In 2022 Amadea and Matthew added a baby girl to their family which includes three children from his previous marriage and a menagerie of farm animals. Amadea originally planned to birth at a center, but transferred to a home birth midwife after experiencing depression and anxiety in the first trimester. Her journey includes navigating family dynamics, reversing a GBS status, turning a consistently transverse baby, symphysis pubis dysfunction causing limited mobility in the third trimester, gestating until 42 weeks 3 days, contracting Covid the day before birth, and ultimately transferring into hospital at the height of labor due to a combination of potential red flags. Despite the many complexities and curveballs, Amadea had a positive, healthy pregnancy and unmedicated birth and cites her privileges for the fortunate outcomes; including a great support system and the time and ability to aggressively self-inform before and during pregnancy. As each decision arose, she and her partner strove to untangle a myriad of factors and using all the data at their disposal, hone in on the best possible option for their family, but found the urgency and messiness of the process a lot to contend with regardless of their cool-headed-ness! In the end, acceptance of the unknown proved the most useful tool in their kit.
Amadea Cesari Bio
Amadea is wife to Matthew, mother to baby Sylvia and stepmom to William (10), Elias (13), and Lily (15). She and her family operate a small farm in the hills of Pennsylvania and live a life full of plants, old cars, animal management, kid extracurriculars and the best kind of chaos.
Resources
- My own handwritten birth mantras shown or read to me
- Evidence Based Birth
- Spinning Babies
- Hypnobirthing by Siobhan Miller
- Expecting Better and Cribsheet by Emily Oster
- Guide to Childbirth and Spiritual Midwifery by Ina May Gaskin
- The Business of Being Born
- How To Talk So Kids Will Listen and Listen So Kids Will Talk; and Siblings Without Rivalry by Faber and Mazlish (for dynamics with older kids)
- The Birth Hour was the best, and every story left me wiser, stronger and more ready for birth.
- The Peanut app helped fight feelings of isolation, and introduced me to a couple of dear friends
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Needed
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