‘The American Birth Story’: Uniontown woman interviewing mothers to share their experience
Uniontown woman interviewing mothers to share their experience
When Rebecca Ashby was having her son, she saw a different provider for each of the first six months of her pregnancy, trying to find one she could trust.
She ultimately found home birth midwives (“a divine thing that happened almost by accident”), who she went on to use for both of her children’s births — her son, now 11, and a daughter, now 9.
“Everything was great, and I wouldn’t change anything about my care or the birth experiences from then on out,” she said. “But the problem was, you shouldn’t be six months pregnant shopping for a care provider. I wish that somebody would have gotten a hold of me maybe five years before I ever even thought about having children, and I wish that there was information that was available more readily.”
Ashby, who lives in Uniontown, is now collecting stories from women locally and around the country to highlight both the joys and the obstacles that women encounter in their pregnancies.
She recently launched her project, The American Birth Story, which she hopes will eventually consist of 250 or more stories with women from every state.
The difficulty Ashby encountered in trying to find information or options for care providers made her passionate about finding ways to track down those resources.
Over the past decade, that’s led to her organizing a series of activities with women, from support groups to one-on-one coaching.
Working with women in the area, Ashby’s realized that while the situation’s improved, it’s not that much better.
As a concerned mother, Ashby said, she wants things to be better when her children are growing up.
“I thought, what could it hurt if we let women tell their own stories, and instead of me or any individual person trying to paint a narrative … what if we just told the truth about what it’s like to birth in America, and let other people come to those conclusions for themselves and ask questions themselves?” she said.
In most cases, it will take the form of a virtual video camera interview. Some women, for privacy reasons, are only allowing Ashby to use parts of their story. But ideally, Ashby said, she’s looking for women who are OK with recording the audio and video and telling their story.
She’s also asking the women to complete a questionnaire about their birth experience.
“It’s more than just a creative project,” she said. “We want to capture actual quantitative data from these families, and then the plan is to potentially put this into some sort of documentary-style end result.”
Ashby is looking to edit it into a long-form video, although she’s also considering making a truncated version for short-film festivals. She’ll also be using excerpts on social media and YouTube in hopes of encouraging more women to share their stories.
About five interviews have been completed, and Ashby has 20 more scheduled.
Some women talk about how wonderful their birth experience was. More commonly, she’s noticed a lack of trust in healthcare providers.
The common thread she’s noticed in births, whether at a hospital or at home, is how much the mother is heard.
“This is a very taboo subject, and a lot of people don’t realize that hospital policy can trump a woman’s intuition or what she’s feeling is happening,” she said.
First planned to coincide with America’s 250th anniversary, the interviews will hopefully be finished by the first quarter of 2027, Ashby said.
Ashby wants the project to convey to people how sacred and unique birth is. And she also wants mothers-to-be to see the project and realize “you’re worthy of working with a team of people that support you.”
“I want people to realize how significant this moment is not just for the baby, but also for the mother, and how heard the mother feels and how safe and supported she feels during this time affects her for the rest of her life,” she said. “If we can do better for mothers earlier, that is going to have a ripple effect into the rest of her life and her children’s lives.”