My Birth Story
It was a sunny day in April when I laid in bed staring at the ceiling. My belly wouldn’t let me sleep, and I was too excited for Lucia to arrive.
My sister slept over and my husband was in a dead slumber.
I walked over to the loo and surely enough it was baby time (I will spare you the details).
We looked at our apartment for the last time as a couple and we excited to return as a family. I smiled and prepared myself for the unknown peppered with joy of bringing home a baby.
Pants on, shirt on, baby bag in hand and off we went to the hospital not far away from home.
Now if you know me you know that I’m a foodie so, we made a pit stop on the way to the hospital – made sure I got my food on before I knew that I would not get to eat (until some ungodly hour).
I get to the hospital, did all the paper work and got ready for a checkup to see if my bags of water had in fact ruptured. Low and behold, there was no sign of my water breaking.
I got sent for a walk and was asked to come back in an hour or so. I did my thing came back for my second check up. This time I could tell that my OB went in there and broke my water (YEP! Sans-permission) .
I was very quickly strapped to the baby heart monitor and bound to a bed for the next 12 hours. As time went by I was given medication to induce labor, I was nervous and had no idea what routine procedures were and what options were available to me. There were too many people in the birthing room and I could not focus on my breath.
Fast forward to several hours later
Lucia joined us earth side (12 hours later not bad for a newbie).
My experience was unique so I do not want to paint a picture of good bad and ugly. I just want to say that I wish I had known what was routine procedure, and what choices I had. If you are pregnant and reading this, OWN IT, learn what choices are available, what resources are important to you and what you are willing to compromise or set a hard limit on.
Having a doula is one of the many resources that are available to you.
OYB is a labour of love (no pun intended). A community that wants to support you while you Own Your Birth, make informed decisions and support you in redefining what motherhood, parenthood and birth mean to you.
Stephanie has studied the following modalities of birth/postpartum support and interventions and draws from each, as needed in her client visits:
- Birth & Postpartum trained by the most recognized doula organization DONA International (Trainer: Stefanie Antunes)
- Maternal Support Practitioner trained with Bebo Mia
- Breastfeeding Essentials with Taya Griffin
- Holding Space for Pregnancy Loss – Trainer: Amy Wright
- Rebozo comfort measures Gena Kirby Method
- Infant Sleep Educator trained with Bebo Mia
- Certified yoga instructor -Yoga Alliance (trained in prental/postnatal, hatha and vinyasa)
- Infant CPR and baby first aid – Red Cross
What happens when a doula attends your birth?
- 25% shorter labour
- 60% reduction in epidural requests
- 50% reduction un cesarean rate
- 40% reduction in Pitocin use.
