BirthWise is proud to share this work from The Dewdrop Doula and her #HearUsRoar project.

Let’s share about birth! Shine a light on the good, the bad, and the ugly.  

“Hear Us Roar Birth Memoirs,” was started as a safe platform for individuals to share all types of birthing experiences. 
     
Roaring is done to protect, show ownership, to warn, or after a victory.  "Hear Us Roar" is for EVERY birth memoir. By sharing your birth memoirs, you will encourage others and bring awareness to possibilities throughout each unique birthing journey.  Each Birth Memoir belongs to a single person, each different but equally as important.

Together we are stronger; together they will hear us roar! 

Your Memoirs can be shared via email to Thedewdropdoula@gmail.com or http://m.facebook.com/thedewdropdoula .  Please add #hearusroarbirth and add your birthing location.  Let’s support one another, and spark awareness for better births.

In this memoir Heather Davis' shares about her hard work to achieve a VBAC (Vaginal Birth After Cesarean). She was a BirthWise doula client for her first birth (with Dalia).
As you read this memoir, please keep in mind that birth is a time when women experience very intense emotions, and these strong feelings tend to fade slowly, if at all. Be mindful that the emotions elicited by birth are equally as important as the events themselves. How we remember our births impacts us for a lifetime. Read about why we are sharing these memoirs here.

Written by Meghan Wardlaw (Booker's mom). Shared with permission. Read about why we are sharing birth memoirs here.

"I don’t know why my birth stories are always so lengthy… I just want to remember stuff!?

Booker is my third babe. My first labor was a hellacious experience of doctor/hospital over reach, a 40+hour long labor, and a c-section that I was not ready or awake for. It left me with some real postpartum/PTSD issues.  My second was an elective c-section because of life things at the time and probably mostly the fear of repeating what had gone down before.
I decided this third time was my time. I was going to attempt the VBA2C (Vaginal Birth after 2 Cesarean Sections) and do everything in my power to make this a natural, safe, controlled, happy time for my babe and me. So we set out to do that.

We've recently decided to start sharing birth memoirs written by BirthWise in Birmingham clients. For a number of reasons, we feel that it is important to share the birth memoirs of maternity care consumers in our area. For the teller, it provides an opportunity to process, to reflect, to help or inspire others, and in some cases, to heal. For expectant parents, there is much knowledge to be gleaned from the experiences of others.
 
As you read these memoirs, please keep in mind that birth is a time when women experience very intense emotions, and these strong feelings tend to fade slowly, if at all. Be mindful that the emotions elicited by birth are equally as important as the events themselves. How we remember our births impacts us for a lifetime.
 
These narratives will have both highs and lows described, possibly in very intense detail and equally intense wording. You will see positive narratives, negative narratives, and narratives that include both positive and negative elements. We ask that you read each narrative with an open mind and with compassion, remembering that each account is important, and also that no narrative can take away from your own experiences.
 
Without exception, all memoirs will be told in the author’s own words--sharing as much or as little as she has chosen to share--without any editing by BirthWise in Birmingham.  The only editorial control we will exert is the timing and order of publication.
 
Although you may be familiar with the term “Birth Story,” we prefer the term “Birth Memoir.” For some, “Story” connotes a narrative that is fabricated.  We want to give birth parents a place to tell their truth, in their own powerful words.