Mariah always knew she wanted to try for an unmedicated birth. Due to rural location and insurance restraints, she was limited to a single hospital option for her births. Armed with as much research as possible, she hired a doula and prepared for an unmedicated hospital birth with an OB group. Mariah and Matt took in person childbirth classes and online Hypnobabies courses to try and make their hospital/OB birth as close to their dream of a birth center/midwife led birth as possible. Mariah relied heavily on her doula and partner during labor, inspiring her nurse to become her advocate as well. After eight hours of intense active labor, their daughter was born safely into the hands of the on-call OB provider, but not before Mariah had to advocate for her intervention free birth several different times. When preparing for the birth of their second child, Mariah was ecstatic to switch care to a midwifery practice that now had privileges at the hospital she had to give birth. Her midwife provided a calm steady presence (a stark difference from her first birth!) during the intense hours of labor in the new natural birth suites the hospital had just opened. Her doula, husband, and even the same nurse as her first birth, once again helped her bring their precious babe earthside.
Mariah Durham Bio
Mariah is an ICU pharmacist in Southern Kentucky. She has combined her love of evidenced based medicine in her professional practice with her love of all things baby to become the ultimate birth nerd. Mariah is married to her high school sweetheart, Matt, and together they have two beautiful children. You can listen to Matt’s version of their first birth on the Partner Pod! You can connect with Mariah on Instagram @mariahrow.
Resources
Mountain Meadow Herbs
Today’s episode is sponsored by Mountain Meadow Herbs. Help prepare your body for birth with their leading herbal birth prep supplement called Gentle Birth. Gentle Birth is a midwife approved, time-tested liquid herbal formula that more than 100,000 women have chosen to help prepare their bodies for birth. Gentle Birth is a perfect blend of herbs formulated with the wisdom of Amish midwifery, like red raspberry leaf, milk thistle, wild yam root, and nine more thoughtfully blended herbs known to help lessen labor pains, improve uterine muscle tone, manage bleeding, and even ease you and baby into nursing by reducing postpartum letdown.
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