What is birth anyways? We are so far from birth, most of us have never seen a baby born before we birth our own baby.
What is birth about?
Birth is about creating mothers.
Birth is about bonding.
Birth is about travelling to the veil of life and death to reach through and bring your baby earthside.
Some of us experience birth as extremely painful. Some of us experience birth as ecstatic and orgasmic.
The truth is, every birth is different and the only person who will live your story is you.
However, knowing what about birth will change the way you birth your baby.
Birth stories will help you move from a place of uncertainty to empowerment.
Birth stories will help you replace the drama filled images from television to real life experiences of real women.
Birth stories will help you know that you are not alone, that you can heal, that you can transform.
Birth stories will help you imagine and dream and create an experience that is one of the most profound, fulfilling and sacred moments of your life.
If you are not clear about this yet, I love birth stories.
Birth calls us to transform. Like a seed breaking open to become a plant, you might just find that on the other side of birth, you are a new woman.
Here are our favorite places to read and listen to Birth Stories:
10. Birth Without Fear
If you want stories that will pull at your heartstrings, make you laugh until you cry and cry until you laugh, this is the place to go. Birth without fear is a blog dedicated to helping women know about their choices in birth and finding empowerment in their journey. We absolutely recommend mamas spend some time here.
9. Birth. Eat. Love.
Embracing that all births are unique and beautiful Birth.Eat.Love has a whole collection of birth stories that range from home birth, water birth, challenging births. These stories will help you see how powerful birthing women are. Women overcome. That is the strength you will find in yourself as you read these stories.
8. Monet Nicole Birth Videography
Okay, Okay, these are not stories you read, but watching a birth, you don’t get better than that. Moms have been birthing babies since the beginning of humanity. Seeing another mom do it though, is something else entirely. It inspires awe, humility, grace. We highly recommend watching the videos in her collection.
7. The Happy Homebirth
Ahhhh the intention of the world homebirth. Not two separate words home and birth put near each other, but homebirth, as if they belong together, watching over each other. Home watching over birth and birth enriching the home. We love these stories of women who are birthing in their own space. Even if you are planning a hospital or birth center birth, we still love these stories because they inspire that feeling or all things right and good with birth. If these moms can do it, so can you!
6. BadAssMotherBirther
These videos are not the sweet videos set to music cropping out the actual pushing or nakedness of mother in birth that you might see in the videos above. This is the beautiful bare naked truth of birth. It is incredibly empowering watching the raw emotion and sheer power of mothers birthing their babies. You will see nudity, you will hear mothers in all their ferocity. You will see babies coming out of vaginas. Just like your baby will come out of your vagina. This is a real honest look at birth and one that we love for mothers preparing to birth powerfully.
5. The Smith Squad
Emily has had 8 babies. Yes you heard me right, EIGHT BABIES. She knows a thing or two about birth. What I love about her stories is that you can see that every birth is different. This is important because your birth is your birth. It will not be the same as your moms birth experiences or your sisters birth experiences. You get to live your own story and define it how you want it to be. Reading Emily’s stories will inspire you to birth your own way and honor the nobility within yourself that is Mother.
4. Mama Natural Birth Stories
Mama Natural has compiled hundreds of stories of women who have birthed powerfully and naturally. She also talks about why we don’t know about birth, how birth stories can help you birth your baby and ways you can prepare for birth. Planning on getting an epidural? These stories are still relevant to you because you still have to manage contractions up until you get the drugs.
3. The Birthful Podcast
Adriana is passionate about helping others on their maternity journeys. Her fire to make a difference started from a place of outrage (have you noticed the broken state of maternity care? the non-existence of paid family leave in the US?), which she has since focused into a torch that lights her way towards supporting new parents in having joyful and satisfying birth and postpartum experiences. Her podcasts and the stories the mothers on her podcasts share will touch your heart to its core.
2. The Touch of Life Birth Film Gallery
This is the most extensive library of birth films we have found. It has everything, from VBAC to c-sections to home births, adoptions and everything in between. I love this because all birth is sacred and all birth has it’s place.
1. The Birth Hour
Another podcast that I simply adore, these stories encompass all of motherhood. Nothing is left out. If you struggled with infertility, there are stories for you. If you adopted, there are stories for you. If you are recovering from a traumatic birth, there are stories for you. If you are a first time mother, there are stories for you.
Birth is a sacred rite of passage.
As you read these stories, I hope you find that birth is written in your DNA. Much more than a journey from point A to point B where you follow a GPS and arrive without detour or struggle, you will find that birth will call you to look within and find the ability to trust your instincts, use your reason, merge that with your heart.
Do not let birth hide behind closed doors.
Do not hand over your power because your strength was previously unknown to you.
Do not sacrifice you wants in birth because someone else doesn’t have the vision you have.
