Monday, July 16, 2012

Birth Stories

We had a great discussion this week in class about the importance of birth stories.

I remember when I was pregnant, I couldn't get enough of reading birth stories. Spiritual Midwifery and Sheila Kitzinger's collection Giving Birth: How it Really Feels were wonderful companions to me.

People in our class right now are loving Ina May's Guide to Childbirth. We all agree that it can be so nourishing to see all the different ways birth can unfold, and how people respond to, and grow through, labor and birth as rites of passage.

At the same time, it also be hard to filter things out. I've never met anyone who feels empowered by "A Baby Story" on TLC. And what about when random people want to tell you about their harrowing experiences? How can you get what you need from the birth stories people inevitably want to tell you when you're pregnant?

One strategy is to steer conversations into helpful directions by asking questions like, "When did you feel strongest in your birth experience?" "How did you make it through the challenging parts?" "What was the most helpful thing your partner did for you during labor?" "When did you first feel your parenting intuition kick in with your newborn?"

For those of you wanting more birth stories, here are some good online resources:
Birth Story Diaries
Positive Birth Stories
Birth Stories Blog

1 comment:

  1. Hi,

    I was wondering if you accepted any guest posting on your site. I couldn’t manage to find your email on the site. If you could get a hold of me at jeff@drugwatch.com, I would greatly appreciate it!

    Thanks,
    -Jeff

    ReplyDelete