About

Why did you start collecting birth stories?

When I was pregnant with my first child, I became obsessed with reading birth stories. I mean, obsessed. I googled them. I bought memoirs that featured childbirth. I watched videos. I listened to podcasts. I wished there was an anthology where I could just read story after story after story, but specifically stories that were not saccharine and not didactic. I didn't want a perspective, or a bigger narrative.
I just wanted to consume real and honest stories about all kinds of different experiences.

After my daughter was born, my obsession only grew. I asked all of my new parent friends to tell me their birth stories, and I learned about so many different ways to give birth - more than I had heard about in birthing classes, for sure. I also learned that not everyone wanted to share. Some of my friends had traumatic experiences that they were reluctant to relive, while others found catharsis in sharing their trauma. Some felt guilty that their stories were so "uneventful" or "ordinary", and didn't think they had anything worth sharing. Some laughed through the retelling of events that made others cry. Some had exactly the experience they wanted and planned. Some didn't.
Our stories were so different, and yet so unifying, and I just couldn't get enough. I still can't.

The idea for this website was born out of many honest and vulnerable conversations with my parenting collective, The Snug.
Without this dear group of friends, my pregnancy and parenting journeys would have been unimaginably more difficult.
Thank you, Snug. With and from you, I have learned so much about the many ways that babies are born.
In telling and retelling our stories, we have found strength and community. I hope that by sharing them here, you do too.