Rebecca’s Story

During this, my second pregnancy, my husband got a job transfer to Charlotte and I had to transfer prenatal care from Minnesota. My first baby, now almost 3, was born with midwives in the hospital and so that’s what I searched for in Charlotte before we moved. When I couldn’t find that, I actually considered staying in Minnesota until after the baby was born… even though that would have been more than 4 months away from my husband.

Luckily, I read in an online forum that the Carolina Community Maternity Center was just organizing and opening right after we moved. It sounded perfect for us. We wanted to be sure our daughter could attend the birth, that water birth would be an option, that I would be permitted to eat and have freedom to move without restriction, and that the baby would never be taken from us for procedures.

At CCMC, we could have our daughter there to watch her brother born (and even be in the birth pool with me!) and I was free to move around. I wasn’t subjected to excessive internal exams or invasive fetal monitoring. I was supported and advised by the midwives through the entire labor and delivery. And I can’t say enough about being able to labor and birth in water — it’s great for relaxing when things get tough.

My water broke at 5:30pm.
We arrived at the birth center near 9pm.
Everett was born 8lbs 1oz at 1:30am.
We went home near 7am.
Everything I hoped and prayed for.