A good friend of mine from church knows that I am going to be attempting to have this baby naturally, with no medications. So she lent me this book called Adventures in Natural Childbirth. The book is filled with birth stories of women whose goal was the same as mine, a non-medicated birth. I just finished the book and I would highly recommend it to any pregnant woman, even if a natural birth has never crossed her mind. It is filled with real women’s hopes and fears and accomplishments. It is very easy to relate to each one of them and it gives me the confidence that I can do it too.

The book is broken down into four sections: birthing naturally with a midwife, birthing naturally with a physician, birthing naturally with a doula, and birthing naturally unassisted. It makes it very easy to find women who fit your situation and see how their stories played out. I jumped straight to the physician section because I knew those were the stories I needed to hear. I needed to hear that it can be done in a hospital and you are allowed to stand up to hospital staff when they disagree with you. It also gives great ideas on what to do once you get to the hospital. One woman wrote a short version of her birth plan to give to the nurses. Once the nurses found out she wanted to do a natural birth a few of them didn’t want to be put on her service. Now this sounds harsh, but I would rather find the nurse that actually wants to help me at the very beginning of labor vs. having conflict during labor. This lady ended up with wonderful nurses who supported her because she planned ahead.

It is also interesting to read about other people’s choices and how they are different from mine and why they went a certain route. I am doing a VBAC (Vaginal Birth after Cesarean), so I knew from the beginning I wanted to be at the hospital. But it is still very inspiring to read stories about women who have given birth at home and other places.