Totally freakin' amazing birth stories

I've come across a few great birth stories that make me want to have a baby again. Which is looking a lot more possible since my period just started, right after my 32nd birthday. It's a birthday present that I have mixed feelings about. I like being period-free. Since January 2006 I have had 4 periods, total. But I am also happy to know my fertility is returning, to know that another baby is now possible.

So first off, Amy of Life in Slow Motion just had her second baby, another girl. I first started reading her blog when Zari was a tiny baby. I wish I lived closer to her, because she takes amazing photographs and I'd love to have our portraits and family pictures done by her. Her first baby was a fairly traumatic hospital birth, so she chose to give birth at home the next time. First, read Baby Ada's Birthday (and watch the video, too--it's amazing to see her literally deliver her own baby so calmly and naturally). Then you can read more about the birth at Welcoming Baby Ada.

The other stories are all on Birthing Beautiful Ideas--a blog I just discovered and wish I'd found much earlier!

Story #1: Birth and the Big Baby: An Unnecesarean Avoided. BBI was the doula for this woman, who was under considerable pressure to schedule a cesarean and/or induction for "suspected fetal macrosomia." Her client had already given birth vaginally to a 9-lb baby and didn't want surgery unless it was really necessary. She finally decided to consent to an induction, but her baby had other plans....

Story #2 part I: the written account of Beautiful Birthing Ideas' own VBAC waterbirth in a hospital-that-does-not-do-waterbirths. Notice the transformation in the nurse. Before: nurse keeps trying to get BBI out of the tub and onto the bed, and the sneaky doctor keeps thwarting her plans. After: nurse raves about how amazing the waterbirth was. Here's the doctor re-educating the nurse as BBI is pushing:

After a couple of pushes, Dr. N and Chris helped me to get into a hands-and-knees position so that I could gain the assistance of gravity in my pushing. And then Dr. N turned to my nurse to tell her the following: “Look at how beautifully she’s doing. Look at how natural and normal this is. She’s pushing on her own, and no one is yelling ‘PUSH’ in her face, no one is counting for her.” And you know what? My nurse started to get excited about this birth. In fact, about twenty minutes into my active pushing, she came into the room to remind me of my birth plan and of my initial intention to push in a side-lying position. Although I told her that I felt much more comfortable pushing on my hands and knees, I was so grateful that she had taken my birth plan seriously enough to remind me when I wasn’t following it!

And then the nurse almost cannot restrain herself with excitement:

A and I snuggled in the water for another ten minutes, and then we moved out to the main room. And my nurse—the one who wanted me the heck out of the tub—was nearly jumping up and down saying, “That was the most amazing thing I’ve ever seen! You are awesome!” ... Later, I learned that about five other nurses rushed into the room to see the woman who had the hospital’s first water birth.

Story #2 part II: Not Too Posh to Push (Upright and Spontaneously): A’s Birth Video. BBI shares videos from her VBAC as part of the Lamaze Healthy Birth Practices Carnival on upright and spontaneous pushing.