from I.T. -Kingsport, Tennessee

I was already halfway through my pregnancy when I started learning more about free birthing. I never knew it was even legal to birth your baby unassisted at home. I just knew that my previous birth experiences wasn’t what I wanted for myself or my baby so I started digging deeper and reading about other free birthing stories. I quickly became so empowered by this idea and found a Facebook group with a community of free birth women which lead me to meeting Aly. Aly started teaching me more about free birthing. She empowered me and gave me resources to help guide me through this journey. The doctors office I was going to from the beginning of my pregnancy kept finding “issues” with not only the way my placenta was positioned but also with my baby as well. They were saying she was “too small”, “the placenta may be keeping her from getting the proper nutrients”, they even told me she had an issue with her heart. They told me that when I birthed my baby they would have to do a sweep to manually remove my placenta which included someone sticking basically their entire arm inside of me. However, my mama instincts kept telling me that me and my baby both were okay. Nothing they were telling me was sitting right with me so I begin to pray about it. I prayed and began seeking guidance from the lord and decided that I would put my trust in him with the birth of my daughter. Even though my family called me irresponsible and foolish, I knew that birthing my daughter at home was the best option for the both of us. I decided to stop going to my appointments. I didn’t need to know anything else about her position, or how many cm dialed I was, or any of that. I was trusting God and fully letting go. Leading up to my birth my partner and I listened to as many positive birth stories and learned as much as we possibly could learn. We started buying supplies; a birth pool, tinctures, tens unit machine, birth ball etc. the month of my predicted due date arrived and I was so excited to meet my baby and also very nervous at the same time because a birth with no assistance and no pain medicine was something I had never done before, but I was confident! The night of August 25th I went to bed and got woke up around midnight to light contractions. The contractions were consistent for the rest of the night but I was able to go in and out of sleep all night considering they weren’t yet strong. That morning I told my partner that I was pretty sure I was going to be having our baby that day and that I had been having contractions all night. I called my best friend to come who is a paramedic because considering it was my first time free birthing I wanted someone there to know what to do in case of an emergency. She came and her, my partner and I hung out around the house all day. We were talking, laughing, eating and just enjoying the day while i was in labor. I decided to shower and my best friend went home to eat dinner with family since i wasn’t progressing much. By about 5-6pm things started to get a little more intense. I was breathing through each difficult contraction and using the breathing techniques I had learned. As it got later in the evening things started to get more and more intense. I requested my partner to help me get into the pool and call my best friend to come back. Contractions began coming back to back with little break in between and I just kept reminding myself how close I was to meeting my little girl. It was hard but I remained confident in my ability to birth my baby. I kept breathing and praying and as they got more intense I begin to scream through them which is not what I had expected myself to do after watching the other birth stories of women calmly breathing through to the end. Every woman’s experience is so different though so I have had to be gentle with myself for how I handled it. As I labored in the pool I got this intense desire to go empty myself on the toilet so my partner helped me to the bathroom. I think sitting on the toilet really helped me progress quicker because that’s when the bloody show started and I called for my partner to help me back to the pool as quickly as possible. I got back in the water and continued laboring, breathing, and still screaming my way through. It was pain but it was also power! I was so proud of myself. I had decided before my birth that I wouldn’t push unless absolutely necessary to reduce my risk of tearing so that’s what I did, I didn’t push. I let my body do what it needed to do and trusted that it would get my baby out without me having to do much. I had been back in the pool maybe 15 minutes before my best friend ran into the house as quick as she could and came by side, giving me affirmations and reminding me of how good I was doing. Quickly after I felt my baby crowning and I knew then that I needed to push to get her head out so when my next contraction came I pushed as hard as I could and out came her head. Another hard push and out came the rest of her body! I put her up on my chest and started saying “we did it baby!” “We did it!” My partner got emotional and so did I. I sat in the water for about 10 more minutes regaining my breath and resting for a moment and then they helped me out of the water. I didn’t tear at all which is a first for me (this was my third baby). We moved to the couch where we then stared at her with awe because of how beautiful and perfect she was. My placenta was birthed about 30 minutes after with no issues at all. I left the cord attached until it stopped pulsating and then my partner cut it. I eventually made my way back to our bed and me and partner spent hours just staring and admiring her in the comfort of our home, in our bed. It was such a beautiful experience! Ever since she has been born she has had no health issues and her and I both have been completely healthy.