An Open Archive Stories told whole

Unedited

Birth Stories

In their own words. From mothers around the world.

My birth story was painful. But the hardest part wasn't the pain. I felt lonely. If I had read another woman's story before mine, I would have known I wasn't the only one.

Birth stories, happy or painful, are magical. They need to be said. They need to be shared. They need to be preserved.

An archive in progress
Mother and Child by Käthe Kollwitz. A mother holding a child closely, drawn in lithographic charcoal.
Käthe Kollwitz, Mother and Child. Lithograph. Public domain.
Share your story

In your own words.

Tell it your way, in any language you like. Persian, Arabic, English, Dutch, Chinese, anything. The editor adjusts as you write so your story renders correctly in your script. Your work saves automatically. We review every submission and reply within a few days.

If you don't have a title, that's fine. We'll publish it under your number.

We use this to reply about your submission. If you say yes below to future book contact, we'll use it again then, unless you give us a different way.

We'll show this as a gentle warning above your story for sensitive readers.

Loading editor…

Tip: highlight text and use the toolbar, or use keyboard shortcuts (Ctrl+B, Ctrl+I, Ctrl+S to save).

Tap the record button when you're ready. You can pause, resume, and re-record as many times as you need.

0:00

Recording uses your device's microphone. Your story is saved on your device while you record. Nothing leaves your computer until you press Submit. Maximum length: 30 minutes.

or

Prefer to send a voice note from your phone?

Send your story as a voice message on Telegram. Mention your name (or 'Anonymous'), where you are, and any content notes. We'll reply to confirm we received it.

Open Telegram

Optional. If you'd like to add one, choose something that captures the feeling. A hand, a window, a sky, a piece of fabric, a hospital corridor, your pregnant body. Please do not upload recognizable photos of children. We won't publish images of identifiable babies or kids. JPG, PNG, HEIC, or WebP. Up to 5 MB.

Hope II by Gustav Klimt, 1907–08. A pregnant woman bowed over her belly, with three figures gathered below her.
Gustav Klimt, Hope II, 1907–08. Oil, gold, and platinum on canvas. Public domain.
Why this exists

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Nursing Mother by Paula Modersohn-Becker, c. 1903. A mother breastfeeding her infant, intimate and quiet.
Paula Modersohn-Becker, Nursing Mother (Stillende Mutter), c. 1903. Oil on canvas. Public domain.
About the project
Girl with Small Child by Paula Modersohn-Becker, 1905. An older child holding a younger one safely against her, in a quiet outdoor setting.
Paula Modersohn-Becker, Girl with Small Child (Mädchen mit Kleinkind), 1905. Oil on canvas. Public domain.
Terms & license

In favor of the storyteller.

The short version You wrote it, you own it. All rights reserved. Unedited publishes it on this website, and may translate, read aloud, or quote from it for the project's own work. Readers can link to your story and quote briefly with credit. They cannot copy your story to another site, adapt it, or use it for any other purpose without your permission. You can ask us to change or remove your story at any time.

Copyright stays with you

You hold full copyright in your own story. Submitting a story to Unedited does not transfer ownership. Each story is published with the notice © [Author]. All rights reserved.

What you grant Unedited by submitting

By submitting, you grant us a non-exclusive, royalty-free, worldwide license to:

  • Publish your story on this website,
  • Share it on the project's social channels (Instagram, X, Telegram, etc.),
  • Include it in an official project newsletter or digest,
  • Translate it into other languages, with the original always available,
  • Read it aloud as part of an official project audio version, podcast episode, or live event,
  • Quote excerpts in press, partner publications, and educational material about the project,
  • Edit lightly for typos and clarity, never for tone or voice, and only with your awareness.

Anything outside this list, especially inclusion in a future book, requires separate written consent from you. You can withdraw or restrict any of these uses at any time.

What readers may do

Readers may:

  • Read your story on Unedited,
  • Share a link to your story (the share buttons send a link to Unedited, not the story text),
  • Quote a short passage with attribution, linking back to Unedited, the way someone might quote a paragraph of a book in a review.

Readers may not:

  • Copy your full story to another website, blog, podcast, or publication,
  • Translate or adapt it without permission,
  • Use it commercially in any form,
  • Republish it as part of a collection without permission.

If a reader wants to do any of those things, they should email us and we will reach out to you to ask. We never share your contact information without your okay.

Why this and not Creative Commons

We considered making stories more openly shareable. We decided against it. Birth stories are deeply personal, often shared during a vulnerable time, and the words are yours. Unedited is the place where they live; we want strangers to read them here, in the context of the archive and alongside other women's stories, rather than ripped out and dropped somewhere else.

If you find your story republished without permission

Tell us. We will help send a takedown notice and follow up. As the copyright holder, you have the right to require any unauthorized copy be removed.

The book is a separate decision

If your story is being considered for a future book, we will reach out separately to ask. Inclusion in a book is never automatic and never assumed from a website submission. You can say no, and the website publication is not affected by that decision.

Removing or changing your story

You can ask us to change or remove your story at any time, for any reason, or no reason at all. Email the project address and we will update or remove it within a few days. The full edit history will be scrubbed from the site on request.

Sensitive content & identifying details

By default we remove names of doctors, hospitals, partners, or other identifying third parties, even when you include them, unless you specifically ask us to keep them. If a story includes loss, trauma, or medical detail, we add a content note above it so readers can decide whether to read.

Submissions you don't see published

We read every submission. We may decide not to publish a story for safety, accuracy, or editorial reasons. If we do, we'll tell you why. Your submission isn't shared anywhere; it stays in our private inbox.

Questions

For removal requests, license questions, or anything else: hello@example.com.