How TBIP Began

The Birth Interview Project came to fruition after Joy’s friend, Destiny, had a challenging birth experience. Joy felt especially connected to her friend’s birth outcome because she supported and encouraged Destiny in her natural childbirth choices. When Destiny’s birth did not go as planned or even remotely hoped for Joy wondered what were some of the elements that made Destiny’s birth less than ideal.

With that in mind, Joy set out to create an interview for Destiny to take part in. The goal of the interview was to not only help Destiny process her birth, but share the interview publicly so that others could get a sense of how birth uniquely unfolds for each mother. Out of that desire The Birth Interview Project was born.

Birth is a rite of passage. As women we will always remember the feelings and details surrounding our birth(s).  But what makes a birth beautiful? What makes a woman happy with her birth? What causes a mother sadness surrounding her birth? Joy set out to ask these questions, and in one evening she put together 17 original and simple questions for her friend to respond to. (Read Destiny’s birth interview.)

After sending Destiny the interview questions, Joy wondered if other women would like to take part in this project. She invited friends via Facebook to participate in the interview. The response was overwhelming. It became apparent to Joy, that for some mothers, it was easier to respond to a questionnaire  regarding their birth experience rather than the often difficult processof writing out a birth story from scratch.

By the end of December of 2011, The Birth Interview Project was a regular feature on Joy’s personal blog, thejoyofthis. After seven months of sharing space on Joy’s blog, and with the project’s overwhelming popularity, it was time for The Birth Interview Project to leave its nest at thejoyofthis and have its own dot com:thebirthinterviewproject.