Birth Stories in Color

Ashly was 18 years old when she was pregnant and birthed her first child. Reflecting, she expresses that she didn't know much, either about the preparation or what her experience could be like. Ashly and her partner flowed through, just trying to figure it all out. Her birth would include many shifts, and one that she felt lost in was bringing her baby earthside with a surgical birth. When she beg...

Shanicia Boswell, a self-proclaimed serial entrepreneur, reflected on the birth of her daughter. She recalls feeling like getting pregnant at 22 was like getting pregnant in high school. Her friends were busy continuing their education and traveling. She remembered not feeling accepted or treated well due to being young, Black, and unmarried. She knew that she wanted an unmedicated water birth and...

Layo's childhood planted the seed for Wolomi. Growing up in Nigeria and DC, the joy of community support during one's expansion of family was a part of her everyday life, as her mother supported friends and family as a midwife. Taking the lessons of these experiences with her into her career as a nurse in America, a reality set in that what she had seen with reproductive care was not the standard...

Leslie had started preparing for parenthood by learning as much as she could and discovered many pathways for birth, parenting, and creating a home environment that would be different from her own life experience. She had learned about homebirth in college and kept the knowledge in her mind until she and her husband, Carvens, were expecting their own child. They hired Caryn as additional support b...

Due to technical difficulties, you will hear from Sarah towards the end of this episode. In expanding their family, Tauri and Sarah found that Intrauterine Insemination (IUI) was the route that felt best. And after finding out they were pregnant, being the planner she is - Tauri began preparing for their birth vision. They wouldn't have even known they needed to prepare for dealing with pregnancy...

Dr. Alicia Bonaparte is an Associate Professor of Sociology at Pitzer College and trained as a medical sociologist specializing in reproductive health, health disparities, and female crime and deviance. Dr. Bonaparte is well known for her role as co-editor of Birthing Justice: Black Women, Pregnancy and Childbirth - a book that has ushered in a movement of Black Birth Workers across the diaspora....

Meditation can help reduce stress, anxiety, and depression while improving mood, resilience, focus, and a sense of well-being. Meditation is a gift... one that you can freely give to yourself. Affirmations are positive statements that can help you overcome self-sabotage, negative thoughts. Start with what you want to change. Both practices combined can help you achieve goals, manage stress, and ha...

Jefri had always wanted a homebirth and be supported with midwifery care. When she found out she was pregnant - it also fell in line when she began her work as a student midwife. This would allow for a unique perspective, as working through her course work, she learned through her own body. Connecting what she was learning to what was happening for her throughout her pregnancy. For Jefri prepping...

When pregnant with her second child, the physical aspects of the journey were familiar. Still, Chanel knew to prepare herself for the unfamiliar fully, and she would need to educate herself and build a birth team that she could trust, which would fully support her in moving forward with a VBAC. And while moving through those parts, she would also find that her personal healing would be just as imp...

For Jordan and Rufus, knew they wanted to spend the first year of their marriage focused on just the two of them. And by year two, they were ready to expand their family, but as time moved throughout that year and they were still not pregnant, they began getting a bit concerned that maybe something was wrong. After a visit with their doctor and receiving the news that nothing seemed to be wrong, J...

Jocelyne, a homebirth parent, and co-creator of Homebirth.com shared her story and the origins of those unexpected titles. Jocelyne and her partner had been planning their wedding when they discovered they were expecting. They made a pivot and married ahead of schedule. The next obstacle was finding alignment with a provider that would honor their wishes became the most challenging aspect of the p...

Being a maternity nurse, Courtney knew the lack of focus on preparing for the fourth trimester. For her, a vital part of preparation when pregnant was anchoring into how she would support her healing and bonding during that time. This encompassed building a full birth team - a midwife aligned with her vision, a lactation consultant, a pelvic floor therapist, and ensuring her husband was empowered...

After about four years into their marriage, Ashley and her husband were ready to expand their family. And when they found out they were expecting, being the planner she is, Ashley began preparing for her pregnancy and birth. Understanding maternal health for black women, having a black doctor and OBGYN was essential to her. With her background as a chef, staying nourished with the right foods and...

Natalie Nicole joined us to share the birth story of her rainbow baby. After experiencing a miscarriage on New Year’s day of 2014, she was terrified of being pregnant again. So that June, when she found out she was pregnant, she was fearful about the same outcome. But in January 2015, her son was born, and answering her prayers and showing her strength. Natalie entered this pregnancy, being concer...

For LC and her husband, Sheldon becoming pregnant with their daughter was something they were ready for and had planned. In the moments of confirming their pregnancy, they would also find out that a dear friend had passed away. As LC expressed, this would set her pregnancy's tone, a constant teetering of joy and grief. In the months coming, LC would also lose her grandmother and another close frie...

Najla Muhammad joins us to share her controversial birth story set in a foreign land with laws in place that didn’t fit her birth vision. She had experienced birth in a hospital with her previous pregnancies but always wanted to birth at home. Now she decided to not only birth at home but that she also wanted to have an unassisted birth. She and her husband were in agreement with each other and so...

This is a story that includes loss - In memory of William Jr. Dani describes her story as a faith journey to motherhood - a journey that has included pain, joy but also lots of hope. In 2010, a year into their marriage Dani and her husband found out they were pregnant. Yet early into this pregnancy, they would experience a miscarriage. Processing through that, they decided to wait before trying ag...

Oriel started her pregnancy as being relatively normal and without issues. Her and her husband prepared by taking all of the new parent classes with excitement and curiosity. Her story took an abrupt shift when her blood pressure started increasing, and she found herself being treated with medication and was not aware of the cause. The issues with high blood pressure found her needing additional a...

When Destiny found out she was pregnant with her second son, she expressed initially being in a place of denial. While she had always wanted a second child, feelings of hesitation began to arise as the age gap between her first and second was more extensive than she wanted and there was also being nervous about how she would be as a mother of two. But, being able to lean into her ROOTT doulas and...

When Anese and her husband found out they were pregnant, it was not only a surprise but extremely exciting. They were caught off guard when at ten weeks, her pregnancy would shift into high risk as she was diagnosed with a short cervix, making her susceptible to preterm labor. At 20 weeks, her doctor indicated they would need to make some serious changes to help maintain the chances of that occurr...

Kimberly is a mother of two; she attributes her motherhood journey as the spark to her work in the birth and breastfeeding space, and what continues to be her motivation. Being a journalist, while pregnant, she began asking questions. In feeling like the answers weren't adequate, she started looking into how the context of our lives as BIPOC could be clues into the infant and maternal disparities...

Tia and Martino shared their pregnancy and birth experience after finding out at 14 weeks gestation that Tia was diagnosed with cancer, SVC Syndrome, and many of the complications that came from her diagnosis. Awareness and hope are the guiding force to them being ready to share their story with our community. Tia described the moment when faced with an X-ray needed after a cough sent her to the E...

This is a story about loss - In memory of “little pumpkin” When Kia and her partner found out they were pregnant last April, they were ecstatic. As they settled into the first trimester, Kia began struggling with some complications that included intense nausea and early spotting. And while her OBGYN assured her that her symptoms were routine and what most birthing people experience. Kia's intuitio...

Dayna Ruben’s grandmother had nine children in the Caribbean islands, all homebirths. During her pregnancy, she thought about her a lot, and her first son was born on her birthday, where she would have been 100 years old. Dayna felt deeply connected to her ancestors and the groundwork that would lead her through her pregnancies. She incorporated hypnobirthing as a deep way to tap into her subconsc...

Hiring a doula is the part of Marissa's journey that set in motion building her dream birth team. Speaking with her doula and getting educated about her birth options, she would switch from her OBGYN to a midwife at eight months of her pregnancy. After discovering alarming rates for surgical births and episiotomies, she knew switching to midwifery care was more aligned with her and her husband's b...