Remember the horrible films you’d watch in sex ed classes featuring a scary, screaming, bloody mess of a woman giving birth in total agony (probably because she had sex before marriage and was birthing the baby out of wedlock - I went to Catholic school so I’m convinced those videos were purely to warn off pre-marital sex rather than educate on the miracle of childbirth)?

Well until becoming pregnant myself, these were the only visual references I had for a birthing experience.

Throughout the pregnancy, I’ve made it a point to watch more empowering examples of birth play out. Our awesome midwives have a full library of home birth videos from women and families they’ve worked with, and they lend them out to current patients to check out for themselves.

I dove right in, like an athlete studying film of other amazing athletes in the game. I watched for different home birth setups, styles of laboring, support from birthing partners and family members, and all the other elements I could use to envision my own home birth experience.

Watching all of the videos brought up new ideas and contexts like what I previously thought birth had to look like and how it could be with intentional planning.

More From Doing It At Home:

• Doing It At Home book on Amazon: https://amzn.to/3vJcPmU
  


• DIAH Website: https://www.diahpodcast.com/
  


• DIAH Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/doingitathome/
  


• DIAH YouTube: https://bit.ly/3pzuzQC
  


• DIAH Merch: www.diahpodcast.com/merch
  


• Give Back to DIAH: https://bit.ly/3qgm4r9
  

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