Interview with Maris Mendez, November 8, 2011

Interview Summary

Interview with Maris Mendez - Richmond, VA

This interview records Maris Mendez?s story of her first birth to son Noah.

Maris begins by speaking about her childhood in Richmond, Virgina, the heartbreak of her parent?s divorce and a fiercely independent adolescence and early adulthood that led to extensive global travel. She describes her life in the Republic of Georgia and how she ended up back in Richmond working the land with dreams of joining a young Orthodox community in Alaska, and how those dreams changed, in part because she fell in love with her husband, Manny.

Maris describes how she felt ecstatic and empowered by the changes she experienced in her body and in her relationships to her community and the world when she became pregnant. She began planning her home birth early in her pregnancy with Nancy, a local midwife, and speaks about the close relationship that developed between them over the course of her term. Maris describes the emotional and physical changes that she experienced during birth and Nancy?s invaluable guidance during the process, which took almost three full days. Maris shares her experience of parenting Noah with Manny, the joy of motherhood and her desire to have a second child.

Interview Keyword

Virginia

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Interview Usage

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