The story that comes below is written by Sarah, a beautiful Indie Birth mama and beloved virtual midwifery client. She is so brave, and smart, and cool, and I just love her so much! I hope you find her words, photos and birth video as inspiring as I do. – Margo

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My partner and I found ourselves pregnant in precarious times. We conceived at the beginning of a chain of strict lockdowns just as it was sinking in that the corona chaos wouldn’t be going away soon. To make matters more complicated, here in my hometown in the Philippines, homebirths aren’t allowed anymore. After having survived a traumatic first miscarriage under hospital “care” a year back, and just months later, breathing through our second loss in peaceful solitude and full dignity with guidance from Maryn’s podcasts, I knew I wanted to enjoy pregnancy, birth and beyond at home, the Indie Birth way – whatever that meant! So I immediately read their book (Indie Birth: A Story of Radical Birth Love), enrolled in 13 Moons, and was inspired to freebirth here in our bedroom. The incredible amount of info and resources they put out there were more than enough to get me to a point where I knew we were capable of birthing alone, but I still felt I needed personalized support. In a time when we’re forced to be isolated from community, I wanted the comfort of walking with a wise woman. So! We had one powerful session with Maryn (who was pregnant with Rumi then) before having Margo as our official virtual midwife.

At first, I was anxious that we’d struggle making it work because I come from a different culture, that I’d have trouble sharing the most important parts of me in a language different from my mother tongue. But things just flowed easily and everything felt right. It’s so strange and magical that someone living thousands of miles away would become closest to us on our birth journey! Margo is Love embodied — it was so easy to connect, trust, and let her in on a most intimate, fragile and sacred process. Every call ended with me feeling so light and confident, so grounded and well-informed, so curious and excited for what’s to come. She held space for me to work through my fears (fear of experiencing another death, fear of failing myself and my community, fear of being punished by external authorities); to listen to my (physical, emotional, spiritual) Self more deeply; and to take full responsibility over my experience. She was a constant reminder that autonomy is a way of being, a personal living practice – not an outcome of the birth, nor something that will be granted externally. Simply asking what I want and need every step of the way was incredibly empowering, and was so essential to my journey towards discovering and owning my Truth. Looking back, the whole process led me to birth in power, and for the first time in my life, to fall absolutely in Love with myself!

Margo has been a friend and sister throughout. I was around 6 months pregnant when we first talked. We met regularly until birth (January this year – we video-called twice when I was in labor!) and early post-partum. Now, our sweet rainbow baby is 6 months old, and I cannot imagine us walking on this life-giving, healing journey with anyone else.

I am deeply grateful for the continuous care Margo, Maryn and the Indie Birth community provides, and so inspired to spread the love and support to birthing women and mothers here in my community. I’M A PROUD INDIE BIRTH MAMA!

– Sarah Salazar

Watch Sarah’s birth here!