The OBirth Community originally met Piper and Chaz in the Orgasmic Birth film and have been following them ever since, most recently as part of the en*theos Obirth Conference (their interview is now part of Pain to Power). Now we are honored to share visual and written descriptions from their home birth in Hawaii. This photo essay presents the first of three parts including: Preparing in Early Labor, Birth, and Postpartum. Thank you Piper and Chaz!
Submitted by Piper & Chaz Lovemore
CHAZ: Piper is ready to get in the birth tub so the prep begins. Her mother boiled water to bring the water temperature in the tub up quickly.
PIPER: My friend stopped by to drop off the dreamcatcher made during my blessing. I lingered over my altar for about an hour, reflecting and rearranging; channeling the support of all the women who’d contributed to it over the years… deepening… I don’t recall experiencing any intense surges during this process, but once I left this space to rejoin my family I experienced some of the most intense sensations I’d yet had… and soon wished to lie down for a rest. A few moments later, the tub started sounding like a great idea…
PIPER: Once I climbed in the tub, the children changed into their suits immediately, and continued to quietly orbit around me…
CHAZ: Rocket, who’d been the baby at the last birth, made sure that Moxie participated…
PIPER: Chaz felt my uterus doing its work, and took a moment to send some energy to the baby…
CHAZ: “I’ll get that for you”…. At this point Piper was settling in so I tuned in to help ground her. Surges are 2 to 3 minutes apart and are becoming more intense at this point. We are departing active labor and landing in transition. From the moment Piper climbed in the birth tub to the moment of birth, only about 20 min transpired. The intensity of the surges magnified as time passed. A little water poured over Piper through them seemed to help.
PIPER: For the first time since our first birth, we invited a friend along on our journey. My sweet sister Jaymie danced around the periphery of the space anchoring and sprinkling love…
CHAZ: Jaymie lending some experience and positive energy to the birth realm. Mahalo
Transition for me was about reconciling some reluctance to advance to stage 2 of birth… To conclude another pregnancy and transition from sacred gestation space, to the postpartum love bubble.
PIPER: This labor took longer than the last… While I won’t definitively say our family is complete, with our fifth now here, we are certainly in the vicinity of completion :). Mentally I lagged a bit behind my body’s progress…
I knew I needed to move in closer for anchoring.
CHAZ: I could see Piper’s surges deepening… When I saw her furrow her brow… I could see Piper focusing her intention for progress.
PIPER: Chaz could feel me holding back a little. He came into my sight line…
CHAZ: I just said “so, whats up baby?”
PIPER: I admitted that I knew I needed to change positions, but that I also knew this would move things along… And for reasons I couldn’t fully articulate, I felt hesitant…
CHAZ: Jaymie and I noticed this so we joked about it… to lighten the mood…
PIPER: After acknowledging my inner dialogue, I really couldn’t justify holding myself back any longer. I leaned forward and felt the baby shift into position.
CHAZ: It’s getting more and more intense. I can sense we are nearer since she shifted her position…. Piper LOVES hydrotherapy so when shifting we applied her fave.
I remember telling Jaymie that I wished I could just hang out in the space between surges all day!
PIPER: Jaymie gently held my hands and just observed my process.
CHAZ: I climbed in the tub… Here we go… She has officially made it to the end of transition… Look at the face… focused.
PIPER: As the trance deepened, I knew baby was ready to be born….
So I focused on matching speeds with my tiny passenger…
Thank you for joining us this week for Piper and Chaz “Preparing for Birth.” Join us next to experience the “Birth: Piper and Chaz’s Home Waterbirth in Hawaii.”
Visit Piper and Chaz at Lovemore Lamaze! Piper LoveMore is a birthworker on a mission. Her goal: to empower families around the globe to navigate their birth experiences with confidence and pleasure. To that end she has pursued certification as a Lamaze educator, a doula, and a midwife, spending countless hours in service to the parturient population. Chaz LoveMore is an audio engineer by trade, and a birth educator by necessity. “I realized that most dads had no idea what I was talking about, most of them were terrified, and I felt like that was unacceptable.” Having been transformed by his first birth experience, he sought to encourage other partners to discover the power of their presence in the birth space, by speaking directly to their unique concerns. Together with Piper, he has worked to craft a unique childbirth education experience that both prepares and inspires expectant parents. Piper and Chaz have enjoyed four freebirths since their Orgasmic Birth delivery. They now live, love and explore in Hawaii with their five, free-learning children.
Leave a Reply