This Sh!t is B-A-N-A-N-A-S

“I didn’t know how much vomiting there would be.” 

“How was I supposed to know if what I was experiencing was normal? No one prepares you for this!” 

“They kept questioning me on the phone asking if I really needed to come into the birth center. I was like, ‘Well.. That is why we called,’ but since this was my first time I thought maybe they are right so I kept laboring at home and when I finally did arrive at the center I was already at 10cm.”

These are just a few things I have heard from birthing people recently as they recounted their birth stories with tears and confusion and also joy and celebration. 

While I grew up with a familiarity of the birthing world with a mother as a labor and delivery nurse, I still experienced this absence of knowledge with the birth process, the loss of community with other women and birthing people, and the loss of traditional wisdom.

People have strong opinions about medical protocol and its subsequent meaning and such practices are absolutes in obstetrical culture so that the medical establishment communicates that any deviations from the medical norm place birthing person and infant in jeopardy. However, giving birth isn’t just about having babies. It is about women[birthing people]'s lives, women[birthing people]'s wisdom, women[birthing people]'s bodies, and women[birthing people]'s empowerment (Lamaze International, 2000).

Birth stories are powerful. Giving birth is not only about having babies; it’s also about motherhood and parenthood. The magnitude of having a baby is often minimized by society, so when we struggle with aspects of it, we can feel alone with those feelings. Sharing birth stories is not only about providing or collecting information; it is also about community.  

The sharing of a birth story is an integral part of postpartum healing and processing. The stories we tell about this profound experience can impact how we view ourselves as parents, as individuals and can potentially play a role in our feelings about future pregnancies. Telling your story allows you to process your journey, from first finding out that you’re pregnant, to meeting your baby for the first time.

The practice of people gathering in sacred, healing, and supportive circles is a tradition that has faded in the business of our modern world, as is passing down the knowledge we need, through the generations, for our health during pregnancy, birth, and the new parenthood years.

Let’s reclaim this sh!t! Tell your stories! Support each other. Support your own healing.