The Arrival of Harris
Thoughts on Our Homebirth

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I have been blessed with learning that a homebirth is one of the greatest gifts a woman can give to herself and her baby. My decision to birth my third child at home resulted in a profound experience for me. I was finally able to own one of my births. My two previous experiences had been in hospital settings, where the REALITY of what was occurring was somehow lost in all of the procedures, rules, unfamiliar environments, and medicalization of the natural process of birthing a child. After researching my birth options, and discovering that homebirth is actually safer than a hospital birth, I ultimately decided to follow my heart and instincts and have my baby as naturally as possible, the way my body and baby were already equipped to do. Choosing to labor in my home environment was wonderful! I could enjoy the outdoors, take to the comfort of my bed and favorite pillow, bask in the stream of my very own shower, and have exactly those people that I wanted around during this monumental life experience (as opposed to whomever doctor is on call, and nurses that I have never met before). During my labor with Harrison I was surrounded by wonderful people who cared about me and the baby I carried. There were no strangers at the birth of this child. I ate what I wished and drank what I wished. I had no worries about an unclean environment for the baby or I, or stressful moments trying to get staff to agree to my wishes. I had no Pitocin to hurry things along, I simply followed the rhythm of this baby's labor. Pushing this time around took a lot of effort on my part, but for the first time I felt that *I* had delivered my child. It was more than a physical experience for me, it crossed every level of my being....I had to dig deep down into myself, feel the reality of bringing a life into the world, let the force of life come through me, not just from me. With my past births I felt like I "had a baby". I went to the hospital, got hooked up to all of the machines, had my share of drugs to speed labor (for the staff's convenience), had pain relieving drugs that seemed to steal more of the experience away from me, and had my two precious children delivered from me by doctors. This time I trusted my body, my baby, God, and Life. I surrendered to the experience and let life come through me. It was one of the most profound experiences I have had. Birthing Eliza and Benjamin brought me two of my greatest gifts, but the experiences were like going to a movie and seeing a really amazing sunset and walking away feeling empowered and changed. In contrast, birthing Harrison was experiencing that sunset with my own senses, all of them, and walking away truly knowing in every part of my being that I had been changed forever. Changed and empowered and enlightened by the sheer act of really experiencing something....of birthing the way women and babies are meant to birth- in a comfortable, safe environment, surrounded by love and support, free to move and birth in the manner that is best for *this* birth and *this* baby. Birth is not something to be managed, nor is it an illness, it is something that is as big and as divine as Life itself and something so much more than can be found on most OB/Gyn floors.

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