I’m working on a writing project in which I’m collecting as many anonymous childbirth stories as possible. Below are the questions I have been using as prompts just to get people thinking along certain lines.

I’m also interested in what fathers have to say about their experiences of seeing (or not seeing) their children come into the world.

Please pass this along to any person you think would be willing to participate!

How did you decide whom to have as your practitioner when you were pregnant?

Would you choose him/her again? Why or why not?

If you chose a “natural” alternative (home birth, birth center) to the mainstream American birth experience, how did other people react to your decision? How did you feel about this?

If your birth took a turn you did not expect (ie. Emergency cesarean) how did that make you feel, especially in the postpartum period?

How were you treated as a whole person (ie. Not just a pelvis and a belly) during childbirth? Or how did you feel the opposite? Describe this.

If you have had very different childbirth experiences, describe what made them different What was the most unexpected thing you experienced in childbirth—the thing you could not have anticipated experiencing?

Where was God (or where did you experience God) in your pregnancy and birth?

Did you ever think about mortality (death) in your experience of childbirth?

Is the pain of childbirth different from other kinds of pain?

What did childbirth change about you?

Save your answers into an email or a Word document and send to me at RachelMarie9 (at) gmail (dot) com.

This is confidential–no identifying information will be used.