Shannon's Birth Stories

I have had two beautiful girls! I could write a novel on my birth stories, so here is the short version. When my husband and I started trying for a baby we got pregnant right away with so much excitement thinking we were so lucky and blessed. It happened so fast for us, but as fast as it was, it went away just as fast. I miscarried the baby. We were completely devastated. But knew I was meant to be a mommy and started trying again right away. Three months later the two pink lines showed up again!! Very nervous this time, scared that this little one would not stay long too. Thankfully, she had a healthy heartbeat and gave me lots of morning sickness. The rest of my pregnancy was wonderful feeling her movements, knowing she is growing inside of me and one day I would get to hold her in my arms. The day she was born I started having light contractions at 4:30am I labored at home for several hours until my water broke, it was just a little trickle. I was having the worst back labor and didn't know how to help it. At this time, I was not trained as a doula, and I didn't really know what a doula was or did. When I made it to 10cm it was time to push! I was thinking it was almost over and I would be meeting my baby any minute. I ended up pushing for 2hrs. My daughter was a posterior face presentation. I was able to vaginally deliver but ended up having to receive an episiotomy. Not knowing what a doula was at the time I felt like I was missing something and that there should have been signs of my baby not being in the optimal position for delivery. Once I learned what a doula was, I knew it was my path to support women and their families. 

Wanting to grow our family once more I became pregnant with in the first month of trying. Trying to stay positive and praying for another healthy baby. I did feel different this time around. But I told myself every pregnancy was different. But sadly, I lost that sweet baby at 8 weeks. That was the most painful experience that I have ever gone through. Not only was I loosing that baby, but I also had to feel the pain of a miscarriage. Being further along in the pregnancy made it so much more emotional and painful. Every contraction/surge that my body remembered from having my daughter, but there was no excitement knowing that ending would not be the same; it was the exact opposite. I was broken for months; it was a very hard time for me. 

When my body healed, I was ready to try again. My second daughter was a rare case of only 3% of term babies. My baby was breech at 20 weeks. I was able to flip her by using all of my Spinning Babies techniques. At 36 weeks I was told that she at some point flipped again, and she was frank breech. I tried everything to help her flip head down, absolutely everything. She was not budging. She was very comfy right where she was. I advocated and educated myself about vaginal breech babies (VBB) and had a successful healthy delivery. I'm very proud of myself, how strong I really am. I want every woman to feel the way I did after I vaginally delivered my breech baby with only 10 minutes of pushing.

My next journey was to breastfeed! It has been a long but amazing journey. I am very passionate about breastfeeding and excited to further my education on it. I breastfed my first daughter for 24 months and 30 months with second daughter. Thank you for reading my birth stories, I would be honored to be a part of yours.