Helping Moms to capture the memories for life!

Every time a baby is born, a mother has a story to tell – an unique, individual story – some funny, some poignant, some scary, some sad, some uplifting. A birth story is a way of capturing and treasuring those precious moments.

The wonderful thing about birth stories is that there is no right or wrong way of doing it or what should be included and what should be left out – it is your story, and you can tell it the way it was for you. The sooner you write the birth story after your birth, the more emotion that will be captured.

When you feel ready to write your story, gather up your notes, photos taken during labour and birth, your babies ID tag, hand and foot prints. Sit down with a cup of coffee and just look through these items and the extreme emotions will come rushing back to you. Put pen to paper and write what comes to mind. Remember to focus on the positive and keep in mind the most important outcome of your birth – a healthy baby.

Some helpful questions to ask yourself could include –

• When did you realise you were in labour?
• What happened?
• Where were you?
• Who was with you?
• How long was your labour?
• Timing, spacing and intensity of contractions?
• Physical sensations during labour – were you hot or cold?
• What did contractions feel like?
• Positions used during labour?
• What positions were most / least effective at different times of your labour?
• Who were the people attending your birth?
• Did someone say something to you that really helped you focus during labour
• Did you cry or laugh during the labour?
• What were you thinking about during your different stages of labour?
• How did your labour compare with your expectations?
• Did this influence your experience?
• Was there a high or low point that sticks out for you during labour?
• How long were you pushing?
• Was your experience what you expected it to be?
• What was the first thing you said when your baby was born?
• What was the first thing you did when your baby was born?
• What stood out the most for you about the birth / just after the birth / just before the birth?
• What were the overwhelming powerful emotions you experienced as you were given your baby to hold?
• What were the humorous moments during labour?
• Try to remember the smallest details so you can best capture the heartfelt emotions on paper

Keep in mind that one day your child may read this memorable story when you are capturing your innermost feelings about how your birth played out. It may be beneficial to write some of the negative emotions of disappointment, anger, sadness, guilt down on another paper that will only be yours. If an experience has been hard or drastically disappointing it might be helpful to go and chat it over with a professional or a close supportive friend so you can work through some of these emotions. You may have landed up having an emergency caesar when you were longing to have a natural medication-free birth!

Remember this is your birth story. A great idea is to ask your partner, midwife, labour support person to write their story of the birth as well. They don’t have to be the same – in fact they won’t be the same story because each one will have their part of the story and their own observations, and their own emotions so sometimes they won’t even sound like it was the same birth they were at.

You can even include things that happened that day as part of your story. You could ask your labour support person/midwife to document what time things happened during your labour so you can add in these timelines to your story afterwards. If you are creative perhaps even write a poem to end off your story

Hopefully this has helped you add to your canvas as you tell your own unique amazing birth story!