07/29/2023
I set out with a goal to give birth at home and to do it essentially as “pain free” and “quick” as possible. I thought I had it all lined up to make that happen. Midwives, homebirth, doula and a photographer to capture it all.
& did I mention I’m a doula myself, so surely I can keep myself calm and collected and do all the things to cope. 18+ hours later, I demanded to be transferred. I wanted nothing to do with my original plan. & for a long time after the birth of my daughter, I felt as if I failed. Even more so because of my role as a doula myself. As if “I was excluded from long and hard labors.”
But here’s the thing, no one is. & no one really knows how it’ll all play out. Birth isn’t about a “plan”. It’s not about watching how so and so did it and expecting the same outcome.
It’s not to say quick and pain free births are a bad thing to desire or that it’s unattainable but our birth community tends to focus on those specific kind of births. . so when it doesn’t happen that way, we feel bad. Or at-least I did.
The natural births, the medicated ones, the belly births, the emergency ones, the planned epidurals, the planned belly births, the birth were plans change. They are all beautiful. & they are all worth sharing. ✨💕
