The documentary series "Giving Birth in America" is produced by Every Mother Counts, a nonprofit organization that seeks to raise the profile and issues of maternal health in the United States.



Christy Turlington Burns is a mother, advocate, and the founder & CEO of the maternal health organization Every Mother Counts. The views expressed here are the author's.

(CNN) There was a lot I didn't know about pregnancy and childbirth before I went through it myself.

I was healthy before I became pregnant. I had good health insurance and the means to pay out-of-pocket, which broadened my provider and facility options. I had done my research, and I knew that the surest way to an un-medicated birth was to have a midwife by my side. The midwifery practice I chose was affiliated with a hospital birth center just a few miles from my home.

Christy Turlington Burns

Everything went almost exactly the way I had envisioned, but there were a few surprises -- one was planned and one was unexpected. We had wanted our baby's gender to be a surprise so I didn't know I was carrying a girl until I saw her for the first time. I also didn't know that the third stage of labor, the period between when the baby is born and when the placenta is expelled, could be life-threatening.

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After ample time, my placenta was not budging. In an instant, the energy in the room turned. Something wasn't going as it should be. The midwife eventually called for backup, someone took my baby from my arms, and there I was feeling vulnerable and confused. By the end of it, I hemorrhaged more than 800 mls of blood -- almost two pints. But then, it was over. I was sent home the following day.

I was one of the lucky ones.