🎙️ Episode 42: More Than Real Estate Podcast | All Things Birth Story
In this episode, Ashley shares the raw, unfiltered story of her third baby's birth - and why it has everything to do with mindset, partnership, and finding peace in plans that don't go as expected.
✨ Medical History Shapes Everything - Ashley's mom and grandmother both went into labor at 42 weeks. With her first two babies, she had emergency C-sections that never let her reach that natural window. For her third, she fought for a VBAC times two - something most doctors won't even offer. She hired a doula, got a body-ready coach, ate six dates a day, drank raspberry leaf tea for eight weeks. She did everything. But at 41 and a half weeks with no labor, she had to accept another C-section.
✨ Labor Started, Then Completely Stopped - Saturday night at 10:30 PM, she drank a castor oil brew (nut butter, castor oil, champagne, orange juice - disgusting). By 12:30 AM, she was in active labor. Then she ate food. Her contractions stopped completely. Gone. This is normal - labor can start and stop. She went to bed.
✨ The Hospital - Acceptance - Sunday morning: not dilating. Her cervix won't open. They can't induce her safely as a VBAC times two. Her provider is out of town. A random doctor will do the surgery.
✨ Meeting Winnie Ray - 3 PM, Tuesday, January 14th. Eight pounds, nine ounces. Winnie Ray is born. Ashley breastfed her daughter in the operating room. Winnie latched perfectly. It didn't hurt. That moment - nursing minutes after major surgery - changed something in her.
✨ The Boys Meet Their Sister - 5:30 PM Sunday, her two older boys met Winnie for the first time. They were so protective. Ashley states: "I am the most blessed girl in the world."
✨ The Real Lesson - This birth didn't go as planned. Neither did her first two. But Ashley learned: If you believe everything is working for your highest and best good - you find peace. In the births that didn't go as planned, she found moments of pure bliss. That's where her peace comes from.
