Overcoming Feelings of Brokenness and Fear, with Anne-Marie Shumaker

Anne-Marie Shumaker’s story is epic no matter how you approach it. Her fertility process was a long road involving surgery, multiple rounds of IUI, and a devastating miscarriage. The birth itself included persistent back labor, stalling for hours at 8 cm, and a long pushing stage. And yet, holding her miracle baby released all her previous feelings of brokenness and fear. Go listen.

 

What we talked about:

• Taking charge of her fertility journey
• What could we have done differently?
• A long road of feeling broken
• Good news in Ireland
• Resurging feelings of fear
• Finding strength in symbols and her faith
• 1st trimester: terror, fear, elation, grief
• 2nd trimester: preparing and planning
• Switching to midwives, getting a doula
• Something feels different…
• Persistent back labor
• The wonderful tens unit
• “Have at least 10 pain management tools.”
• About those saline papule injections…
• Trying all the things for back pain
• The epidural works!
• Stuck on the hymenal ring
• “My body did this!”

 

 

Helpful resources, books, and articles*:

• SpinningBabies.com
• Birth with an Intact Hymenal Ring, from Spinning Babies
• Far as the Curse is Found: Searching for God in Infertility, Miscarriage, and Stillbirth, by Abigail Waldron
• Ina May’s Guide to Childbirth, by Ina May Gaskin
• The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding, by Diane Wiessinger, Diana West, and Teresa Pitman
• Book:  “Pregnancy, Childbirth, and the Newborn, by Penny Simkin, Janet Whalley RN, Ann Keppler RN,  Janelle Durham, April Bolding
• Natural Baby Doulas (Greater Triad of NC)
• TENS: The ‘Natural Labor’ Tool No One Talks About, from Fit Pregnancy UK

 

 

Related Birthful episodes:

• The Fertility Rollercoaster, with Heidi Brockmyre
• Your Anxious Mind During Pregnancy, with Parijat Deshpande
• Choosing Your Care Provider, with Robin Elise Weiss
• Baby’s Position and Labor Flow, with Gail Tully
• Structural Body Changes, with Molly Deutschbein
• The Holistic Stages of Birth, with Whapio (Part 1)
• The Holistic Stages of Birth, with Whapio (Part 2)

 

 

 

 

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About Anne-Marie Shumaker

Anne-Marie was born and raised in North Carolina but as the daughter of immigrant parents with family all over the world, she grew up with a love of travel. She attended UNC-Charlotte for undergraduate and graduate school and met her husband there as a freshman in 2005. They were married in September 2013 and they have loved celebrating their anniversaries by taking an exciting trip every year. God blessed their lives immensely with the birth of their long prayed for son in June 2019. Anne-Marie works remotely from her home office in Winston-Salem, NC for a human resources software company, but her faith and her family define her life. Anne-Marie and her husband are loving life as a new family of three and can’t wait to explore more of the world with their son.

 

 

 

 

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Title music: “Vibe Ace” by Kevin MacLeod, from the Free Music Archive / CC BY (edited for length).

Sponsorship music: “Air Hockey Saloon” by Chris Zabriskie, from the Free Music Archive / CC BY (edited for length).