Ep 332: 42 Weeks and Learning to Wait

Have you ever looked back on a past birth experience and realized… “Wow, I didn’t actually know how powerful my body was”?   This week, we're speaking with Melissa Gurd, wife to her husband Jason and mother of six children living on a family homestead in Florida. Melissa shares the progression of her birth experiences over the last decade—from medically managed hospital births, to a frustrating cesarean in 2020, to finally discovering the peace and redemption of homebirth.   Episode Roundup:   First… For some mothers, the deepest birth education happens through experience. Melissa described entering her early births with very little understanding of physiological birth, or at least without a sense of deeper purpose or desire around experiencing it for herself. So many of us in our childbearing years grew up hearing that birth is something to manage– that it’s risky, and it’s something best left to the professionals. But over time, Melissa began learning more about how the body works, how positioning matters, how nourishment matters, how patience matters… and it transformed  the way she approached birth. Second… I loved hearing the redemption woven into her homebirth after cesarean. Especially the moment when she realized that her fourth baby weighed exactly the same as the baby she had previously been told was “too big” to birth naturally. How powerful is that?  Melissa was able to see what her body was capable of when she was supported, unrushed, and allowed to labor physiologically.  She knew now for certain that she could do this. Another thing that stood out to me was Melissa’s honesty about waiting. Forty-two week pregnancies. Prodromal labor. The emotional ups and downs of wondering – is today the day? I think prolonged pregnancy and prodromal labor can be one of the most refining parts of pregnancy, and extremely applicable to motherhood: You can’t force it. You can't control it. You can only sit in the reality that this is outside of you. I loved when Melissa said that birth taught her patience because it’s one of the few things in life that so tangibly shows us we do not have control. And finally… I just loved the family-centered beauty expressed through Melissa’s journey. Children waiting excitedly for their siblings. A daughter hearing the baby cry and bursting into tears of joy. Generations living together on the same property. Babies entering the world surrounded by love and loved ones.  Wow.  In this way, birth is not separated from family life— it’s integrated directly into it.  Which is one reason so many women are drawn to homebirth in the first place.  It honors the entire family ecosystem.   Links:   Redeem ™ |  https://hubs.ly/Q03K0Dr90 “Click here to learn more about REDEEM HealthShare Ministry”   Whole Mother Homebirth | https://www.myhappyhomebirth.com/wholemotherhomebirth (use code PODCAST for 10% off)   Youtube Episode Link: https://youtu.be/LuRSr2-0sZk?si=4vwBJNQ4MjBXZPgp