Gosh, I could gush about this a whole bunch about this story. I could tell you all that Laruel Phillips was the only doula at the time when I was wanting an unassisted birth with Stella who didn’t scoff at me, or say ‘I can be with you WHEN you transfer to the hospital.’

I can reflect about how she was the only one who encouraged me to pursue the birth I wanted, that she stood in solidarity with me about my decision. And when I met her by chance at a park, hugged me so hard that it almost hurt, and said she was proud of me, and kissed my newborn like it was her own.I could go on and on about the pride I saw in her eyes when she looked at me with my fat unassisted born baby in my arms. I could.

I could gloat about how many of my friends births she attended and was a rock when they were at that place where mothers doubt themselves but she supported them through and they had the births they wanted.

I could muse about how she is married to Glenn Phillips, who is the lead singer of Toad the Wet Sprocket, one of my absolutely most favorite bands ever. I could make it about my high school days and my friends who sang their songs at the top of our lungs in a little green Honda. I could tie that into the fact that Glenn dated my best guy friend’s sister in high school.

I could….but I won’t. I’m going to let the article speak for itself, and say that the opening of the birth center in Santa Barbara makes me want to have a baby there, even though I don’t NEED to. I want to birth there to support them, to honor them, to encourage other women to seek alternatives to hospital birth. To know that its not all about what ‘doctor’ says. That women have a fucking say in how, where, when they birth.

I am so excited for the future of ALL babies and mothers who are born and birth at the birth center.

Be excited with me.

I remember writing my birth story with my second son, it was empowering and wonderful and completely healing from my intervention filled first birth. This time around, I’m still in a daze from the wonderment that is my body. (more…)

How do you do it? How do you start to write about one of the most empowering times of your life without cheapening it or making it seem cheesy or a fantasy and unattainable to others who will travel the same road? I’m going to try.

(more…)

Even though Aiden is 6 years old now, the pain of his birth is still with me. Its hard for me to sit down and relive the uninformed decisions I made, as well as the bullying, and bad treatment I received while I was in labor at the hands of the medical staff.

What I do know about his birth is that I learned that healthy women shouldn’t birth in hospitals. We are not sick. We are simply giving life and that is not an emergency.

Because of Aiden’s birth, I became empowered and passionate about birth. I learned how to trust my body and my subsequent babies to work as a perfect team.

I adore my son Aiden and I thank him for going through that difficult experience with me, because together we learned that birth is not an emergency and that women are strong.

I hope that by seeing his brother and sister born at home, peacefully, he’ll choose a partner someday who believes that birth is normal.

Aiden