The beautiful Danni Bugden with her daughter Ava (5.5) and son Hugo (19 months). Danni had two very healthy pregnancies that she was able to enjoy. Her daughter Ava was born naturally in the hospital following an induction for being post-dates, but Danni experienced a third-degree tear that took 12 full months to heal and stop feeling uncomfortable. It was during her first pregnancy that she also developed varicose veins that were later determined to be in her deep veins, causing her pain, discomfort and embarrassment. Danni is a midwife herself, but even though she knew no two births are the same, she had a lot of anxiety over possibly tearing badly again. She decided to give birth to her son at home and was able to have a beautiful water birth with minimal tearing after going into labor naturally just before 40 weeks. Danni's veins continued to be problematic through her second pregnancy and beyond, and she now wears compression stockings to help. Breastfeeding has gone well with each of her children. Ava nursed until 2 1/4 and she hopes to nurse Hugo until at least 2 years as well.

The amazing Katie Ann Segapelli with her sons Henry (2) and Clark (3mo). Katie found out she was pregnant with Henry the day after her wedding. The pregnancy was fine; she had placenta previa, but her placenta moved up and out of the way without complication. Her water broke at 39 weeks, but her labor failed to progress, so she went to the hospital and started pitocin. Hours later, she was ready to push and pushed for 4.5 hours before Henry was delivered with vacuum assistance. She suffered a third-degree tear, and after she had delivered the placenta, she began to hemorrhage and had to be transfused with 2 units of blood. Meanwhile, Henry had been born with his cord wrapped around his neck, purple and in danger himself. Thankfully, he fully recovered, and while it took a couple of months for Katie to feel back to normal and be able to sit again, she recovered as well. Clark's pregnancy was healthy as well. Katie says that she had an intuition that she was having twins and on her first ultrasound was discovered to have a vanishing twin that was ultimately reabsorbed. After the 1st trimester, all went well. At her 37 week appointment, she was 3cm dilated but didn't progress from there despite having contractions for 5-6 hours every night. The following week she chose to be electively induced. Once she was hooked up to pitocin and had her water broke, it was determined that she had a piece of tissue on her cervix making it unable to dilate further than 3.5cm. Once that was removed, she received an epidural and very quickly went to 9cms and ready to push, 15 minutes later Clark was born without complication. Katie found that she was able to bond better with Clark because she wasn't concerned with her health as well. She's been able to have successful breastfeeding relationships with each of her boys as well.