Birth Story: The Gift of Giving Life

I read this birth story the other day, and really enjoyed it:

The Gift of Giving Life

It is an LDS woman's story of pregnancy and birth, and besides being well-written and enjoyable to read, it includes a little bit of everything - starting out with an OB, transferring to a homebirth midwife, a home labor and then a hospital transport and birth - lots of stuff, not to mention a difficult marital separation during her pregnancy (this seems to be more common than one would think - it happened to a friend of mine).

I love what she said after her birth:

"I didn’t remember being graceful. I thought I had lost it. Later, when watching my birth video I realized that I was indeed graceful. (Another good reason to film your birth—you don’t remember it accurately)."

This is SO TRUE. I just watched my own birth video yesterday, and it really surprised me! My own memories involved me acting something like a bull moose during mating season... but when watching my video, I saw that not only did I have that dreamy, somewhat graceful look that all naturally-laboring women have, but I didn't actually do too badly! So ladies, make sure that someone is filming your labor and birth! (And don't do as we did with our first birth - wait until 20 minutes before the birth to get the camera out, only to discover that it is completely dead and gone. I will always regret that.)

The author of this birth story is in the process of compiling a book of LDS pregnancy/birth stories, which should be a fun book when it is released.