Birth Stories

"During the contractions doubt and fear came up for me as questions like “How much longer?” “When will this be over?” It was really important for me not to say any of it out loud; for me it would have giving voice to the doubt and fear rather than allowing myself to trust that my body was doing exactly what it needed to be doing and that everything was fine….At this point I was only able to take a step or two between each contraction. I was in the squatting position for a while and it was the most intense feeling in my entire life. I was my edge, for sure, of what I felt was physically possible."

Women have been giving birth since the beginning of time, our bodies are built for it, afterall. Yet so much of the experience is an unknown, whether it is your first baby or your third. We have talked to women who labored for one hour and those who labored for days, from home births to hospital births to c-sections to emergency deliveries. We have spoken to women who loved labor, women who feel persistent guilt about their birth experience, and to women who found the community created expectations around labor too much to bear. Excitement, fear, questions about birth...We can learn from them all.  

Birth Stories is an honest journey through labor and delivery told through a collection of personal stories and reflections from a diverse group of new and seasoned mothers.                

Birth Stories                         

• Celebrates the beauty and power of women and labor.
• Tells a variety of women’s stories, which encompass a range of experiences.
• Helps women prepare for the unplanned possibilities by exposing them to wide variety of birth stories.
• Frees women to let go of their own judgements about labor (their own experiences and those of other mothers, friends, and family).
• Shows resolution of birth experiences even when the experience may not have been positive in the moment.

We are now collecting stories from mothers for the Birth Stories project. We are currently looking for stories from mothers within the first 12 months of birth from a diverse range of ethnicities and experiences. Are you interested in participating? We would love to interview you for the project! Read more about our interview process OR contact us to tell your story.