“I didn’t know what birth was about. I didn’t know I would regret having people there I didn’t trust. I didn’t know that I was allowed, as a woman, to be in control of myself. I needed my midwife to encourage me. Instead, I sat in triage with the woman I loathe most, being treated like a pansy by the nursing staff because I was only 2 cm even though I’d been in active labor for ten hours. I thought I was dying. I felt alone in that hospital. I felt weak. I felt like a failure. I still do. Even as I write this, almost two years later, I feel that I failed my daughter. I wanted to have her at home...where she could see me first and feel safe. The hospital felt safer but I was wrong.”

-Bri, San Diego CA