Going into my first pregnancy, I thought I was doing all the “right things” to prepare for the birth I wanted. I read all the books and took a hospital childbirth class, so of course I was prepared, right? When planning for pregnancy and birth, I simply followed the mainstream checklist of what you should do, unaware of all the options I truly had.

Ten years ago, plus one day, I was tired of waiting. At 40 weeks and 6 days, I had tried dancing, bumpy car rides, spicy food, even a rich chocolate lava cake that always made me have contractions. Nothing was working.