Birth Your Story: Why Writing about Your Birth Matters

by Jaime Fleres

Overview

Birth Your Story is about using writing to remember, process, heal and honor the entirety of your birth experience. You are forever changed, and how you tell the story can determine whether the power of birth serves or hinders your life. Whether you're pregnant or birthed decades ago, a seasoned or novice writer, man or woman, this book is for you. 

The book inspires and supports you to write your birth story, takes the intimidation and other obstacles out of writing, offers accessible writing prompts and support, and includes over 15 inspiring stories — about birth loss, adoption, home birth, premature birth, surrogacy, cesarean birth, and more.  

Feel empowered to write your story, honor your experience, value your voice, heal your past and transform your future, and find freedom through authentic expression. Because your stories matter.  Because YOU matter.  

Product Details

BN ID:	2940154983546
Publisher:	Jaime Fleres
Publication date:	11/27/2017
Sold by:	Draft2Digital
Format:	eBook
File size:	656 KB

Table of Contents

Dedication

Introduction

PART ONE: Why Write

Chapter 1: We are Storytellers

Chapter 2: We Write to Remember

Chapter 3: We Write to Process

Betsy’s Story

Chapter 4: We Write to Claim

Aubrey’s Story

Chapter 5: We Write to Heal

Birth Trauma

Birth Loss

Katie’s Story

Healing Past Traumas and Pains Called up by Birth

Healing that which Surrounds our Birth

Billy's Story

Chapter 6: We Write to Honor

Lindsay’s Stories

Chapter 7: Father’s and Partner’s Stories

Lance’s Story

Jason’s Story

PART TWO: Anatomy of a Birth Story

Chapter 8: Master Narratives

Alex’s Story

Chapter 9: Birth Story Narrative Arc

The Opening: Exposition

Brandon’s Story

Rising Action

Climax

Falling Action

Lauren’s Story

Resolution or Revelation

Chapter 10: The Birth Story Layers

Our Story Skin

Our Story Muscles

Hope’s Story

Our Story Bones

Kelsey’s Story

Weaving these Layers into Narrative

Chapter 11: Birth Stories through Time

Jaime’s Story and Poem

PART THREE: How To Write

Chapter 12: Getting Started

Setting an Intention

Making a Plan

Chapter 13: Ways into Your Story

Take Note

Sensory Markers

Cut to the Essence: Key Words

Key Questions

Create a Map

Meditation

Movement

Chapter 14: Removing Writing Blocks

“I don’t have enough time”

“I am not a good writer”

“I am afraid to admit the truth of my experience”

“I am afraid of what others will think”

Chapter 15: Writing the First Draft

Tools for the Job

Let it flow

Be Authentic

Dustin’s Story

Offer details and engage the senses

Don’t just report, reflect

Use Dialogue

Nick’s Story

Chapter 16: Writing about Trauma

Chapter 17: After your first draft

Let it sit and breathe

Reflect and deepen

Connect with your birth support

Consider audience

Proofread

Save it

Write it again

Chapter 18: Sharing Your Story

Sharing to connect

Vanessa’s story

Sharing to heal

Sharing with our children

Sharing to shape culture

When not to share

Celebrate and return

Acknowledgements

Appendix A: Wisdom of Birth

Appendix B: Chart of Birth Story Layers

Appendix C: The Birth Story Guide

Appendix D: Birth Story Meditation

Appendix E: Qoya-based Movement Ritual

Appendix F: Using Non Violent Communication to Process Birth Trauma in Writing

Appendix G: Additional Writing Prompts

Notes

Resources

About the Author

Editorial Reviews

All of my births became birth stories. They are not only the chronicle of my children’s welcome to the world, but also of my own strength, power, and transformation as a woman becoming a mother. Stories are both information and soul. They are therapy. And they heal both the writer and the listener as we tap into universal human truths and experience. The healing potential of story in birth is profound and only beginning to be tapped into by mothers - mothers who have struggled, lost, succeeded, triumphed and want to make the most of their experience as a journey of growth and being deeply human, deeply woman. If your journey of birth and motherhood is in need of witness, healing, hearing, or sharing - and you don’t know where to start - or if putting pen to paper makes you freeze up but there’s a story that is calling out to be told - Birth Your Story by writer and teacher Jaime Fleres is where I suggest you go to birth your inner writer.

—AVIVA ROMM, MD, midwife, Author of The Natural Pregnancy Book and Natural Health After Birth

Do you know your birth story? And if you are a parent, what do you remember about bringing your own child(ren) into the world? Jaime Fleres’s book, Birth Your Story, makes a unique contribution to how we look at birth and why writing our story matters.

Birth Your Story is part memoir and part writing guide. I wish I had this book 25 years ago as I was birthing my children. It would have encouraged me to look at other options for how I wanted to bring a baby into the world. Jaime’s book explains what we lose as a culture, as a family and as women when we don’t pass on these stories.

This is an important book that will help you discover the gift of creation both in the womb and on the page.

—BETSY BLANKENBAKER, Author of Autobiography of an Orgasm

No matter what kind of birth experience you had, writing the story is so important for honoring this huge rite of passage. This book is a meaningful and poignant guide to telling the story of one of, if not THE, most important experience of your life.

—KATE NORTHRUP, creator of Origin and bestselling author of Money: A Love Story

Birth Your Story reads like a midwife or doula feels: wise, grounded, clear, no bullsh*t, unflappable and totally loving, with a sacred reverence for the whole wild and winding journey of birth. I personally didn’t realize what power there is in writing your birth story, until I wrote my own, and I wonder what secret joy, what humility, and what self-pride, would still be locked inside had I not. What a joy to discover Jaime Fleres’ book, that not only guides us through the transformational writing process, but into a deep reclamation of our body, power, fragility, wisdom and divinity. Whether a seasoned writer or a blushing novice, no matter: open this book and write on.

—LIYANA SILVER, Coach and author of Feminine Genius: The Provocative Path to Waking Up and Turning On the Wisdom of Being a Woman

Jaime Fleres’s Birth Your Story is the perfect gift for expecting couples and new (and not so new) parents. Jaime’s warmth and wisdom encourage and empower readers to begin to write and embrace their birth stories. But this book is so much more than a how-to book; it’s a celebration of love and the power of what our bodies and minds are capable of. It’s a must-have book for any parent in your life.

—KATE HOPPER, author of Use Your Words

From the Publisher