The amazing Hannah Danto-Dorafsha with her son Javid (2). Hannah went into her pregnancy knowing that she wanted to do things as naturally as possible. She'd hoped to have a homebirth but financially, a hospital was what was in her plan. Her pregnancy was mostly healthy. It wasn't up until her delivery that she experienced any difficulty. Her water broke but active labor didn't start, and contractions would ramp up and then taper off. She didn't want to go to the hospital until she knew she was ready to have her baby but had been consulting with the midwife who helped bring her into this world as her doula and she was able to reassure Hannah that all would be okay. After more than a day of little progress, Hannah decided to go to the hospital just so they could check and see how far progressed she was but after they attempted to get her to consent to pitocin and other interventions she checked out against medical advice, comfortably armed with her doula's knowledge that as long as she wasn't running a fever and she felt her baby moving, she was perfectly okay to wait. She was told that she was putting herself and her baby at risk but trusted herself. Hannah continued to labor at home in starts and stops over the next four days and ultimately decided that she was exhausted and went back to the hospital for help. They again wanted to put her on Pitocin, which she refused and then reconsidered taking Cytotex after initially writing it off due to mixed research. She took half a dose and things really took off. She had been asking to be checked for progress, but the nursing staff had refused as they didn't want to introduce any bacteria due to her broken waters but Hannah kept asking. Finally, she got someone to examine her, and they amazingly felt a bulging bag of waters. Once her water was ruptured, her son arrived earthside without any complications. It was determined that Hannah, amazingly had had two sacs and the one not containing her son had ruptured first, meaning he was perfectly safe and without risk the entire duration of her labor.
Hannah is a self-described timid person but found that her journey to motherhood has really helped her find her strength and voice. She had created the amazing initiative Mama Body Love to not only come to terms with her body but help other new mothers embrace the changes in their body and promote self-love.