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Sunday, March 01, 2009

Babies everywhere!

Two of my good friends recently had their babies: Jen at The Bass Kids and Nutrition Momma. Congratulations to both of you!

I first met Jen while we were graduate students at the University of Iowa. I was waiting outside for the first day of a Maternal & Child Health class in the public health department, and I saw this woman bringing her tiny newborn to class. Imagine my surprise when I learned that she had had that baby, her second, at home with a midwife! Her first was born in a birth center, and her last two were unassisted births with a midwife friend hired to take pictures. I visited Jen in their new home in Arizona when Zari was close to a year old. She also came to my Birth & Babies Bed & Breakfast get-together in November 2007. Jen and her husband have been a great source of encouragement and strength for me during both of my pregnancies.

Nutrition Momma and I spent five months together as roommates when we were studying abroad in Jerusalem. We made bets on who would get married first--we were both seriously dating our now-husbands--and I lost (won?) and got to cook them a fancy dinner as a prize. She's had lots of adventures since our time together in Jerusalem 11 years ago, including working for the Peace Corps in Mongolia for 2 years with her husband, living in a felt tent called a "yurt," and adopting a 5-year-old boy. She gave birth just a few days ago to a daughter in a "nataloc," or unofficial birth center, called BellaNatal Birthing Suites.

2 comments:

  1. I'm thinking of going to graduate school at the University of Iowa (we live in Cedar Rapids). That's so cool that you guys went there.

    All of my mom friends around here are a few months or a few weeks into new pregnancies.

    Not many of them are interested in birth beyond the typical hospital setting.

    Thanks for linking that free-form birth house. That's exactly the type of place I want to found and run, except that I didn't know it would have any precedents!

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  2. Weird - I could swear I commented here before...something about being famous now thanks to your shout-out ;) Anyway, just looking back through, and thought it was pretty funny both of us in this post just birthed babies with nuchal hands...

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