Have you told your story?

Giving birth can unleash us, it can light us up, and it can connect us with parents and babies around the world.  This is a virtual collection of birth stories—all kinds—to empower and inspire us to claim the power of this potent transformation.

Peruse our collective stories, tell yours, and join the discussion on the Facebook page.

Thanks for being part of The Birth Story Project.  These are our stories.

Finally Succeeded in Conceiving through IVF

We got married when we were 29, and we wanted to enjoy our married life, and give time to each other and understand each other more. Hence, family planning was not on our list for a couple of years, and I was also using birth control pills, to be on the safer side.

And after a few years, when couples in our friend circle were having babies, we thought this might be the time or us also, to start a family. But we didn’t know how much time it would take for us. After trying to conceive naturally for 6 months, we thought there might be some issue. Hence, I started searching a lot over the internet, about infertility, or how to get pregnant, what changes should I adopt etc.
But I was firm, and then I started using an ovulation calculator, to keep a track on my ovulation days. We even adopted healthy patterns, and my husband even quit smoking and drinking. But month after month, when I was getting my periods, my discomfort increased. I even started feeling envious sometimes, when I saw people playing with their kids. I always thought, ‘Why am I not able to get pregnant?’

I even started to avoid family functions and gatherings, so I don’t have to answer their questions, like, When are you having a baby? Are you planning or not? and so on.

I thought maybe learning more about problems related to infertility might help. But now I didn’t want to sit back, and wait for the things to happen on their own, I wanted to do something, try harder.

And then I consulted an IVF specialist. We discussed our fertility history with her and even went for some medical tests. I had my sonography, blood test and hormone test, my husband also had his sperm quality and quantity tests, and after the reports came, we had a session with our doctor. Any specific reason was not found for our problem. Hence, we first started our treatment with IUI. But as it wasn’t successful we went for IVF. Probably this was our last chance, as we were exhausted even financially, and couldn’t have been able to afford another round.

We were very disturbed, emotionally. The tension between us grew day by day. Sometimes it felt like, Is having a baby so important, that in the hope of a child, we have lost all our happiness? and so we started taking counseling sessions.

After a few days, when the hormone injections and everything were done, the doctor called to give the good news. Finally, my pregnancy results were positive. That day, we cried in joy. And now everything feels worth, all the pain, the efforts, and the struggle, everything was worth it when we saw our little daughter.

Vaani Minhas

VBAC After One Vaginal Birth and One Emergency C-Section

"Can I have a vaginal birth in the future?" That was the first question I asked my doctor after he came in to check on me after my very unexpected emergency c-section. She assured me that I would very likely be a good candidate, and I didnt need to worry about that...

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Came for a Headache, Left with a Baby

I am a twenty year old first time mother, two weeks postpartum. This is my birth story. I was thirty-six weeks and one day pregnant - which basically felt like an eternity. After breezing through the first and second trimesters with little complications, I was...

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Monica’s Story

It all started when my wife was pregnant with our first daughter. We were at one of the antenatal classes and everyone was talking about how scared they were about the pain of giving birth. One of the girls mentioned hypnobirthing and how she read a book that took all...

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A VBAC Birth Story in the Middle of a Pandemic

“She’s still breech.” These were the only words I heard the morning of my scheduled external cephalic version or ecv. “You’ve experienced this before, you know what to expect,” I told myself. And I did which was sort of the terrifying part. My second son just 22...

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24

Birth Story | Hart Wilde I didn’t love birth stories until I found out I was pregnant. After that, I became obsessed with them, asking everyone I knew to share theirs. It was weird and potentially inappropriate. The word mother took on a whole new meaning, one I...

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My Traumatic Birth

My birth story for my second baby is far from a beautiful, smooth journey. I’d been having extremely bad panic attacks for weeks, especially when someone mentioned the baby and I didn’t know why. I slowly started mentally declining but brushed it off as hormones and...

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3rd baby, first time natural

September 16th 2019, it was a good evening. I wasn't expecting to go into labor in the middle of the night, it was earlier than my original due date. My due date was September 24th 2019, i was nervous and kinda scared because Liam is my 3rd but its been a while my...

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Mika’s Birth

By November 9th, 2019 it felt like I had been pregnant for years. Most of the day I felt fairly normal, until around 4:30 in the afternoon I had to use the bathroom and realized that I couldn't stop peeing. Of course, it wasn't all pee. I had begun to leak water....

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Preeclampsia emergency birth

Subconsciously I knew I was pregnant the day you were conceived but never fully sure having not felt this feeling before, 3 weeks passed and I was driving home from work and knew I needed to check for sure, it was a solid positive! I called your dad at work straight...

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The Fast Homebirth of Esmé

It all started on Sunday, April 28th. I really wanted to go on a walk, so I told Patrick we should go on a short, mellow family walk on the Junction Creek Trail. We decided that Silas would ride his bike on the trail while Patrick and I walked, and we had a nice...

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