You're taking your prenatal vitamins, decorating the nursery, and decided on the baby's name. Now its time to start planning for the most exciting day of your life - the baby's birth day. In addition to taking a childbirth preparation course, reading books and watching videos, one great idea is to read birth and labor stories online. These stories might help you be better prepared for different types of situations that might arise. Here are some websites to browse for birth and labor stories.
Disclaimer: Nearly all of these stories are very positive with happy endings. However, if reading about complications might worry you, you might want to pass on this activity. There are a few stories on these sites that discuss serious complications.
The website has a nice selection of stories to choose from. You can read pieces on home births, cesarean births, medicated labors, unmedicated labors, complicated birth situations and vaginal birth after cesareans. It highlights numerous different situations such as twin births, using forceps/vacuum, epidurals and more. You can also review stories where a midwife or doula was used, even some unassisted births. You can even read one story where dad caught the baby! It is one of the most extensive list of birth stories you can find online. If it worth a visit and you might want to bookmark the site so you can return.
This site, Birthdiaries.com, is unique from all of the others in that it includes photos with the birth. Some of them are very graphic - the stories are devided up according to how graphic they are. You can browse stories and photos on hospital births, home births, vaginal births, cesarean births, and birth center births. If you are get queasy easily, this site is not for you. It is a great site for nurses and midwives in training too. Even hopeful medical students might want to to review it as well.
Another excellent site to visit is www.thelaboroflove.com. It has a section with over 700 stories. It is not divided according to situation, but you can search by topic or situation. The information is very detailed and informative. You can read about situations such as a 41 year old first time mom, premature labor, water births and more. This is another informative site to check out.
The site storknet.com has a large collection of accounts as well. It is divided into vaginal births, cesarean births, home births, twins, VBAC, and special deliveries. You can read stories about pregnancy after infertility, placenta previa, and even a story where the baby was delivered in the car on the way to the hospital. Browsing this site will be very educational and enlightening for a mom-to-be.
Birth Stories is another fantastic site with a multitude of stories. If you're looking for a story on quadruplets, big babies, or very long labors, you can find it here. You can also read about teen mom births, a story where a mom did not know she was having twins, and a baby born in a snowstorm. This is another site you might want to add to your favorites.
Another excellent place to browse is pregnancyandbaby.com. The site is loaded with ads, but the stories are very detailed and helpful. It offers 19 categories - everything from big babies to first time moms to short labors. You can read about a baby who was delivered on a vacation, a baby born in the car, and a baby delivered by a nurse. You can read different scenarios such as induced labor and doula assistance. This site has a great collection.
These sites are very helpful for expecting moms. Remember your doctor should your number one resource for labor and delivery information.
Congratulations!
