Home Birth Stories

Home birth stories are very important for women who are thinking of having a natural birth. I myself read lots of home birth stories which taught me that I could birth my baby at home. Home birth stories are very personal and have emotion and passion that can move the soul. I was moved to conquer any fears I had of having a natural birth. Reading about all the women who had gone before me helped me understand what my body was capable of.

Welcome to the First Edition of the Black Birth Carnival. Hosted by Darcel of The Mahogany Way Birth Cafe and Nicole of Musings From The Mind of Sista Midwife. Our first topic is Birthing While Black: A Historical Perspective. At the end of this post you will find a list of links to the other participants. Some of these posts may contain Emotional Triggers and will be labeled at the beginning of the post.

****

I think of home birth stories as being akin to those of Griots in Western Africa. The Griots tell of the history of nations, tribal customs and their origins as well as family history. Home birth stories are a beautiful part of a family’s history that also educate women about how natural birth works.

For most women, birth is something that had to happen, something they didn’t enjoy and something most don’t want to do again. When I was growing up, I never heard of women talking about home birth, so when it came time for me to birth I blindly followed the tradition of having a hospital birth. I took the advice from others that birthing in a hospital was the best way. I quickly found out this was not the case. I was just ignorant.

After four births in a typical hospital setting, I was not looking forward to more. After reading how black women are more likely to die in childbirth in a typical hospital setting, I was even more determined not to birth in a hospital. That desire for change led me to seek out birth alternatives during my next pregnancy. I searched for books on birth and found out about natural birth. I learned the amazing way a woman’s body works when giving birth. From there, my husband and I decided to seek out a midwife. When my research led me to decide on an unassisted birth, we said good-bye to our midwife and prepared ourselves as best we could. We welcomed our son at home surrounded by only his family and went on to welcome our next daughter this way as well.

When I’ve told my story of how I came to the decision to have a home birth and our two home birth stories to friends, they’ve all sat with amazement and loved hearing about it. Some have asked if I have tried to write a book about it. All have encouraged me to share my home birth stories with others. That’s one of the reasons why I’ve created My Natural Motherhood Journey. I thought that by sharing my stories and the home birth stories of others, that I could encourage other mothers to choose natural birth, just as I was encouraged by the stories I read.

If you would like, you can share your home birth stories below!