What do you know about the birthing experience of your parents? Do you talk about birth at all? If you do, did your birth experiences mirror that of your parents? How did their experience inform yours?
For me, learning my parents’ birth experience was a complete surprise.
I had no idea that my mom had taken Lamaze classes. I had no idea she’d had a natural birth. I had no idea that she moaned through labor instead of screaming. And my father? He coached my mama through the birth, but all but fainted when I came out!
Who knew?
Believe it or not, though I knew none of these things about the way my parents birthed, my husband and I pretty much birthed the same way:
- in relaxed birthing settings
- surrounded by strangers
- completely natural
I can’t explain it, but that’s the way it happened.
Tune in to this special episode of the “Listening to Black Women” Web Series and hear my mother and I as we talk about the journey that lead to me.