434: A Healing Motherhood and Home Birth Journey - Listener Submitted Story from Teresa Sciarretta

2023-04-27

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Why home birth for Teresa?After an empowering birth center experience with my first child, I absolutely knew home birth was my path for my second child. I felt confident in my body and my choice. My home is also a sacred place for me and part of my healing journey, so the idea of having such a life changing and memorable experience in our sanctuary brought me great joy. I couldn't imagine being anywhere else.Some backstory from Teresa:I had my son on November 13th, 2022, almost 9 years after the birth of my daughter. A dream...

Why home birth for Teresa?

After an empowering birth center experience with my first child, I absolutely knew home birth was my path for my second child. I felt confident in my body and my choice. My home is also a sacred place for me and part of my healing journey, so the idea of having such a life changing and memorable experience in our sanctuary brought me great joy. I couldn't imagine being anywhere else.

Some backstory from Teresa:

I had my son on November 13th, 2022, almost 9 years after the birth of my daughter. A dream come true in so many ways after many years of thinking I would never have another child. I am so grateful to have two powerful birth stories, one in a birth center and one at home, despite wildly different circumstances such as my personal life, different countries, a textbook first labor that was 23 hours and then an unexpected 3 hour labor 12 days before my guess date. Some themes that arise are switching providers at 30 weeks even though the care we were receiving before was "fine", the midwife not making it to the birth in time due to precipitous labor, and giving birth in a dark closet (channeling my inner mammal and my childhood cat, haha.) In retrospect, my biggest takeaways are trust, surrender, and standing in my power. My partner painted a beautiful labyrinth before our birth day to serve as a visual reminder of these truths of birth and life: you know you will enter, you know there will be an exit, but the path in between will be winding and unknown, full of potential challenges, but also full of growth and wonder.

Resources that were helpful for Teresa:

1. Hair comb - this was my number one coping tool

2. Spinning Babies, particularly their Daily Essentials video was super helpful during my pregnancy

3. Craniosacral therapy

4. For domestic violence resources, the national hotline is 1.800.799.SAFE I also highly recommend following One Mom's Battle

5. For trauma recovery resources, including anyone who's had a traumatic birth, EMDR therapy can be helpful and any tools or professionals that help you regulate your nervous system and feel safe

Links From The Episode: