097: Not Your Average First-Time Birth Experience (with Mary Thackerson) [Surprise Pregnancy, Failed Birth Control, Home Birth]

When you have a copper IUD in place, you don’t expect to get a positive pregnancy test. But, at 16 weeks along, that’s just what happened for Mary and her husband! The surprise you must feel at news like that, being told you’re four months pregnant, but also the peace you can feel knowing it was obviously God ordained! And then God blessed her with an easy pregnancy and delivery as well! Not every first-time mom births in a hospital, not every first-time mom goes way past her due date, not every first-time mom has a marathon labor, not every first-time mom struggles postpartum or with breastfeeding, and Mary was not your average first-time mom! Be encouraged by the grace and mercy in her story today and the love of our heavenly Father. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

The morning that I started labor, I again had absolutely no symptoms, was letting my dog out to go to the bathroom. A stray dog runs into our yard. So my dog's out there with the stray dog. I'm nine months pregnant, so I go and I sprint back to our bedroom to wake up my husband to basically go get our dog. And I think to this day that that sprint is really what kickstarted labor.

SPEAKER_02 0:28

Hi, I'm Kayla Heater, follower of Jesus, wife and mother of five children, Christian childbirth educator in doula, and your host of the Surrendered Birth Stories Podcast, where we share God-centered birth stories, evidence-based birth education, and our pursuit of surrendering our birth plans to God. Let's get started. Hey everyone, I hope you are doing well. I am doing mostly okay. Um we are currently a one-car family. And you know, I know people do that all the time, but I think the bigger our family gets and the more we have going on, the more difficult and challenging that has been. Especially when both my husband and I need a car to do our jobs. So that's been interesting. My five-year-old had Safety Town every day this week. So we had to get him there and back. Um, we were keeping another one of my friends' kids this week. So we wanted to like go do outings, but then we really couldn't. Um I had postpartum visits from all those awesome berths I just got to go to, but my husband also had jobs that he was trying to go to for his business. So there was a lot of like dropping off and picking up and and all of the things. It's been, it's been interesting. Praying that our other car will be fixed soon, um, and that it can be fixed and that we don't have to replace it. That's just our our current prayer. Uh so circumstantially, it's been interesting, but physically, some of you all have been asking how I've been feeling um since you know all the pregnancy nastiness. Um, and I'm feeling much better. I am 19 weeks now and just doing so much better. I'm still mildly nauseous, still have a few things here and there that I can't really do. And my energy is not quite what I would like for it to be or what I know it could be. And I'm still really avoiding soap at all costs. That's like my number one trigger that makes me gag and dry heave and just yeah, nastiness. So I'm still avoiding the dishes, but I'm back to grocery shopping, back to cooking, back to meal planning and prepping and and all that, which has been just such a lifesaver. So I'm grateful to not be in the horrible, horrible part of my pregnancy anymore. I'm moving on, moving on to better things. Speaking of better things, um, well, I think it's a better thing. If you haven't signed up for our birth class yet, our summer class starts so soon, just starts in a couple weeks, uh, July 13th. So if you or somebody you know is expecting a baby this fall and they haven't taken a class yet, whether it's their first baby, second baby, third baby, I've had so many second and third time moms take this class. So this isn't just for first-time parents. Although if you are a first-time parent, I highly, highly, highly recommend that you take this class. Um, but if you're here near, around the triad, um, and I've had people drive up to an hour to take this class, which is just really special. But we start July 13th, we go through August 10th, we'll meet on Sunday nights um in Connorsville at Village Family Chiropractic. So if you haven't signed up yet, please see me. We do have some more slots available. I think just because of vacation schedules, this class is a little bit smaller. So if that appeals to you um that there aren't as many people in this class, then great. Please come and join us. If for some reason that doesn't work out for your schedule or, you know, you're going on vacation, but you're still having a baby this fall, that is why we have our online class now. In case you haven't heard, our online class is ready to go. It launched um like a little over a month ago. So it's out there, it's the same exact class as our in-person class, just online um in an on-demand format for your convenience. So a link for that is in the show notes as well. So whether you are ready to take the in-person class or the online class, um, you can find the information that you need in the show notes. And I hope you do. It's a great class. I mean, I can't recommend it enough, but that sounds biased. So you can just go on the site and see um all the other people's reviews that highly recommend it. Okay, let's jump into this week's episode. When you have a copper IUD in place, you don't expect to get a positive pregnancy test. But at 16 weeks along, that's just what happened for Mary and her husband. The surprise you must feel at news like that, being told you're four months pregnant, but also the peace you can feel knowing it was obviously God ordained. And then God blessed her with an easy pregnancy and delivery as well. Not every first-time mom bursts in a hospital, not every first-time mom goes way past her due date. Not every first-time mom has a marathon labor. And not every first-time mom struggles postpartum or with breastfeeding. And Mary was not your average first-time mom. Be encouraged by the grace and mercy in her story today and the love of our Heavenly Father. Welcome to another episode of Surrendered Birth Stories. I am your host, Kayla Heater, and I have Mary with me today. Mary, just take a minute, introduce yourself, let us get to know you, and tell us about your life. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 6:17

So my name is Mary. I am a um, I'm actually a financial advisor. So, me and my husband, we live here in Winson-Salem, North Carolina. We have only been here about a year. So we recently moved from Raleigh. So we're kind of getting adjusted and just welcomed our first child. So we're extremely excited about that and just getting in the thralls of parenthood. Um, a little bit about me and my husband. My husband's born and raised Greensboro, North Carolina. So he has been here his entire life, has family here, ton of support. Um, I've bounced around a little bit from East Tennessee to Iowa to Nashville, Tennessee, to Greensboro to Raleigh. So a little bit of a little bit all over the place, um, but very excited to call this place home. And now I have some family members that are also in Winston-Salem as well. So during the season, it has been just an absolute joy to soak in community support, everything that comes along with it.

SPEAKER_02 7:14

Yeah. Now you have your one baby. So let's talk about this sweet baby. Tell us the story of how the pregnancy came about, what was it like finding out you were pregnant, how long had y'all been married? Like, give me, give us the story.

SPEAKER_00 7:30

Absolutely. So me and my husband we've been married three years. Um, this pregnancy was not planned. I was actually on an IUD. So this was extremely rare to get pregnant on the IUD. Um, and we found out pretty late into the pregnancy as well. So I didn't find out until 16 weeks because I was on the copper IUD, so I still was having my period and I had missed one full one and took a pregnancy test on the second missed period because we had just moved to a new area. It was a new job, so you know, some stressors that I didn't think too hard about missing a period. Um, but when I took the at-home pregnancy test and it showed positive, I was extremely surprised because being on IUD just didn't think um that was really gonna be the case. But also knowing that a pregnancy test at home can show ovarian cyst, it can show you know ovarian cancer, it can show a couple different things that it's testing for. So a lot of you know, unanswered questions. So made an appointment with um an OB office just to have a test there, get an ultrasound, see what's going on. And so for two weeks, because they had quite a bit of a waiting list, they finally got me in and I just I went alone. I told my husband, I was like, you know what, it's probably nothing. We're we'll just we'll see. And going in, and the the OB said, First off, I can feel your uterus, and it feels about 16 weeks pregnant. So Artie was extremely surprised and had a little bit more of a heart palpitation when she said she thought she could hear two heartbeats. So not only did we think, you know, you're pregnant, surprise, potentially twins, um, but they were able to get me into an ultrasound that day. So same day finding out you're pregnant, it's a boy, it's not twins. Um, but I remember getting out of that office appointment and calling my husband and just honestly kind of chuckling of so do you want the news now or later? And we just said, You're a dad, do you want to know if it's a boy or girl? And you know, we we were very excited. So even though he was a surprise and kind of caught us off guard, um, it was very much God ordained in that time period of us being settled in a new home, surrounded by family, um, as well as both of us with stable jobs that were able to create a home for our for our little one. So um definitely a surprise, but very exciting. And you know, the blessing too of I wasn't showing at all yet. I didn't have any morning sickness symptoms, so I was very blessed with a very, very easy pregnancy, which I know not a lot of women are fortunate with, but um, it definitely made the process, the timeline of it go by so quickly. So once we did find out though, I really only had about four or five months to kind of wrap my mind around preparation, figuring out how I wanted to deliver, um, and just coming to terms with you're gonna be welcoming a child here very, very soon.

SPEAKER_02 10:43

Right. So, did they have to then take your IUD out?

SPEAKER_00 10:47

They did, yep. So, with it being a copper IUD, they were able to remove it. Sometimes with the hormonal ones, they will leave them in. Um, but I think it had just gotten displaced a little bit after the move of transporting very heavy dressers and all sorts of things, but kind of crazy one. They in the office they didn't really believe it at first, but they said, congratulations.

SPEAKER_02 11:11

There it is. It's no denying it.

SPEAKER_00 11:14

Yep.

SPEAKER_02 11:14

So we're unexpectedly pregnant, but what a pleasant surprise, and obviously beyond God ordained in this moment. So, since pregnancy probably hadn't been on your mind, how did you go about figuring out what kind of care you wanted and what kind of birth you wanted and all of that? Because I know if you've never thought about it before, I know most people just go like, you know, straight to the OGYN here in America, but that's not what you did.

SPEAKER_00 11:46

Correct. Um, so I knew I have probably one of the worst cases of white coat syndrome that I know. Even going through your class, Kayla, when the Ivy pictures were on, I had to fold my page and just put that away because I was sweating. My husband was chuckling at me, just knowing I was probably gonna pass out, just seeing the pictures.

SPEAKER_02 12:05

Oh man.

SPEAKER_00 12:06

I knew hospital was not where I wanted to end up. Um, I just didn't know quite what my options were. And funny enough, one of the girls I had actually gone to high school with, who's in Greensboro, she's a labor and delivery nurse, and one of her best friends is a doula who I actually ended up using. Oh, cool. And I had seen her page on Instagram and was like, huh, you know, that's that's neat. I didn't really realize people were able to become doulas, how that happened. And again, just very much God ordained. I was at a coffee shop meeting with one of my clients in Kernersville, and my client had gone into the bathroom, and Katie Rancer, who is one of the local doulas, walked in and I recognized her, and I just look at her and I said, Are you Katie? And she goes, Yes, who's asking? And got to asking with her. And at that point, I was 26 weeks, so I was pretty far along and just had some questions, you know, had considered the birth center, had seen, you know, ideally home would be where I wanted to be, but I didn't know what midwives were available, how to reach out to them, kind of with some of the legality in North Carolina with CPMs versus CNMs. And so just she was able to answer so many questions and was like, girl, we can absolutely do this at home. I have a great midwife, she's available in May. We we can 100% do this. Um, so having the the birth team directive and being able to use them to rely on really shaped um how I was able to go about it because I was pretty much ready to sign on to the birth center, and we're about 45 minutes away from there, so I knew I really didn't want to try and make that trek, and I'm glad I didn't because ended up having a very fast first birth. So glad we were home, glad we were stable, glad we had the team able to get there in time because um the midwives almost missed it, so we we we got it just in time.

SPEAKER_02 14:07

So another God ordained moment of you just sitting in a coffee shop and the doula that you recognize from Instagram walking out, and and you were able to just make all those connections.

SPEAKER_00 14:19

Exactly. It's such a weird thing too, just to walk up to somebody that you've never talked to before, but it was one where I just kind of felt that tug of just just do it, just ask her the question. And um, so after that, she and I were able to meet and have kind of that two-hour consultation of what do you want your birth to look like? Why, what is the motivation for wanting to do home birth? Um, and that was something, even getting my husband on board at first, he was a little hesitant of, you know, people do this, what is a midwife? And he's thinking, you know, Renaissance age type of birthing. Right. But very quickly came around realizing I had done the research and was able to trust kind of my judgment in bringing on the team, knowing the proper support would be there. Um, and I think after the birth, he was very grateful that we did it at home, seeing just how relaxed and how peaceful of an environment we were able to welcome our son into, and just recovery for us, getting sleep and that was that was needed. That was pretty much needed. Oh, yes.

SPEAKER_02 15:22

I know everyone's always concerned about nursing and breastfeeding right after, which is obviously super important, but they don't realize how much more they'll be concerned about getting sleep.

SPEAKER_00 15:33

Yes, truly, and just uninterrupted. I mean, even you know, post-birth of just the amount of skin to skin time both me and my husband were able to have, and you know, the day after birth where they're so sleepy. I mean, we slept pretty much the entire day and just able to have food brought to us and you know, rehydrate, it was just a very again makes recovery so much easier.

SPEAKER_02 15:56

Yeah, definitely. Okay, so you meet your jewel in a coffee shop, you guys meet, she hooks you up with a local midwife who's available for you to do a home birth. Okay, so how do you feel like you prepped for a home birth being a first-time mom? What did you do to get ready for that?

SPEAKER_00 16:15

Probably analysis paralysis of overprepar. Overprepared. Which I mean, I think to a that can sometimes cause a lot of anxiety, but for me, I'm definitely a planner. So being caught off guard by a pregnancy and not knowing, I wanted to almost play catch up. Um, so I was very doing all sorts of research, a ton of um just reading, and also too, my doula and midwife were so helpful in providing additional resources of kind of directors, even directing to your class, um, you know, getting us plugged in there, and luckily you still had a spot right before, you know, our delivery time frame. So doing things like that where, you know, there's so much knowledge that we aren't gonna know because we haven't done it was very helpful to have those outside resources. Um, but I think just the mental preparation of knowing I want to do it at home, I want to do it unmedicated, I don't want to be um, you know, transferred into the hospital just because I know my own mental state does not do well with needles being poked and prodded and any sort of white coat I shut down. So I knew that would stall progression. I knew that would most likely end up in me having a C-section, which I did not want to go down that route. Um, so just mentally getting to the point of you're gonna do it at home, you're gonna breathe through your birth, and these are the techniques that you need to be prepared for. So I think ultimately I prepared basically to get to the point of nearly dying and doing it at home. So then labor didn't seem so bad.

SPEAKER_02 17:44

I prepared for death. So pretty much and then brought and then brought forth life.

SPEAKER_00 17:49

So exactly.

SPEAKER_02 17:51

Well, so your pregnancy was shorter because you didn't find out till later. Tell us the birth story then. Take us into the labor. How far along were you? How did it start? All the details.

SPEAKER_00 18:04

So I actually ended up delivering two days before my estimated due date, which was very surprising because I did not have any sort of labor-inducing symptoms up until that point. I honestly thought I was gonna go probably two weeks past, especially with the due date being a little bit gray because we didn't know until later on. So it was, you know, a guesstimate at best. Um, with that being said, the morning that I started labor, I again had absolutely no symptoms, was letting my dog out to go to the bathroom. A stray dog runs into our yard. So my dog's out there with the stray dog. I'm nine months pregnant, so I go and I sprint back to our bedroom to wake up my husband to basically go get our dog. And I think to this day that that sprint is really what kickstarted lever. Because it was just one of those unprompted, I was, we were gonna fix the situation. Um, but I actually ended up going into work that day because really still didn't have any symptoms or anything. But right around the afternoon, started getting a little crampy, nothing crazy, but just kind of, you know, I I I want to go home. It was a Friday, so I figured leaving work wasn't um too crazy. So went home and I had actually told my sister-in-law, who had delivered a week before me, that I was gonna bring her some food, so wanted to still go ahead and do that. So we made the trek to Greensboro, which is about 45 minutes, took her the food, and on that trip started having some contractions, and they weren't crazy, but they were about 10 minutes apart pretty consistently. So we, you know, let the birth team know of hey, you know, starting some contractions, nothing crazy. And the advice is you know, you're in for the long haul, marathon, you know, try and take a walk, get some sleep tonight, you're fine. And get home, and contractions were Start ramping up. So still going a walk. Um, but then we're you know, we're at seven minutes apart, and then we're at five minutes apart. And 11 o'clock, you know, they were really kicking up, and my husband had been tracking contractions and just keeping our families updated. And my mom, who lives about 20 minutes away, was like, Can I just come get some eyeballs on her? I just want to make sure she's doing well. And so she and my dad came over, and I'm very glad they did because after that point, um, contractions were probably about five minutes apart. So we were really starting to get into closer to active labor and reach out to the doula and just, hey, here's kind of what everything's looking at, you know, still able to talk through things, still able to, you know, have a smile on my face, bouncing on an exercise ball. We're chugging along. It's not comfortable, but it's not agonizing. And she was like, okay, you know, I'll head that way in a little bit. So she actually got over to our house probably about 2:50 a.m. At that point, we're three minutes apart. So contractions are really progressing. We're we're moving pretty quickly. And the first thing she said when she walks in, she looks at the contractions on my husband's phone and goes, Okay, why are you why are you still smiling? Why what's what's going on here? And um, so getting through that, she recognizes instantly that I'm I'm completely back labor. So it's one, she puts me in a different position, and then it's game time at that point. So she just had my husband standing behind me, kind of lifting up on my belly, me with my feet um at an angle, and then moved me to the toilet facing backwards. And from 250, water broke at 333 on the toilet, made it super easy for cleanup. Um, and then he was delivered at 444. So our midwife, we actually were planning on using a birth pool tub, and I was supposed to pick it up at our appointment on Monday, but I started going into labor on Friday, so we didn't have the tub there. So she was bringing it up from Salisbury. Um, so we knew probably with how fast I was progressing, wasn't gonna be able to use the tub. And we had a couple supplies that were still coming in the mail again. We just we thought we had more time. And so between my mom, the doula, the birth assistant, they're all setting up supplies, you know, like you're gonna be delivering in your bed, let's get it as clean as we can. So they're laying out check pads and um, I think like shower curtains and all the all the fun things to to help with cleanup. Um, but yeah, as soon as as soon as she helped shift him into a better position, I mean it was engagement, he was ready to be delivered, tried getting in the shower for a little bit and was like, I gotta start pushing. It's it's time. And at that point, the midwife wasn't there. So I'm on the bed. We're starting to push a little bit, but not crazy trying to kind of keep it regulated. Um, and then our midwife got there, and 10 minutes later he was he was born and we we were we were happy as a clam. So it was it ramped up very, very fast as soon as we got that correct positioning. But it was a pretty short labor from when it was true active labor, but was very, very blessed with um not no complications, nothing crazy, but it was it was a good time.

SPEAKER_02 23:28

Sounds like it. Okay, so you started having contractions like that evening when you were taking your sister-in-law dinner, and then what time do you feel like active labor really kicked in?

SPEAKER_00 23:42

I would say probably around eight or nine that night of when it was kind of like, okay, these, you know, you need to kind of take a second or walk through them or just move around a little bit, not just sit down and be fine. Um, as soon as my mom and dad got there, though, that's when they were definitely just okay, we're we're in full on active labor. So I would say between nine and eleven is really where where things were in full force.

SPEAKER_02 24:11

So really you had like what, like an eight-hour experience? Right, which for a first-time mom is not very long. And you went early, going against all the textbook stuff.

SPEAKER_00 24:25

Exactly. It was it was the sprint. So let's a sprint.

SPEAKER_02 24:29

You sprinted and the baby decided to come.

SPEAKER_00 24:32

Exactly.

SPEAKER_02 24:32

I have a client who's almost 42 weeks. Maybe I'll tell her to go on a on a sprint this afternoon. Go sprint. So you were you you ended up being on your bed then when you delivered him. Yes. Yep. Okay. That's wonderful. And your midwife had just made it, so that's good.

SPEAKER_00 24:51

Exactly. And we had no tearing or anything. So it ended up working out. Even being on the back, it was ended up being okay.

SPEAKER_02 24:58

So uh can you give us the stats? Like how much did he weigh? And what do you want to if you want to share his name and that kind of stuff?

SPEAKER_00 25:05

So it's Colson James Thackerson is his name. He was born 20 inches long and six pounds even. So we had a lot of even numbers, you know, water roke at 333, born at 444, six pounds, 20 inches. So we had a lot of um fun little numbers along with him, but he is already putting on quite a bit of weight. So he's he's ramping up. The six pounds sounds nice now that he's really junking up. The back is feeling it.

SPEAKER_02 25:34

Aw, six-pound baby. Sometimes I dream about those because mine are closer to 12 pounds than they are to six pounds.

SPEAKER_00 25:41

So wild to me.

SPEAKER_02 25:44

Oh, that's wild to me. Okay, so how so first time mom, home birth. How does breastfeeding go?

SPEAKER_00 25:51

It's actually been pretty well. Um, he lashed very early on, honestly, haven't had any sort of cracking or bleeding or anything like that. So he he's definitely a hungry little boy. So he he very much eats quite a bit. Um, but yeah, it's actually been going well. You know, we're still figuring out because we're, I guess, two and a half, three weeks in. Um, you know, still figuring out the gulping and some of those things and just getting a proper latch each time. But he's really taken a knack to it. And so I've been very blessed with, you know, easy pregnancy, relatively easy breastfeeding journey thus far. So still got a lot, still have a long way to go.

SPEAKER_02 26:33

Well, I was gonna say, yeah, I'm I'm amazed. You're up, you're looking beautiful, you seem very alert and like, and I'm like, wow, you're you're like in the thick of it right now with with the newborn postpartum. And you're just but that goes to show you too, like just how much a you know, your labor and your delivery can impact your postpartum. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 26:58

And even just having the support as well. I think that truly makes a difference. Like even immediately after my mom actually stayed for three or four days and did kind of the night shift and just helped, you know, the um kind of some of the quelling and putting him back to sleep would bring him into nurse and just letting me and my husband get as much sleep as possible so that we can almost get a sleep reserve, if you will. And you know, we're still figuring out. I have such an amazing supportive husband who, you know, we're attacked, even if he's walking across to go do the diaper change, and then I'm feeding, and you know, we just really share the load quite a bit, and so that's huge in terms of just I think mental sanity.

SPEAKER_02 27:39

Yeah. How has he adjusted to becoming a dad?

SPEAKER_00 27:43

He he's very much a natural. He was the one while I was still pregnant, like, how much longer do I have to wait? So he he is very ready, and he's just um he has such a compassionate heart and he's so gentle with Colson and just it's it warms my heart to see him in that role. It seems like he's been a dad for his whole life. Oh, that's so sweet.

SPEAKER_02 28:07

So, with this whole experience, especially it being a surprise, a big surprise, um, what do you feel like God taught you throughout, you know, beginning to end? And it can be multiple things too. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 28:21

I think, well, first off, is fully surrendering. I don't think I had ever really encountered something in my life where fully giving over control, because just seeing how gracious God has been in this season, whether it's from, you know, just protection and early pregnancy, bringing family members close. Because my sister, she was living out in California, my other sister was down in Florida, bringing them both to Winston-Salem, having my parents here, you know, just having us move from Raleigh and settling in a home that works so much better than you know, a two-story having to go up and down stairs a million times. It's just everything that has aligned up to this point has been so gracious and it's I've felt God's hand in it. It's not just these little coincidences of having the duel in the coffee shop. It's you know, hand placed for such a time as this. And I think especially leading up to where once labor was really starting to kick off, I remember being in the shower and just crying because I was, you know, it's scary of okay, it's finally here. You go all of these months leading up into this point, and how am I gonna handle it? How is it going to play out? And I just remember, you know, tears streaming down. And in my Bible that morning, I had it, it was the story of David and Goliath, and that was one where it's not a story you read often, but you know, it kind of catches your attention. And I just remember praying for Lord, just give me the strength of David, just looking at that giant and just being fully confident and heading on into it. And that's exactly how the birth played out. It was just a calm and peaceful experience, and seeing what that surrender, handing that over to God, and trusting that He will deliver through one of the craziest things that women go through. It's very moving, very, very moving. That's beautiful.

SPEAKER_02 30:15

What do you feel like if you could give advice to moms out there, moms or dads, anybody based on the experience you just had, what advice would you give them?

SPEAKER_00 30:25

I would say look outside of the box. Don't think that you have to do it a certain way just because somebody else said it that way. Just looking into the options that exist, I think is huge. Also, um, it allows you to develop thoughts about how you actually want to be a parent and how you want to welcome life, not just how do we want to set up the nursery. So I think shifting focus into how are we going to raise a child and how do we want their first experiences to be, and how do we want our experience to be as first-time parents. I think the more research people do and the more options that they see actually exist and can be just as supportive, if not in a lot of cases, safer or just less interventions, I think is a really beautiful option. Because I know you know, home isn't for everybody. Some people still want to be in a hospital, but my advice to them would be grab a doula, grab advocates that are going to be able to support you through that journey. So I think there's so many more options than people have, and as they're planning, whether it's a planned pregnancy, whether it's unexpected, um, just looking into what those options are.

SPEAKER_02 31:32

Awesome. I agree wholeheartedly for sure. Wish I had with my first. Well, thank you so much. Thank you for sharing, especially so freshly postpartum. This is impressive.

SPEAKER_00 31:47

It's one, sometimes it's easier to share while you're still kind of on the birth high. I feel like it's a little bit more exciting because definitely when you go through the birth the way that you want it, I want to share that and I want other women to be able to experience it because I know so many have had birth trauma or they've they haven't had that first birth being the experience that you know they wanted and to be able to cherish. And so I think the more people that hear it can be done, sometimes you just have to make choices that you wouldn't conventionally think of. So um, yeah, it's very exciting. So thank you for letting me share.

SPEAKER_02 32:23

Goodness, thank you for coming. I really appreciate it.

SPEAKER_00 32:27

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_02 32:29

Thank you so much for listening to today's episode. You can reach me at Surrendered Birth Services on Instagram or email me at contact at Surrendered Birth Services.com. Be sure not to miss an episode by hitting the follow button. Also, we'd love for you to leave a written review of the show so that more people's births and lives can be changed by the love of Jesus and the empowerment of accurate birth education. If you really enjoyed this episode in particular, please take a screenshot of it and post it to your Instagram story tagging Surrendered Birth Services. If you would like to be a guest on the Surrendered Birth Stories podcast, please click the link in the episode show notes to fill out your interest form. Also, if you're interested in taking my childbirth classes, birth consultations, or having me as your birth doula, please click on the link in the show notes to take you to my website for online and in-person options. Just as a reminder, this show is not giving medical advice. So please continue to see your personal care provider as needs arise. We hope you have a great week. And remember, learn all that you can, make the best plans, and then leave it in God's hands. Yeah, it's fun. Well, it's another laboring client. I was actually, I was like, I was a little nervous that I was gonna have to be like, Mary, I'm out of birth. Um, but she's not she's not quite in labor yet, but we're praying for her because she's 42 weeks this weekend. So crossing our fingers and praying she goes into labor. Big please, just come on, let it go. I know, poor mama.