Wordless Wednesday: Natural Birth
This week we asked: What does natural birth look like?
Read more about natural birth on our resource page titled Prepare for Pregnancy, Birth, and Parenting, and enjoy this week’s articles on the theme. To help define “natural birth,” we asked our readers what they think of the term, and the responses were varied! Our general thought at NPN is that it means a gentle and organic birth with low interventions, as was originally the norm, and we think it can be a beautiful thing, as you’ll see in the pictures below. Acknowledging that many parents cannot or choose not to have this kind of birth, next week’s photos will show other birthing experiences.
From Jenn: “My oldest daughter and me in between contractions.”
From Jenn: “Moments after delivery, with our doula to the right. Such a happy feeling!”
From Luschka: “Through my whole pregnancy I carried a great sadness, wondering how many hands would touch my baby before mine did. When I was lying back in the birthpool I said out loud how I wished I could raise her out of the water myself, to which the midwife said I could, no problem. I was so surprised and elated. I have no idea why I assumed I wouldn’t be able to, but it was the most amazing moment of my life. It’s the clearest memory I have.”
Luschka blogs at Diary of a First Child.
From Shannon: “Moira, shortly after being born (very quickly) at home. I ended up at the hospital for a little bit afterwards because I was hemorrhaging, but Walker and Moira stayed home to snuggle. The hemorrhaging stopped with my midwife’s help, and when I realized the doctor wasn’t planning on doing anything other than monitor me, I headed back home to be with my family.”
Shannon blogs at Pineapples & Artichokes.
From Tiffany: “Sister cut the cord after natural pulsing took place. Cal Brady birthed at home, 9/23/2010.”
From Jennifer: “Learning each other by heart, smell and touch after an AMAZING HBAC!”
Jennifer blogs at True Confessions of a Real Mommy.
From Shae: “This is Harper, my 3rd child just moments after she was born. She was my second child to be born at home in the water but the first one that I was able to ‘catch’ myself. As she was being born my midwife gave her a little push underwater towards me (I was on all fours) and I was able to scoop her up.”
You can read more about Shae’s birth experience at Yay for Home!: “Extraordinary.”
From Alison: “This is a photo of my home waterbirth, taken 2 weeks ago. This was my third homebirth AND my most intervention-free birth. “
From Alison: “Silas joined us at 1:48 am on Feb 16, 2011. He was born 2 hours and 18 minutes after my first contraction. I labored in the pool while the midwives set up. I had no internal checks at all. The midwives took my blood pressure once and periodically checked baby’s heart rate and also caught the baby because I was rather preoccupied with intense pushing.
“There were two interventions in this birth: 1) when I broke my own bulging bag of waters with my fingernail and 2) when I received a shot of pitocin after Silas was born because I have a history of retained placenta.”
Alison blogs at BluebirdMama.
A simple birth.
Image by Jennifer Wildey Photography.
You can read Mary’s birth story at Sugar Mountain Barkers.
Tell us: What did your birth experience look like?
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Love all the water births! I would very much like to have a water birth next time! My son Joshua was born almost a year ago in the hospital, where I had a positive experience. They’re supposed to be building a room with a birth pool and I want it next time!
Such a beautiful experience. Got me hankering to have another one … and I just had another little boy 3 months ago.
Reminds me of my fantastic homebirth only 5 weeks ago with my second child. It made such a difference to me to have a homebirth – emotionally and physically.
These are lovely. Thank you for posting and sharing.
Gorgeous photos and post — had my first baby at home, but chose not to have anyone there but my husband and midwife, so don’t have any ‘in action’ photos. Maybe the second time around. Blessings.
I love all the photos, too. My births looked similar to each other — both at home, both times I was turned inward, my husband with me, and then a baby in our midst!
Our second birth was a surprise unassisted, and I thought it was interesting because during the pregnancy, I kept having this image of just my husband and I at the moment of birth… and that it what ended up happening!
I am amazed and impressed by all of these beautiful photos! I don’t think a homebirth is for me, but I hope to make my next birth as intervention-free and natural as possible and find these pictures incredibly inspiring.