Welcome to the Free Birth Podcast, a supportive space for people who are learning, exploring, and celebrating their autonomous choices in childbirth. exploring and

exploring their autonomous choices in childbirth. Together, we'll unpack truths, share personal stories,

and claim our ability to birth freely and intuitively.

Here's your host, Emily Sal day. This week we have Stephanie's story of free birthing her twins.

Stephanie speaks to how she would have much preferred to have been in the

presence of midwives, but when she risked out from the licensed midwifery

practice in Canada, she was backed into a corner. Either returned to the hospital where she had been abused in her first birth

or stay home and have a normal family centered birth.

And so she did just that.

So I was 21, I was 21. I was quite young when I got pregnant with my first. He was a surprise to both of us.

Yeah, it was, but it was exciting. We were really confident that this was going to be great for us.

And so I had done a Bradley, a Bradley worth class and I,

around that time it was 2009, or 2010,

sorry, when I was going to be having him.

Midwives were just a very new regulated thing in our province.

I didn't even know that we could have one at this point. No one I had I had no idea. It was we have one we have one hospital that you can birth at in our city. Just one it's like 200,000 people and one hospital and it's a teaching

hospital which presents its own fun So I did my birth class. I knew I could do it. It would be great.

It was just as young as I was, I was fairly confident that this is what would happen and my body was meant to do it. I would breastfeed and away we would go.

So I went to the hospital. I carried him to just about 41 weeks and it was it was tough.

It was the middle of July and it was hot. Yeah, it was super uncomfortable. I had been offered in Duxin left in center, but we just been helped drum.

And so around 41 weeks my water broke and there was a

ammonium which in hindsight not a big deal right you don't know why exactly when it was my first I had

...