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Carrie assisted at my homebirth as a student midwife. Even then her care and compassion, as well as passion for natural birth, was quite evident. She later acted at my doula in a midwife attended hospital birth while she was on her break from training as a midwife. Her commitment to helping me birth naturally was above and beyond. She offered encouragement and support through the various stages of my very prolonged prodromal labor. She offered many suggestions for keeping the contractions active during the day as my exhaustion began to build and stayed by my side to encourage and assist me. She then continued to encourage me to seek my birth goals when I became stalled at 7 cm for hours. Never letting me forget that birth is a natural process and my body was made to do this and it would happen. Reminding me that the end was near when I was ready to give up and literally helping to support me physically as I gave birth while standing in the shower. When my next baby died during the second trimester, she was once again by my side. When it became necessary to seek an induced stillbirth because my body refused to recognize the miscarriage, she accompanied me to the hospital and remained by my side through the entire induction process. Once again offering hip and leg massages since this is where I feel contractions the most intensely toward the end of labor. She was allowed to catch my unborn child and cared for it as carefully as she would have a living child before handing him off to me. After delivery, she remained with me for a period of time to offer comfort and care in my time of loss and recovery.

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Septemer 2017