It takes me by surprise, moments when i think about the births of my children. My first was born in California. Legally in Oakland, but on the map in Berkeley! Our apartment building straddled the line, and although our apartment was on the Berkeley line, the mailbox was in Oakland. Ha!
I don’t know that homebirth was even an option in my mind before my first pregnancy. It’s amazing what the instinct to protect will suddenly do to all of your ideas on “normal”. So once i decided that homebirth was my first choice, I suddenly became aware of a whole community in California that I hadn’t yet seen. The midwife/homebirthing network was vast, and kind, and incredible!
My midwife, Lucero, was fabulous! Perfect for me, and my babe. Having left California to come back east, i long for those connections again. Maine has a fantastic homebirth network too, but not so much actively going on at your fingertips(or within walking distance!)
In working with midwives through Everything Birth, i am happy to see that network just keeps growing. I love all of the blogs out there- reading the birth stories…here are just a few:
Dancing with the Moon, Birthing with the Sun– midwives, Racha and Maura
another set of fabulous birth stories in the California cove- from Rites of Passage, Women’s Health and Home Birth