Birthing Articles

“You can’t plan birth” is a phrase I’m sure you’ve come across if you’ve talked about birth plans. Maybe you’ve said it yourself. It really does seem like a common response to the idea of mothers having a birth plan.And after years of talking about birth and birth plans I finally found the words to explain why that’s not really the case. Or more, that’s not a reason not to have a birth plan - if you want one.

Exactly how you give birth might not matter; a csection, vaginal birth, home birth, or in hospital, whether it was hands off birth or you had lots of intervention. What happened doesn't matter nearly as much as how you felt during and after giving birth.

In my group of friends, I was the first to become a mum at just 21 years old. As a 21 year old mother, I was just as clueless and scared as you probably are imagining. I learned a lot along the way and several years later,

So Tuesdays are my favourite day of the week. I have a beautiful little community of mums and their little ones with whom we gather weekly and talk of all things birth and breastfeeding while we crochet.

I had planned a homebirth; my care provider was a beautiful midwife with the local hospital midwife program.

I have experienced two births and both were total shit. I agreed to the second bub with the hubby thinking that “they” (you know as in “they say that….”) were right in that the second one was quicker and less painful than the first, which was excruciating. If someone had handed me a loaded gun I would have pulled the trigger to stop the pain. Both times. Did I mention the midwife called me a drama queen??

Birth stories. We all love to hear a birth story, and I thought I should share mine.

I have 4 wonderful birth journeys to share with you and I hope you can relate to them, or even perhaps learn something you didn’t already know. So we kick off with birth story number one.

On the 28th July, we welcomed our precious little man Elijah George into our lives. This is his birth story.

My pregnancy with Elijah was text book – in the sense that it was one of those of pregnancies that progress with no complications and very little discomfort.

Someone very close to me is preparing to give birth for the second time at the same hospital my son was born, and it surprises me that after well over 5 years since I’ve stepped foot in that hospital it still stirs up some feelings for me. Not all bad feelings, I think I'm passed most of it,but it is still there.

Birthing Your Breech Baby – What Are Your Options? About 3-4 per cent of babies present breech at term. This means that the baby’s head is at the top of the uterus and its buttocks, knees or feet are at the bottom. Some breech babies have their legs straight up so their feet are around the head (frank breech), others sit crossed legged (complete breech) and others crouch, kneel or stand. Most of the time, there is no obvious reason why a baby is presenting breech – it is just one of those things. I like to think that my breech baby was keeping her head next to my heart. However, sometimes it is due to the shape of the mother’s uterus (for instance, bi-cornate or heart-shaped) or something to do with the baby.

Okay, this has been a while coming. My little man is 7 months old now and has just started teething (another story for another time) and I have been meaning to get this down for quite some time, and in fact have 4 pages of unfinished notes jotted down SOMEWHERE about my birthing experience. I'm going to start by saying it wasn't a positive experience for me and talking about it with several health carers from the day after I arrived home from hospital I have been urged to write a letter of complaint to the hospital where I had my son at. Hence the 4 pages.

Unsurprisingly, after an analysis of 13 studies, involving 16,242 women in Australia, Britain, Canada, Ireland and New Zealand, has found “…that having the same midwife provides significant benefits for women who have a medium or low risk during their pregnancy.”Some of the findings were that women with midwife-led care had a 16% reduced rate of episiotomy, 12% less forceps and ventouse delivery, 13% less likely to have an epidural and more likely to have a spontaneous labour, though on average had longer labours by 30 minutes and there was no more or less chance of a caesarean birth.

Where and how you plan to birth, will determine what you need in your hospital bag. If you’re planning to birth in Hospital what you need to bring with you will vary.

Bryce’s Birth Story My name is Krystle, I’m 26 years old, and mother to an amazing 8 month old little boy! My birth story is not what i expected or ever hoped it to be, but is still the most awe inspiring experience of my life. The thing is the …

Hi :-) This is our birth story of baby #4Welcoming Bentley Alexander Earthside - Our homebirth journeyOur story begins on November the 8th 2011. 7 Months to the day that my beautiful Mama had passed away.

When to come to writing a birth plan, people might say “You can’t plan a birth” – there are so many things that can happen that are unexpected, or not go to “plan”, births can be quicker, longer, harder, easier, more complicated or simpler than we anticipate.

Willow's story begins long before she chose to enter this world. Against all odds a one night fling with my ex resulted in my pregnancy with her, the decision to keep her and raise knowing I would be a single mother to a newborn was a hard decision to make.

My due date was the 26th of June 2009. But Maya was born 4 days before her due date, so nobody expected this pregnancy to last until the due date, let alone go over.

Maya’s Birth Story My due date was Thursday 31st of May 2007. It was my first pregnancy. I was hoping that this baby wouldn’t come too early because my mother was arriving from Germany on Sunday the 20th. I was going to deliver at the birth centre of the Gold …

Since Margo is about to turn three, I’ve recently been thinking a lot about her birth. Margo was born in a hospital setting and her birth was considered a ‘natural childbirth’.

I was 40 weeks and 6 days and to say I was over it would be an understatement.I was booked in for a stretch and sweep at the birthing centre at 1pm and was hoping it would be the little nudge my comfortable little man needed.

Jasper’s Birth Story I want to preface this story by saying this all happened 4 years ago, this story was written while the event was still fresh and raw. Since Jasper was born I’ve had an amazing and empowering VBAC with my baby girl and I have come to a place where …

I should note that this is a positive elective c-section story, I have never broken a bone, had surgery, had a stitch, or even been stung by a bee..! So to be honest I was expecting it to be more of a big thing then what it turned out to be...!

This story is the birth of our gorgeous daughter, over a year ago now, she was born 9th of March, 2012. Very long, hard, but still incredibly empowering VBAC. (vaginal birth after a cesarean)

Birthing certainly can be an amazing, empowering, beautiful, magical experience, It can also be very painful, long or traumatic in some instances. I highly recommend reading Ina May’s Guide to Childbirth if you can get a copy, and if you are planning to birth vaginally to watch birthing videos – there are heaps on you-tube – to help prepare mentally for the task ahead!