Birth Stories
www.birthstories.co.nz
No. of Kids: Sarah has Ivy 17 months old
Michelle has Mila who is just over 4, and Rosa who is 19 months
Current City: Auckland, NZ
What’s your blog all about?
We’ve been friends for ten years. We met when we were both working at a TV network, indulging in drunken karaoke nights and enjoying the luxury of sleep-ins. Life certainly has changed! A couple of years ago we were super excited to find ourselves pregnant at the same time…a first pregnancy for Sarah, and the second for Michelle.
Faced with so much negativity about the labour process from nearly everyone around us, we really looked forward to our morning walks together where we shared our excitement about our upcoming births. We discovered we had much more in common than a love of karaoke; we both felt that giving birth should be something you look forward to, not fear. Don’t get us wrong, we knew it would probably be the hardest, most painful thing we’d ever do – but why not go into it with a positive attitude?
We both love birth stories. We soaked them up when we were pregnant and now, as mothers, they’re still such an amazing read for so many reasons. We find them inspiring, healing and empowering. So after we had our babies we hit upon the idea of creating a birth stories blog! Apart from birth stories we also have lots of other stuff like recipes for pregnant/breastfeeding mums, celebrity baby news, interesting articles about labour – we just try and share as much information as possible about pregnancy and birth.
Why did you start blogging?
We believe that by sharing birth stories we can do two things.
The first is giving people the tools to be pro-active with pain management. Feeling like you’re in control of managing the pain can take away a lot of the uncertainty and fear. As you read through the stories you’ll pick up on tips and tricks, we also post interesting articles, and combine our knowledge with yours.
Secondly we believe the more you hear or read birth stories, the more it normalises birth. Traditionally by the time a women reached childbearing age she would have assisted at many labours and births of family members. Birth would be a normal part of life, no great mystery, and certainly nothing to be terrified about.
We aim to create an environment where women can arm themselves with knowledge, be inspired, and maybe share their own stories too.
What is your favourite part about blogging?
We love getting to read so many amazing stories, and we feel so privileged to have this window into people’s intensely personal experiences. It’s also really cool reading people’s comments on the stories and to think we could be helping them have a better birth experience because of something they read on our site.
How do you manage juggling family life with blogging?
It’s really great that the blogging is shared between the two of us – when one of us is having a busy the time the other one just steps up. It also helps that we are good friends and enjoy each others company, so any excuse to get together over a coffee and chat about the blog while the girls play!
Any advice to new/other bloggers?
Some really good advice we got when we first started was to be true to yourself and write in your own voice. Some of the best blogs are the ones where you can really feel the personality and passion of the blogger coming through, not because they’re trying to perform for the reader or be something they’re not.
Top 3 favourite posts from your blog?
Rocket Baby – a very funny and incredible story about the super fast birth of rocket baby!
Never Say Never – a really encouraging story that’s a great reminder that even if things don’t go as planned you can still have an amazing positive experience.
Birth Photography – we do other posts about things related to labour and birth. This post on Birth Photography seems to have really struck a chord with people – they’re either totally into it or a little freaked out about it ;-)
Top 3 favourite blogs?
When we get a chance to read other blogs our first ports of call are:
Pacing the Panic Room
Marvelous Kiddo
And Michelle has just discovered ‘Another Lunch‘ and is checking it obsessively every day!
