After experiencing a dissatisfying hospital birth with her first child, Lorena Graham decided to birth her following kids on her own terms at home.
Lorena Graham is a holistic doula, yoga teacher, photographer/videographer, cloth diapering educator, babywearing educator, content creator, a mother to three children and a wife.
At 39 weeks pregnant with her first son, she went to the hospital to induce her birth.
“I was over being pregnant. I was like ‘yeah, sure’ not knowing better, being young and not researching the way I should have. I got induced.”
Graham was in labor for three hours and before she gave birth the doctor used a vacuum and gave her an episiotomy.
“They talked to me about the vacuum but didn’t explain it well. They didn’t ask me if I wanted an episiotomy; he just did it. I didn’t know that he did it till afterwards when they had taken him right after they cut his cord to the little newborn station. I was trying to sit up to look at him and he was like you have to lay back down so I could stitch you up. I was like, stitch me up for what? That’s when I was told that he cut me.
After this occurred, Lorena decided for her next child she wasn’t going to give birth in a hospital again.
So when she became pregnant with her second son, she tried her local birthing center in South Carolina but was dropped at 37 weeks.
“We free birthed that child in my tub. My labor was 90 minutes. He was born at home in our tub in our last house. My husband caught him, we showered, we ate, cleaned up and got in the bed and went to sleep. It was amazing, it was peaceful. It was everything I didn’t even know I wanted it to be.”
So she free birthed her third child alongside her husband as well.
For other women considering free birth Lorena offers the book recommendation Home Birth on Your Own Terms by Heather Baker.
Lorena is additionally the business owner of Natural Minded Mama offering doula services, postpartum care, birth photography/videography, cloth diapering and babywearing services.
For more of Lorena Graham’s story check out the full interview: