Birth Q&A (Part 1/2): How I Prepared for My Dream Home Birth

You guys asked me sooo many beautiful questions about my home birth, postpartum, and motherhood journey on Instagram, and I'm saving my answers here on the blog so you can return to them again and again!

This first part is all about my home birth, how I prepped my body to have the birth I deeply desired, and the effects of birth trauma.

Q: How was your home birth? Such a beautiful family!

A: Thank you! It was the most wild, incredible, emotional, empowering, intimate, and intense thing I've ever done, and I cannot wait for the next one! I am in awe of myself. I'm in awe of how Hal showed up. He was in awe of me and kept telling me during and after my birth. He even told me he cried during my labour a bit (or got teary, I can't remember which one), because he was just so proud of me.

I know home birth isn't for everyone, but my GOD was it for us. To be in your own home, in your own bed, waking up in your own bedroom. Now I'm crying.

If you feel the tug, go for it. People just have these assumptions that it's somehow dangerous??? (My husband did!!!). But it's really just from assumptions and a lack of education around birth and what happens at home vs. hospitals (especially in the US!!!). If you have a low-risk pregnancy, home birth isn't dangerous. It's safe. You have midwives there (also to anyone in the US that doesn't fully understand what a midwife is and their training, Google it. In Australia, the UK, and I'm sure many other countries, midwives are more likely to be delivering your baby than OBGYNs).

I'll talk more about why we chose to have a home birth and why it was right for me when we do an episode on my Feminine As F*ck Podcast about the birth.

Q: Did you get any injuries from the birth, like tearing, etc?

A: I didn't! I did a lot of prep work during my pregnancy like it was literally my second full-time job, including:

• Eating extremely healthily

• Upping my collagen and gelatin intake (so good for preventing saggy skin postpartum as well!)

• Going on daily walks

• Doing pilates regularly

I was really manifesting this outcome and was very happy about it! I had some minor abrasions, but nothing that needed a stitch!

Q: I love me a good natural birth story! Will you be sharing yours at some point?

A: Sooo many of these Qs!!! Absolutely!!!!! The biggest thing that helped me prep for birth was hearing other positive and empowering unmedicated birth stories.

I'm going to do a podcast that'll drop in September about it all, and I need to look through the video footage Hal got to see if I can make a little YouTube vlog.

OH BUT!!!! HER Year ladies—I dropped a video of the end of the birth in the Telegram channel that our doula took! Every time I watch it, I SOB MY EYES OUT. So if you haven't seen it, that'll be amazing to watch, especially if you're having your own baby soon!

Q: Do you walk away with "birth trauma" in your body, regardless of whether your birth experience was positive?

A: From a physical sense, yes. But not every birth has emotional, mental, or spiritual trauma. I had the birth that I wanted, and so my body experienced physical trauma in the sense that giving birth is a monumental physical act for your body, and it needs time to heal. But I do not have any mental, emotional, or spiritual trauma from it.

For somebody else, maybe their birth did not go to plan, and so, as a result, they have physical trauma as well as emotional trauma, for example.

However, like everything, trauma is about perception. So even if your birth did not go to plan, it doesn't necessarily mean that you will have mental, emotional, or spiritual trauma.

On the note of healing birth trauma:

This is something that I have worked with a lot of clients on through the years because it is such a real thing, and it can impede your body from getting pregnant again or just make you afraid of going through pregnancy and birth all over again.

Just like anything in life, the ideal situation is that the second time you do something, it's even better than the first. But a lot of women have trauma from trying to conceive, or from a rough pregnancy, birth, or postpartum, all of which can make them afraid to do it all again (even if they deeply desire to have another child).

If this is you, I highly recommend you working with me inside either my Queen Alchemy program or at The Immersion, so that you can easily and joyfully move into having another child. Also, feel free to reach out to Olivia at olivia@monicayateshealth.com if this is you and you'd like to explore my 1:1 packages.

Okay, that's all for this section of the Q&A, but like I said, there's tons more coming in the next one! Make sure to keep an eye out for part two, which will cover my postpartum experience, my advice on how to receive all the help during this time, and more!