“I leaned back in the tub and I think what I said was just, ‘I’ve never held one of my babies after they were born before.’

It was interesting how there was an element that was sort of mundane about it but I liked that. It was just the normalcy of it all that shocked me if that makes sense.” 

Since her only experiences with her previous births were in a sterile, surgical, hospital environment, the simplicity and freedom of a home birth felt shockingly normal in all the best ways!

Jolie shares her first C-section, her planned home birth turned CBAC, followed by a 15-hour home birth at 43 weeks to an almost 11-pound baby with her third. She gives invaluable advice on how to REALLY know if you have the right provider for you and how it may not always be the VBAC-supportive provider everyone recommends. 

Jolie's Photography and Coaching Contact Info

Transforming Birth

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How to VBAC: The Ultimate Prep Course for Parents

Full Transcript under Episode Details 

Meagan: Hello, Women of Strength. It’s Meagan here. We have another VBAC story for you today and we have our friend, Jolie. Hello, Jolie. 

Jolie: Hey, Meagan. 

Meagan: How are you today? 

Jolie: I’m good. How are you? 

Meagan: I am so great. I am so excited to record your story. There were a whole bunch of little snippets through your story that I’m like, Oh, I want to talk about that. But I wanted to tell everybody that I’ve been starting to do this. I don’t know if you’ve been noticing but we get a lot of emails of, Hey, where was this person located? What state was that? I’m curious if it was my state so I can try to find that provider. We are going to have her providers and stuff tagged in today’s post but you say you are in North Georgia, correct? 

Jolie: Yes. 

Meagan: Is that just where your VBAC was or is that where you are residing now? 

Jolie: Nope, this is where my VBAC was, in North Georgia. 

Meagan: Okay, so North Georgia people, listen up. This is going to be a great story. I’ll tell you guys a little bit more. Okay, so you’re a birth worker and a photographer. Are you a doula? 

Jolie: Yes. Yep. I was trained as a doula in 2020 but I’m exploring different ways to support people in the birth community because, with three young children, I’m just trying to navigate the on-call life and doing things. But yes, I do have experience being a doula. 

Meagan: Awesome. So cool. Like she said, she has three kiddos. She is a Christian wife to a Biblical counselor. That’s awesome. I love how you guys said that you have a vision of a multi-generational team on a mission to God’s kingdom. I just love that so much. I am so excited to record your story here in just a few seconds. 

I do of course have a Review of the Week as always. We always have reviews and just a reminder, if you haven’t left a review yet, we would love them. They really do help the show. They help other Women of Strength find these amazing stories and honestly, they just put a ginormous smile on my face. 

This review says, “Love these ladies and this podcast.” It says, “I love listening to your podcast. I listen almost every day in the car. So often that my oldest son knows you both by name. The stories shared here have inspired me so much. I wish I had all of this information with my first baby. I have had two C-sections. I’m not pregnant at the moment and still have to get my husband on board for a third, but I am so excited to start planning for a VBAC after two C-sections when the time comes. Thank you, Julie and Megan, for creating this amazing VBAC community. I’m so thankful for the education and support.” 

Okay, seriously, I love that. We keep hearing this. I love that other kids know who we are because they are just so used to listening to the podcast because this is what I love even more than just they know who they are. They are learning. These kids are sponges. We know that. They are always taking stuff in that we are saying and if they’re listening to these stories, they are learning. So hopefully if your kiddos are learning and listening, they are going to have a different outcome in their future for their future births if they so choose to because they’re going to know, right? They’re going to know all of these stories. 

Anyway, that makes my heart smile. 

Jolie: That’s awesome. 

Meagan: All right, girl. Are you ready? Let’s do this. 

Jolie: All right. 

Meagan: All right. Let’s turn the time over. 

Jolie: Okay, so yes. I had a home birth in November, November 5th. That was a home birth after two Cesareans so an HBA2C. I’ll just do a small synopsis of the first two births because I feel like that always helps preface the background of where I’m coming from. I think everybody’s journey to their VBAC is totally different. 

Meagan: Yeah, totally different and at the same time, there are so many listening who are like, Oh my gosh, this is just like me. I think sometimes we hold on to those past experiences even if we’ve processed them. We know that was our past so sometimes we even doubt ourselves because of that so hearing someone’s story who is pretty similar to yours and then hearing them go on to have a VBAC is pretty impactful. 

Jolie: Yeah, absolutely. I can relate to that as well with listening to podcasts and finding those stories of women’s journeys to their VBACs. I definitely clung onto the ones I related to. 

With my first baby, our daughter, she was born in 2019 and I mean, that was like so many, a typical cascade of interventions situation where I was aware of home birth and natural childbirth. I knew that I wanted that, but I also was just young and didn’t know and wasn’t aware of the resources I had. It’s pretty much what I chaulked that up to. I just was getting into birth and eyes wide open and reading what I could but I didn’t really know obviously what the future was going to hold for me. I didn’t know all what was available to me either. 

I was seeing a traditional OB group and was planning a hospital birth but wanted just a natural childbirth with no interventions at all. I just wanted in in the hospital. I ended up getting fear-mongered to just put it simply out there. Fearmongered into an induction at 41 weeks and yeah. Quite frankly, it just didn’t work. My body was not ready. I was not open at all and I was so determined. I stayed in that hospital working with an induction for a whole week before I had my C-section. 

I was trying to go slow and steady and I was going a little stir crazy there at the end of that week. I obviously was confused and just downcast and so just sad about what was happening. I was shocked that I was there in that situation. I remember reading Ina May’s book and skipping the C-section chapter because I was like, That’s not going to be me. Why do I need to read this? 

Meagan: That’s really normal. Even here with the CBAC stories, I think it’s really common to be like, I don’t want to listen to that CBAC story because that’s not going to be me. But at the same time, I think it’s good too. 

Jolie: Yeah. Yeah. There’s definitely a balance to that. I found myself at the end of that week pushing 42 and was kind of again just had fear within me and had fear coming from my providers of, “You’ve been at this for a week. You’re not in labor. Your options are to leave or have a C-section.” I was just like, “Leave? I’ve been here for a week. I’m not going to leave here without a baby.” We opted for the C-section and she was fine. We handled that whole week together perfectly fine. There were no emergencies or hiccups in the road. It was just like, “All right. This is just what we do next,” kind of at this point. 

She was born at 32 to the day via Cesarean and yeah. That was that. I definitely processed the birth very traumatically because any trauma is how you process what’s going on. I know there are births out there that could look like that and people handle it differently. So anyway, for me, I processed it with a sense of trauma. I spent that next year just working through that sorrow and trauma. I started seeing a Biblical counselor which is why I included in my little bio that my husband is one because I saw one and the change that he saw in me is what spurred him on and encouraged him to become one. That was a really cool moment in our family where I was going to this wonderful woman for help and just handling my birth. 

Anyway, that was really helpful for me in growing and changing the way I was looking at my birth. I was very determined to have a VBAC. My husband