rudderless

One Last Word

One last baby-making post. I promise. One point The Business of Being Born made was how important it is for the powerful female voices in this country to tell their stories of normal, natural childbirth. Given that so much of what we hear is tales of scheduled C-sections, and sections done in conjunction with tummy tucks, before due dates to stave off excessive weight gain (because those are the exciting news stories), it’s even more important to hear about all the options. Dooce.com is perhaps the loudest, most heard voice of the personal bloggers, the Mommy Bloggers, whatever you wish to call her. Heather, author of Dooce, was just ranked in Forbes Magazine as among the Thirty Most Influential Women in Media- along with people like Oprah, Ellen deGeneres, and Rachel Maddow. She has been divulging parts of her most recent birth story over the past few weeks. The third installment appeared today. After reading Ricky Lake’s book (exec. producer of The Business of Being Born), witnessing a friend’s natural childbirth, and doing tons of research, she decided to go drug-free. This was, to put it into context, a huge break from her original birthplan. When I read the first installment of the birth story, I was like a highschool cheerleader, thrilled to read that she was taking that path. Her, Heather, queen bee of bloggers, speaking out for this!!

I’ve read a lot of great birth stories on blogs. Fussy giving birth in her bathroom, Jessica’s four births, Erica and her Sophie. The list goes on. They have been near and dear to my decisions about how to have my babies, and my confidence going into labor, especially the second time with an out-of-hospital birth. For me, writing about my girl’s births was an important part of processing the experience. Here are my stories, so I can find them when my ladies ask for them. Sophie loves to hear about “her” day, almost as much as I love telling her about it (in edited form).

Sophie- 1/11/2006

Rosy- 6/27/2008