From epidural to au naturel... one woman's story

In case you haven't heard of "Dooce," she's a mom blogger in Utah who writes with serious sass, a foul mouth, and oh—did I mention she's hilarious? She has a 5-year-old daughter and a wee one who's just about a month old.

In one of her most recent blog postings she compellingly tells the very, very beginning of her youngest daughter's birth story, writing about how, in her opinion, women who choose home birth and natural childbirth must be just plain nuts. (It gets better, keep reading.)

She writes, "Up until about the 30th week of my pregnancy I hadn't given labor much thought, only that I was going to ask for the epidural two days before contractions started. I'm not kidding, that was the extent of my birth plan."

Many women decide to do just that. But curiously, just weeks before her labor, Dooce somehow jumped from give-me-pain-meds-NOW to deciding to hire a doula and plan for a natural childbirth. She said the change of heart came surprisingly from a book she had planned to hate.

Of this book, called Your Best Birth, Dooce writes about how it initially made her crazy amounts of angry, even calling the book's writers "hippies" who must "smell like patchouli." But then, something about it got to her.

Now she writes: “If you are pregnant or are planning to become pregnant, GO READ THAT BOOK. From now on when someone asks me what is the one piece of advice I would give to a pregnant woman, it will be: GO BUY A COPY OF THAT BOOK.”

I personally haven’t read it yet, but my intrigue has been upped even more by Dooce's posting. Have you read it? If so, let us know what you think. Leave a message here or e-mail me at alisa@blooma.com.

Meanwhile, I can't wait for the rest of Dooce's postings about how her birth turned out. She does refer to it as a "sacred and spiritual experience," so I'm guessing it went pretty well. Plus, her new daughter Marlo is just plain beautiful. Congrats, Dooce!

Love,
Alisa, Sarah & the women of Blooma