The Book Series by Drs. Jeremy & Amanda Hess

a designed by god story

AvaKate Birth Story

By Katie Guida

During lunchtime on the Friday before I gave birth, I began to have what I thought were Braxton-Hicks contractions (because of multiple false alarms). The contractions continued throughout the day, but they weren’t that bad and I was not experiencing tightening in my abdomen, so I did not think that they were real contractions. This continued throughout the evening. I carried on about my night, making dinner, vacuuming the house, etc., only pausing when the contractions would hit. Around 11:30 pm while in the shower (to ease the gradually increasing pain), I began to have hot flashes.

a designed by god story

The Road Less Traveled

By Charity Haulk and Dr. Amanda Hess.

One day in my sixth grade English class my teacher, Mr. Likins gave the class an assignment. We had to choose a poem from the poetry book, memorize it and recite it in front of the class the following week. I chose the poem, “The Road Not Taken,” by Robert Frost. The poem is about a person who sees two roads in the woods, both equally traveled, but cannot decide what road to take. Both roads look the same and one would like to travel both. The person sighs with regret, that he or she may never have a chance to travel down that other road. At the end of the poem, the person takes the road less traveled by and it has made all the difference.

The same is true when choosing a birthing road. There are two roads: The Natural Birth Road and the Medicated Birth Road and every woman that becomes pregnant, chooses one of these roads. When I became pregnant with my first born, Ethan, I chose the Medicated road. This was the popular choice. Everyone I knew was induced with Pitocin and was given an epidural. My mom was the only person I knew who had natural births. She would tell me stories of how she had very little pain, only pressure after her water had broke. She easily and naturally gave birth to me, my sister and my brother. She encouraged me to have Ethan naturally, that it was the best for both of us. I remember telling her that I didn’t want to feel anything.