What’s it like giving birth outside of your native country?

It’d be understandable to have fears and/or reservations around birthing in a different country. But what if it could be normal, uncomplicated, supported and without fear?

Our guest today is Amy Brown. Amy traveled from Chicago, Illinois to Peru in 2011 to work as a teacher, and hasn’t left since. After meeting her now husband Marco, she has since set up life in Lima. And she has given birth to her two children: daughter, Leah and son, Christopher in a birthing center in the city. 

Amy walks us through her journey of desiring natural births without intervention, to selecting the birthing center (run by a German doctor now living in Peru), working with a doula from England (yes, quite the international birth!) and preparing for the birth experience with Marco.

We talk about some of the birthing options and trends in her area, where cesarean rates are particularly high. 

Then we get to hear details from both of her births, which took place in the Casa Pakarii birth center:

This story includes: international birth experience, husband being active participant in birth process, different birth options in Lima, Peru, placenta ceremony (el pago a la tierra), water birth

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