Jennifer will be writing about home births and essential books on natural birth, Lee will be writing about her decision not to have children, and much, much more. Guest writers will be joining us, and of course, we will be sharing our birth stories. We all have different perspectives; we all had different outcomes.
Image: Heartfelt Midwifery
We live in St. Barthelemy, FWI and are not “permitted” to give birth on this island according the the French social medical system. In addition, there are no emergency services at the hospital for newborns. Therefore, we are forced to leave the island to birth. The closest island (St. Martin) is equipped with an excellent hospital but I just was not up to birthing again with someone I didn’t chose personally, in another culture and language and with an epidural (80%). I am American living abroad and already birthed my daughter in Rome, Italy with no choice of hospital or OBGYN. The key words for me here were NO CHOICE. For my son, I CHOSE a dutch midwife to come to the French side of St. Martin, closer to the hospital and help deliver my baby in room 705 of a local hotel. Basically, I chose a clandestine birth. It was so beautiful to labour with walks on the beach with my husband and daughter and when I began to transition I simply stepped inside my hotel room. The funny part of the story was when I CHOSE (there’s that word again) the bathroom floor to deliver. I was forcefully moaning for about 45 minutes and we were all worried about the other hotel guests. After my first push, (on the bathroom floor and just next to the front door of the room) we heard a knock on the door. In all my research on natural birth I was led to believe that transition made you pretty much lose your head. Well, when we heard the knock at the door and just after my first push….we all had enough thought to look at each other (doula, midwife, husband and myself) and say “shhhhh”!!!!!!!!!!!! Luckily, it was simply my sister-in-law with a suprise visit. Alexander was born with two more pushes just after. The hotel never suspected that I’d planned the delivery and were delighted to have a new life born in room 705. It was by far the most beautiful experience of my life thus far and I sooo wish that other women had more support and possibilities to birth naturally without worrying about security or being judged.