MEDELLEE’S STORY
BEHIND THE ARCHIVE
The Childbirth Archive was created by me, Medellee Antonioli, during the completion of my Masters in Library and Information Science at the University of Denver. The archive was inspired by my pregnancy experiences. Two weeks after the birth of my first child, I suffered an ischemic stroke which impacted my left thalamus and optic nerve. I was in occupational and physical therapy for several months and thankfully recovered much of my mobility and vision. After several tests, I was approved for a second pregnancy but unfortunately experienced complications again; my second child was born with IUGR due to undetected blood clots in the placenta and umbilical cord. Fortunately, we all survived, but these experiences were terrifying, debilitating and life threatening.
Like most new mothers today, I spent many a late night hour researching and re-researching childbirth, pregnancy, stroke, IUGR, etc on the internet. During this process, I struggled to find information written by or even about women who experienced similar complications. Currently there are no sites specifically dedicated to the collection and long term preservation of childbirth stories. Sites that do provide some access rely on users to find or post the right story at the right time. The Childbirth Archive hopes to address this issue by allowing anyone to add their story and by including advanced searchable tagging and long term preservation. I hope the information here helps you find comfort and understanding.
