Okay wait, that’s not exactly correct. I will not be doing anything on that day except sitting on my lily pad, having my baby. The photographer/blogger/doula-in-training that I have hired as my Documentarian will actually be the one Live-Blogging my birth.
What does this mean? Well, using a service called Cover It Live, I will have a widget embedded directly into my blog on a special page sponsored by Brio Birth where my Documentarian, Erica from Mouth Like a Mother, can post LIVE updates, pictures, video clips, and audio clips of my entire birth experience as it is happening. They even have a nifty iPhone app that allows her to shoot video/pictures/sound on her phone and upload it immediately for everyone’s viewing pleasure. The great thing about that is that we’ll be mobile, so if we want to go walk in the woods, she can follow us there and still post updates. Here is a screenshot to show you what the service looks like:
This is what you will see when you come to my blog that day. When I start labor, readers will be notified and can start following along. You can even submit comments or questions through this widget, and my Documentarian, Erica, will answer and publish anything she deems appropriate.
So yes, I am publicizing my live birth. I know some people will be just as excited about that as I am, and some people will think it’s nuts. In case anyone is wondering how I arrived at the decision to do this, here are my reasons.
1. To accurately document every step of this special day in ways that I was never allowed to while birthing in the hospital.
I have almost no pictures, no video, no notes from my last two labors, and I want to be able to look back at the documents from this day and relive the experience when ever I want. I think of this as much like wedding photography and videography. People allow cameras into that precious moment because they know they never (well, probably never) get to do it over again. I have NO video or prints from my wedding day because we were trying to save cash, and if I could go back and do it over again, I would have hired five videographers.
The wonderful part about the way I’ve chosen to do this is that I don’t have to be involved in the documentation at all. I know that some people worry how allowing cameras or smart phones into your labor can impede your progress, and normally I might agree. However, Erica’s job is to be a fly on the wall. We have met and discussed her role at length, and she knows that her function is to capture everything while being essentially invisible. And because I am quite used to people peering into my life, I am 100% comfortable with knowing there is an audience. This is just how I roll. I’m not shy. After all, I am the person who peed on a stick in a bathroom bar, and then posted the picture of the positive test on Facebook before I even left the bathroom. I’m a sharer, and I’ve benefited from a huge community of women who are just as willing to share the “TMI” details of their lives. It’s perfectly normal for me at this point.
2. I have a platform and an opportunity to educate.
This blog gets a respectable amount of traffic, which gives me a voice to help educate people on issues that I care about. One thing that the mainstream media rarely ever covers is homebirth, or even natural birth, and so many American women have no idea what either one of those things look like. When I was going for my VBAC, I sat and watched YouTube videos of vaginal birth for hours and hours and hours on end because I wanted so desperately to understand what I was in for. I already *had* a baby, yet I had NO idea what actually happened to a woman’s vagina during a normal birth, and I am so grateful to all of the women who bared their hearts and souls (and vaginas) to help educate me on what my experience could be. I honestly don’t think I would have gotten my VBAC without watching other women do it on the internet. I thought to myself, “If she can do it, then dammit, so can I!” If I can help give that kind of confidence to even a few women, or encourage women to ask questions about what kind of birth they want, then that’s a wonderful thing. I consider this me paying it forward as a way of paying back all the women whose YouTube birth videos meant so very, very much to me.
3. To show that it doesn’t have to be perfect.
I’ve spent months (years?) mentally and physically preparing for this homebirth, and I expect it to be as normal as anybody else’s homebirth could be. But birth is the same as anything in life — there are no guarantees that I’m going to have some orgasmic experience no matter how hard I try. And frankly? I don’t even think that’s my style. I think that birth can be loud, and messy, and scary while also being beautiful, and magical, and healing. I’m not censoring any part of this journey, so if things change course, or I puke all over my husband, or I swear through contractions, people get to see it all. I think that too many people believe that homebirth must go absolutely flawless for it to be safe, or even possible. But it doesn’t. I may have the baby so fast that I can hardly get the birth team assembled. I may be in labor for days. I may get tired and transfer. I may even need another cesarean. I have NO idea what this is going to look like, and I think that’s perfectly okay. None of that will negate the beauty of planning for my homebirth and starting my labor in the comfort of my own surroundings. The viewers will get to see it all: The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly, and I think every part of that will be educational and important.
4. I know many of my readers will be excited to follow along.
I have a huge cyber community of supporters, cheerleaders, doulas, midwives, and friends and by doing this, I know they’ll be here with me in spirit, encouraging me and comforting me on this most important day. I so wish that I could follow along with the births of so many of my cyber friends, and if they ever decided to share their birth with the world, I’d be right there on the edge of my seat waiting to “meet” their baby.
I really wish that I could say that I made this decision as a reaction to that horrible new Lifetime TV show, but honestly, this has been in the works for a month. I brought the idea up to my husband and he thought it was one of the best ideas I’ve ever had. So, I talked to Erica and got her excited. And then I asked Brio Birth if they wanted to sponsor the page to help me offset the cost, to which they immediately agreed. We confirmed everything two weeks ago and I’ve just been waiting to spring it on all of you! SURPRISE! You cannot imagine how hard it has been keeping my mouth shut about this, especially after reviewing that Lifetime show the other day.
I imagine that people will have questions about this, so I’m happy to field them in the comments section. Let me know what you want to know! And thanks for being here for me!
CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP FOR A TEXT MESSAGE ALERT WHEN THE LIVE BLOG STARTS
***UPDATED TO ADD: I just discovered that yesterday Tina Cassidy, author of “Birth: The Surprising History of How We are Born” published an article in New York Magazine called “Texting While Birthing: The biological case for live updates from the delivery room.” It is absolutely perfect. Tina, by the way, had herself a Home Birth After Cesarean (HBAC) in 2007.
At each of my births, I've had women who were unfamiliar with natural birth. I even webcammed my second birth (and planned to with three and four, but it fell through for technical reasons). It's a wonderful, exciting way to share the experience with your friends and readers!
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