About Jenni
My name is Jenni. I have a fantastic husband and 5 awesome kids. I have the distinct pleasure of living the challenge of being a full time working parent in corporate America. This means I have until 9am every morning to get 6 people (including myself) dressed, fed and at their designated 9-5p location. After work I have a handful of hours to feed them, finish homework, spend quality time, do chores, read books and get them clean before bed. My husband and I spend every free moment spooning and being best friends. It certainly makes you appreciate the precious time you have with your family. I try to remind myself daily that these are the "good years" where my children are small and still need me. I appreciate this some days more than others.
In addition to my busy work and home life, I am also the Chapter Leader of ICAN of Phoenix; an international non-profit organization dedicated to raising cesarean awareness, supporting mothers and advocating for birth rights. We run a website, a Facebook page, a Facebook group, and multiple monthly meetings. We also provide individual support for women looking to have a vbac [vaginal birth after cesarean]. I became chapter leader of ICAN of Phoenix in March 2013, after my own vba2c, with a fire inside me to empower others in their birth experiences.
I believe one of the best gifts you can give your children is the example of pursuing your passions and helping others. My service to others in this life, is to help them through the birth process. I am not a doctor, or a midwife. I am a doula. My goal is to support women through their pregnancy and help them make their birth experience a positive and empowering one.
I’m busy, but blessed. I have a full and meaningful life with the time to pursue my passion of providing birth support for women and their partners.
This story starts with the pregnancy of my youngest child, Milo. I hadn't been pregnant in 6 years. At 28, I was a different person than I was at 22. I had grown roots in motherhood, and had the confidence of a seasoned parent to question conventional wisdom. I ultimately spent 10 months actively planning and preparing for the birth and it felt like the more I learned, the more I realized I didn't know. I was planning a vba2c; a vaginal birth after 2 cesareans. A vbac, let alone a vba2c, is not an accepted practice by the medical community...yet. Women that have the misfortune of planning a vaginal birth after a cesarean must prepare themselves for an uphill battled against care providers that use scare tactics, worried friends and family members and internet stories that make you lay awake at night wondering if you are doing the right thing. You have to know as much, if not more so, than the doctors when it comes to risks and statistics. But I did it! I pushed my baby out in December 2012, and after all of that hard work, it has been my most valuable achievement. After my own birth, I still felt compelled to learn and share my information with others but no longer had my own birth as an outlet for my research.
So began the idea for the Birth Project.
The Birth Project has been a little sparkle of a dream in my mind since planning my own birth. Women need help navigating the many obstacles they are faced with in the modern birth experience. It's confusing! We must consider planning our child’s birth as the first step in being a parent. It has the potential to save our life, the lives of our babies and it can secure the safety of our future pregnancies. Doctors have their place in the birth process, and I'm thankful for them in case of emergencies. That said, women are our most valuable resource when it comes to leaning about the birth experience. Women that have been through it, that can assure us we are normal and that our bodies can do this. It's how babies have come into this world for thousands of years.
I had the perfect birth. How can I say that? Because it was mine. I was absolutely as strong as I could be, I made all the decisions to the best of my abilities and I achieved my goal of pushing my baby out. Part of my “perfect birth” experience included crying a lot, a 6 hour stalled labor, being terrified of the contractions and ending up with an unplanned epidural. I also may or may not have spent about 45 minutes trying to figure out how to nail a cesarean without outright asking for one. My point is, perfection is in the eye of the mother when it comes to a birth experience. Regardless of what conclusions you come to, and what decisions are made in the planning process; what matters is that you feel like you were in active participant in outcome of your birth.
My wish is that every woman would come away from her birth experience feeling empowered and proud of the hard work her body has put in to the creation and delivery of this new soul. No woman should feel any less than miraculous after bringing a life into this world. Every time I see a woman leave her birth feeling defeated and broken, I feel angry and on fire for change. I will do whatever I can in this lifetime to help women have empowered birth experiences.
It’s called the “Birth Project” because I think birth should be viewed as a project. A project involves planning and preparation and it has a desired outcome. In fact, the birth of our child is one of the most important projects we can accomplish in our lifetime. My dream is to serve as a resource for women to prepare their mind, body, soul and birth team for the incredible experience of
birth.
This Birth Project is not aimed at one style birth. I hope to be useful for women planning natural births, medicated births, home births, hospital births and even cesarean births. I want to arm women with the information to make their own decisions so they can feel like their birth experience was by their design, not their doctors and not by mine.
Please take a minute to fill out the Birth Project Survey; I will be using the information I collect from your stories to tailor this site for mothers like you.
Update: In 2014, I had my 2VBA2C and it was another "perfect" birth but much different. For that story, check out the blog section.
Thank you and God Bless!
Peace& Love,
Jenni
In addition to my busy work and home life, I am also the Chapter Leader of ICAN of Phoenix; an international non-profit organization dedicated to raising cesarean awareness, supporting mothers and advocating for birth rights. We run a website, a Facebook page, a Facebook group, and multiple monthly meetings. We also provide individual support for women looking to have a vbac [vaginal birth after cesarean]. I became chapter leader of ICAN of Phoenix in March 2013, after my own vba2c, with a fire inside me to empower others in their birth experiences.
I believe one of the best gifts you can give your children is the example of pursuing your passions and helping others. My service to others in this life, is to help them through the birth process. I am not a doctor, or a midwife. I am a doula. My goal is to support women through their pregnancy and help them make their birth experience a positive and empowering one.
I’m busy, but blessed. I have a full and meaningful life with the time to pursue my passion of providing birth support for women and their partners.
This story starts with the pregnancy of my youngest child, Milo. I hadn't been pregnant in 6 years. At 28, I was a different person than I was at 22. I had grown roots in motherhood, and had the confidence of a seasoned parent to question conventional wisdom. I ultimately spent 10 months actively planning and preparing for the birth and it felt like the more I learned, the more I realized I didn't know. I was planning a vba2c; a vaginal birth after 2 cesareans. A vbac, let alone a vba2c, is not an accepted practice by the medical community...yet. Women that have the misfortune of planning a vaginal birth after a cesarean must prepare themselves for an uphill battled against care providers that use scare tactics, worried friends and family members and internet stories that make you lay awake at night wondering if you are doing the right thing. You have to know as much, if not more so, than the doctors when it comes to risks and statistics. But I did it! I pushed my baby out in December 2012, and after all of that hard work, it has been my most valuable achievement. After my own birth, I still felt compelled to learn and share my information with others but no longer had my own birth as an outlet for my research.
So began the idea for the Birth Project.
The Birth Project has been a little sparkle of a dream in my mind since planning my own birth. Women need help navigating the many obstacles they are faced with in the modern birth experience. It's confusing! We must consider planning our child’s birth as the first step in being a parent. It has the potential to save our life, the lives of our babies and it can secure the safety of our future pregnancies. Doctors have their place in the birth process, and I'm thankful for them in case of emergencies. That said, women are our most valuable resource when it comes to leaning about the birth experience. Women that have been through it, that can assure us we are normal and that our bodies can do this. It's how babies have come into this world for thousands of years.
I had the perfect birth. How can I say that? Because it was mine. I was absolutely as strong as I could be, I made all the decisions to the best of my abilities and I achieved my goal of pushing my baby out. Part of my “perfect birth” experience included crying a lot, a 6 hour stalled labor, being terrified of the contractions and ending up with an unplanned epidural. I also may or may not have spent about 45 minutes trying to figure out how to nail a cesarean without outright asking for one. My point is, perfection is in the eye of the mother when it comes to a birth experience. Regardless of what conclusions you come to, and what decisions are made in the planning process; what matters is that you feel like you were in active participant in outcome of your birth.
My wish is that every woman would come away from her birth experience feeling empowered and proud of the hard work her body has put in to the creation and delivery of this new soul. No woman should feel any less than miraculous after bringing a life into this world. Every time I see a woman leave her birth feeling defeated and broken, I feel angry and on fire for change. I will do whatever I can in this lifetime to help women have empowered birth experiences.
It’s called the “Birth Project” because I think birth should be viewed as a project. A project involves planning and preparation and it has a desired outcome. In fact, the birth of our child is one of the most important projects we can accomplish in our lifetime. My dream is to serve as a resource for women to prepare their mind, body, soul and birth team for the incredible experience of
birth.
This Birth Project is not aimed at one style birth. I hope to be useful for women planning natural births, medicated births, home births, hospital births and even cesarean births. I want to arm women with the information to make their own decisions so they can feel like their birth experience was by their design, not their doctors and not by mine.
Please take a minute to fill out the Birth Project Survey; I will be using the information I collect from your stories to tailor this site for mothers like you.
Update: In 2014, I had my 2VBA2C and it was another "perfect" birth but much different. For that story, check out the blog section.
Thank you and God Bless!
Peace& Love,
Jenni