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Your Baby's Birth Story

Writing Tips and Creative Ways to Preserve It

By Becky Lane

Another creative display option, Branco says, is turning your birth story into a poem, written in calligraphy, and framed in your child's room.

For an audio take on your birth story, try David O'Neil's idea. A personal historian, O'Neil records and preserves family stories, including birth stories, for families (www.storytrust.com). "I interview parents and grandparents and record their stories in high-fidelity audio," he says. "I then turn these oral histories into memoir books."

There are many options for storing your written story, too. The nation's leading personalized gift retailer, Things Remembered (www.thingsremembered.com), offers a personalized birth certificate holder, perfect for tucking away both the birth certificate and birth story. The company also offers a baby keepsake box.

Finally, Branco suggests putting your story away to read at a later date. "Another neat idea is to write out the birth story and place it in a time capsule to be opened in one, five or 10 years – especially if the birth needs the patina of age to sweeten it a bit," she says. "Along the same lines, writing out the story in a beautiful card or letter paper and sealing it for the child (or mother) to read later can be healing as well."

Want to see more?

• Check out our Article Library.
• BirthStories.com
• Write Your Way to Success: Why and How to Keep a Breastfeeding Journal
• Write from the Beginning: Your Pregnancy in Writing
• Talk about it!