[Birth Stories] Leaning Into Peer Support After Her Unplanned Surgical Birth

Dr. Amber Thornton worked hard for a healthy pregnancy and an unmedicated vaginal birth, but she didn’t expect her water to release before 39 weeks. Despite an early hospital admission, labor progressed right along… until it didn’t. She shares with Adriana the fears she had to contend with while having an unplanned surgical birth, and how having intentionally set up her village of mutual support was invaluable in getting through early nursing difficulties and her cesarean recovery.

Related resources*:

• Find Your Birth Joy: How to release fear, prepare your mind, and find support for a natural childbirth, by Sarah Showalter-Feuillette
• The Fourth Trimester: A Postpartum Guide to Healing Your Body, Balancing Your Emotions, and Restoring Your Vitality, by Kimberly Ann Johnson
• Global Health Media breastfeeding videos
• Hand Expression of Breastmilk, video from the Stanford School of Medicine
• Friedman’s Curve and Failure to Progress: A Leading Cause of Unplanned Cesareans, Evidence Based Birth®
• Nothing Protects Black Women From Dying in Pregnancy and Childbirth, ProPublica
• Black Women’s Maternal Health: A Multifaceted Approach to Addressing Persistent and Dire Health Disparities, National Partnership for Women & Families
• America is Failing its Black Mothers, Harvard Public Health
• Racial Disparities in Childbirth, from Evidence Based Birth®

Related Birthful episodes:

• Family-Centered Cesareans
• Bringing Equity To Birth
• Your Anxious Mind During Pregnancy
• [Breastfeeding] All About Pumping!
• Restoring Your Vitality After Birth

Image description: Amber Thornton, a Black woman wearing glasses and a scrub cap, with a cannula in her nose, meets her baby, who is swaddled in a receiving blanket and a cap, held near her face

Image description: Amber Thornton, a Black woman with short cropped hair, leans toward the camera with her hands on her hips, smiling warmly

About Dr. Amber Thornton

Dr. Amber Thornton is a licensed Clinical Psychologist and author of A Parent’s Guide to Self-Regulation: A Practical Framework for Breaking the Cycle of Dysregulation and Mastering Emotions for Parents and Children. Dr. Amber is a strong advocate for the mental health and well-being of parents. She loves writing and creating content online that will speak to the everyday struggles of motherhood and parenthood.

Dr. Amber holds a B.S. in Psychology from The Ohio State University and Psy.D. in Clinical Psychology from Wright State University School of Professional Psychology. She’s an Ohio native who has made Washington, DC her home since 2018. She loves spending time with her husband and two children.

Learn more about Dr. Amber Thornton on her website!