One of the top priorities of any birthing parent is to ensure the safety of their child and themselves during the labor and birth processes. For pregnant folks, things were already quite frightening with the severely high rates of infant and maternal mortality rates in the U.S. With the most recent global pandemic, the odds of those numbers increasing has risen drastically.

Essentially one of the main reasons more women and families choose not to birth at home is due to fear and not being educated that homebirth is an option for them. The only time many of us have witnessed out-of-hospital birth is in watching old movies where the timeline exists prior to modern technological advancements or in one of those rare occasions where the baby comes so quickly the mother couldn’t get to the hospital fast enough.

This post is an act of courage. In full transparency, I felt the heaviness of 2020 before things began to take place. So my 3-month break turned into a year. Yes, my business was slow and no I didn’t attend my usual number of births. I almost had none.

When I was growing up, I wanted to be something that most girls wanted to be when we were soft, fearless and still wet around the ears. A star! I wanted to be a singer and to this day I can still hold a note or three. As I grew up and began to both develop and explore other interests, I decided to trade in my mic from a pen and journal to become a writer.

It’s late at night, 2:28 am and technically it’s already the 4th of July. When my mother mentioned the family gathering to go swimming, i didn’t quite get her reason why. I figured she just wanted us all together. Then it hit me, it’s the 4th! My next thought was “women ain’t free”.