Speaker: Lauren
Can you share an aspect of your experience with Hatch Midwifery that stands out as particularly impactful?
Lauren : Our entire experience with Hatch Midwifery and working with Kelly was extremely positive and impactful and I really can't imagine doing it any other way. But a few specific things that I think felt really impactful to me, were both the prenatal care as well as the postpartum care. Prenatally, I really appreciated how Kelly would come to our meetings and sessions with ideas for us to process potential fears we had as well as things that might emotionally pop up. It also felt that she was very much connected and in tune with my husband as well as myself, looking at us together as a team, which was really important. And then, additionally, I would say the postpartum care was absolutely incredible. I don't think I really ever thought about the postpartum period and what I might need as a new mother as a, you know, recovering mother from labor and birth. And Kelly gave me the most love I could have ever asked for; from the hugs, from the positivity, from her showing up with special teas and special soups and herbs and lactation support. It was just an incredible experience to get to be the recipient all of that. And I would say hugely impactful when I look back on our birth experience.
In what ways did our approach to care support your needs and preferences, compared to other options you considered?
Lauren : We had considered both home and hospital birth. And I think ultimately choosing the homebirth route. We were really hopeful to be able to minimize risk and complications that potentially could occur in the hospital as well as have the most natural seamless kind of labor and birth process in a place where I felt comfortable. And one thing that really stood out to me in the care that I received and why we ended up going with Hatch Midwifery was just the clinical and medical expertise that Kelly brought to the table. It felt very comfortable with us that she had, you know, a breadth of experience as well as really finite and fine tuned clinical decision making skills. And there was never a point at which it felt like we were being, you know, pushed to go a more natural route or pushed to go to the hospital. It was definitely a consideration of both and the risks that were presented. So it really felt comfortable and safe to be with a provider that had such expertise and skills.
How would you describe the impact of our care on your birthing experience and the well-being of both you and your baby?
Lauren : When I thought about homebirth. You know, I think the main reason for me in choosing that was that I wanted to be comfortable where I was laboring and I wanted to be able to have the most natural experience as possible. And, you know, while I had heard of women having, you know, emotional experiences or spiritual experiences, it wasn't necessarily something that was one of the goals of mine, I would say in going the route of homebirth and what I can speak from: the safety that I felt during the experience as well as just the love that I felt having Kelly there and present during the labor, encouraging me, giving me love, showing my husband how to massage me. You know, just all the positive encouragement that I received. I really, when it was all over with, the biggest thing that I can reflect on is that I felt so extremely safe and I felt so extremely loved and so extremely cared for; that it was also a really special experience to be able to bring a baby into the world with.
