Marietta, GA birth photographer + doula
I am SUPER excited about this blog post because it’s actually written by the mom herself! I give everyone the opportunity to write their own blog post, but most prefer I do it for them.
On the day that our beautiful daughter was born, I was 40 weeks and 2 days pregnant, and definitely eager for her arrival. I woke up at 5 am that morning and felt a little different, but assumed it was just good ole’ Braxton Hicks stopping by. So I went back to sleep only to wake up at 8 am still feeling the same way. I started to feel excited that maybe this could be the day!
As the next 2 hours went by, I knew it was time to start getting our things together. My husband got home at 10 am that morning from working an overnight shift, and as soon as he got home, we got all of our things together and packed up the car. I had coincidentally already had an appointment with my midwife, Ashley Saint, at Providence Women’s Healthcare. So we got in the car and made the 40 minute drive to Roswell from Smyrna. Once we arrived, Ashley confirmed that I was 4 cm dilated. I cried the most amazing tears of joy that I had ever experienced in my life! I couldn’t believe that I could be meeting my daughter soon. Ashley said that we could go ahead and go to the hospital, but that we should go have some lunch first.
We arrived at North Fulton Hospital at 1:30 pm, got checked in and presented the nurses with their gift basket of treats, along with my birth plan and Emilia’s newborn care plan. The nurses were very respectful of everything on our plan. They were made aware that my husband and I had taken HypnoBabies child birth classes and that we wanted an all-natural, un-medicated water birth with no interventions. 
Thanks to the help of our doula, Maegan Hall, Kim Storey, midwife with Isis Women’s Healthcare who delivered our daughter, and all the wonderful nurses, I got the natural water birth that I wanted! The experience was everything that I could have ever asked for. 
On October 29th at 7:58 pm our beautiful Emilia Katherine Woodby came into the world, and completed our lives. After 12 hours of labor and 12 minutes of pushing, she was finally here and our hearts overflowed with joy and love.
All the prenatal yoga classes, weekly chiropractor sessions, Hypnobabies child birth classes and the amazing support team I had for 9 months, had all finally paid off. I felt so grateful that I had all the knowledge that I did going into labor and delivery, and felt so empowered that I knew what all my options were. I was in control, no one else.
It was the most amazing day of my life. Thank you to everyone who supported me and believed in me.
