In June of 2018 I gave birth in the hospital to my long-awaited first baby, a little girl I named Elena Grace. The experience of her birth, while seemingly normal and uneventful from the outside, had a profound impact on my life from that day forward. In fact, it taught me many things about myself, my personality and my past that have completely influenced the person I am today. It taught me that while I have a deep respect for medicine, I also have a fear and general mistrust of doctors and hospitals and experience a great amount of anxiety being in them and at their mercy. This birth taught me that I am incredibly strong, capable and not just enough to raise my daughter but competent enough to make decisions for her and be the sole authority of what is best for her.

Out of all of that though, it taught me that I had preexisting trauma that would make it hard for me later on to recount simple details of this day, however significant it was to me. Birth has this way of creating a fog over everything and, adding in some pre-existing trauma, the birth story I told myself was very different from reality. While I did have a birth photographer, there were many important details not documented that I vaguely remembered taking place. It was hard to try to piece together the parts of my birth that were right on the tip of my tongue so to speak.

And that is why I am so incredibly passionate about what I do. I do my best to help you remember all of the little and big moments of your birth story, whether they seem significant at the time or not. I would rather overshoot and over-deliver than leave you with gaps in your birth story.