She Didn't Know She Could Say No to Continuous Monitoring…

This is one of my favorite stories to tell, because it's not about a dramatic birth. It's about a small moment that changed everything.

Katie came to me overwhelmed. Not anxious about anything specific, just completely unsure where to even start. First pregnancy, a stack of unread books, and a feeling that she was somehow already behind.

We started with the Hospital Birth Blind Spot Quiz. In two minutes, a handful of questions later, and suddenly she had language for something she'd been feeling but couldn't name: she wasn't behind. She just had specific gaps, and now she knew exactly what they were.

Fast forward to her birth. Partway through labor, a nurse moved to hook her up to continuous fetal monitoring aka the belts that stay on the whole time, tracking the baby's heart rate nonstop. It's the default in a lot of rooms, done automatically, rarely explained.

Katie paused. She asked why continuous instead of intermittent, where the monitor comes on periodically (or with a handheld doppler) and she'd be free to move, change positions, get in the shower. When the answer didn't point to any actual concern with her or the baby, she asked for intermittent monitoring instead, and got it.

That's it. That's the whole moment. No conflict, no drama.

Afterward she told me: "I didn't know I was allowed to ask for that until I did."

That sentence is the reason this work matters to me. It's never really about the big dramatic advocacy moments. It's about the small ones. The ones that only happen because a mom already knows, deep down, that her voice is what matters in that room.

If you're standing where Katie was {overwhelmed, unsure where to even start} the quiz is built for exactly that moment.

Take the Hospital Birth Blind Spot Quiz here. 100% free. Absolutely worth your time.