When I was pregnant I had an array of opinions about our choice to have a home birth.

Many people instantly get a concerned look, or just a freaked out look in general and then follow with, well that’s how you hope it’s gonna go, we’ll see, and are you sure it’s safe?

Does this look safe? Do I look relaxed? Can you see the power I feel by being in my own environment and able to consent to every single thing that is happening?

Moments after giving birth. That is the look of pure joy and love. My soulmate and life partner by my side, in the safety of our home, with people we trust and feel safe with.

I got to sit in the tub for at least 30 minutes holding my baby and letting the cord continue to pump blood. My beautiful placenta was purple and rich full of blood and nutrients, she remarked how healthy it looked. I love this picture of @amvanaken where he is just beaming with pride at being a dad. He is so in love and so comfortable to be able to hold his son right away, and to be right there next to me. He also cut his cord, which freaked us both out, and I was super proud of him💜

I absolutely loved my midwife, her name is Jessica Nipp with Hollistic Home Birth. She actually lives less than 5 minutes away from us. Her care has been very healing for me. I felt extremely safe and she always asked me before doing anything. It’s very empowering when someone asks you before even taking your blood pressure. It allows you to say yes! And choose what you want to do. She knew I had pretty traumatic birth experiences prior to this. She gave me the opportunity to have the birth experience I truly wanted. To birth in the water, naturally at home, feeling safe and trusting my body to do what it was created to do!

Jessica is also an herbalist and gifts you with different goodies she makes to help with pregnancy and post baby. She also made an herbal sitz bath that I used before I took this picture, it really helped with healing and was also very soothing to my body.

Hormones have never been easy for me and my previous birth I had experienced some pretty heavy depression after. I kept it to myself and it was pretty terrifying. I expressed that to my midwife and to Alex and one solution to prevent that is to ingest your placenta. It’s helpful for many things, and the basic premise is that it helps refortify and nourish your body after birth.

These are what the capsules look like. I highly recommend trying it out. It has been well worth it already. My body is recovering extremely quickly and when I have missed a dose of the placenta pills I notice a huge difference in how I feel.

I believe every woman should have the experience of birthing in a way that she feels empowered. I believe every woman should be treated with respect and her beautiful body treated as a vessel that was created to give birth, that naturally knows exactly what to do! I am so grateful to finally have a birth story where my body got to be honored! Many blessings to all of you who may be on your birth journey, it’s a magical thing 💜💜💙