The beautiful Rachel Bowers with her son Henry (almost 3) and Meredith (8 weeks). Rachel said that, like so many women she spent a good portion of her life avoiding pregnancy. She imagined that when she chose to get pregnant, knowing it was okay and intentional would make it feel good and celebratory. She was surprised that when she did conceive she was a bit scared and wanted to keep it very quiet. While Rachel's pregnancy was without real complication she struggled quite a bit during it. Not only was she physically uncomfortable she found adjusting to the changes in her body to be quite startling. She also works in the medical field, with mostly men and found that people were all too quick to offer unsolicited advice or comment on her body. Rachel has a small stature and found that through much of her pregnancy it was hard to breath and she had nerve pain because she carried so high. In looking forward to her birth, she knew she wanted to avoid a cesarean. She's performed them and while she appreciates the medical need has found the procedure to be barbaric. Her OB ultimately told her that while he'd support her in a vaginal attempt, a cesarean was recommended and he'd rather schedule it than have to perform one should an emergency arise. Rachel ultimately chose to deliver via scheduled cesarean and was grateful for it as Henry never dropped and was also breech. When Rachel got pregnant again with Meredith she had a lot of the same concerns in regard to changing body. She felt a bit better physically this time but had to have some additional monitoring due to advanced maternal age and hypothyroidism. Meredith was found to be in the same breech position as her brother and Rachel chose to have a repeat cesarean. Breastfeeding has gone well with each of her children but Rachel has struggled with not feeling like her body is entirely her own. She tries to remind herself that this period is such a short span in her life which makes it easier. Rachel is learning to embrace her body and the changes it's been through in creating and feeding her children, she wants both her son and daughter to be proud of their bodies as well as accepting and realistic of their future partners.