Healing Birth (Diana Forsell Tayan)

Miranda was diagnosed with pre-eclampsia and HELLP syndrome near the end of her first pregnancy, which led to an induced, traumatic birth experience.  As she began to heal herself, she also helped to heal her son.

This is a story of healing, transformation, and spiritual growth.

Follow Miranda on IG @rooteddaughter

If you love the show, please consider supporting us on Patron! www.patron.com/healingbirth

Welcome to SEASON FOUR!

Christina is a coach, doula, and childbirth educator, who helps new parents with the transition when a new child is born.

Like so many of us who get into birth work, her passion for it comes from her own experiences giving birth, which she shares with us today. After two births in German hospitals, the second of which left her traumatized, she knew she wanted to birth her third baby at home. That birth was the powerful, healing experience that she knew she needed.

We also talk about the culture of birth in modern day Germany, and speculate as to why the C-section rate there is rising.

You can connect with Christina on Instagram, @theintuitivemamacoach

Christina is a listener who reached out to me to share her story. If YOU would like to share your birth story on the podcast, I want to hear from you! Send me a note via the contact page at www.healingbirth.net.

If you love the show, please consider supporting the podcast on Patreon! There are bonus episodes, video podcasts, + other content there.
www.patreon.com/Healingbirth

Thank you for listening!

India was 21, and dancing without a care in the world at a festival in Nepal when she suddenly felt her water break. That was the moment she realized she was pregnant—and about to have a baby!

What followed, in one of the most incredible birth stories I have ever heard, was a four-day labor, supported by her Rainbow Gathering community, in a remote village in Nepal.

If you love the show, I would greatly appreciate a review on  Spotify or Apple Podcasts! 

Follow me on Instagram @healingbirth

Do you have a birth story you’d like to share on the podcast, or would like to otherwise connect? I love to hear from you! Send me a note at contactus@healingbirth.net

Check out the website for lots of other birth related offerings, and personalized support: www.healingbirth.net

Intro / Outro music: Dreams by Markvard

Podcast cover photo by Karina Jensen @karinajensenphoto

Have you, or someone you know, conceived a baby during a time in your cycle that didn’t fall within the normal, ovulatory window?  As someone who listens to a lot of birth stories, I’ve heard it happen many times. I always attributed those occurrences to the inherently mysterious nature of pregnancy and birth.

But what if there is another explanation?

Medical astrology has been in development for thousands of years, greatly predating our modern understanding of medical science. And through years of study it’s been discovered that women experience fertility during the phase of the moon under which they were born, that the sign the moon is in during the conception influences the sex of the baby, and that the placement of celestial bodies can impact the outcomes of a pregnancy and birth.

Whether you are currently trying to conceive a baby, or preventing conception, this episode contains truly mind blowing information that I believe is next-level body literacy.

Athena’s website: https://www.wildwillingwisdom.com/

Athena’s Substack & Podcast: https://wildwillingwisdom.substack.com/

Follow Athena on social media: @wildwillingwisdom

Do you have a story you’d like to share on the podcast? I would love to hear from you! Email me via the contact page at www.healingbirth.net.

You can find our new e-book, “Did I Really Need a C-Section?” on our website at www.healingbirth.net/shop

Intro / outro music: Dreams by Markvard

Transition music:   Afterlight by Jessie Villa & Strength to Last

Sarah’s birth journey includes multiple losses, two cesareans, two VBACs, and births both in and out of the hospital. Her story encompasses so much, that I had to break it up into two parts.

In this part one, you’ll hear about her first birth, which ended in a cesarean after the classic cascade of interventions in the hospital.

Despite that experience, she still felt that people who gave birth at home were crazy, and planned to VBAC her second baby at a different hospital (spoiler alert: she will later join the ranks of us crazies. Do not miss part two!).

Sarah is a listener who reached out to me to share her story. If you have a birth story you’d like to share, please reach out! Contact me at www.healingbirth.net.

I love to hear from you!

Thank you for supporting brands that help support the show! Treat yourself with Puffs for the Public. They make high quality, CBD & CBG products that I absolutely love.

As a listener of this show, you get 10% off at check out with code “healingbirth” (one word).

Here’s a link to Soothe & Soul

Here’s a link to Snooze Button 

Use the link below to purchase! It lets them know you heard about them from me. Thank you for helping to support the show!

LINK TO PURCHASE

Tia’s first two birth experiences were hospital inductions. By the time she was pregnant with her third, she knew she wanted a more empowering and natural experience, so she hired a midwife, and planned a home birth.

But around twenty-one weeks into that pregnancy, Tia went into preterm labor. She was rushed to the hospital where she delivered not one, but two babies. Tragically, this was how she found out she had been carrying twin girls.

A couple months after this terrible loss, Tia was ready to be pregnant agin, and conceived. And she finally got to experience a beautiful, natural birth.

Her story is one of hope and healing. Tia wants other women who hear it to be encouraged and know that a beautiful birth experience is possible for everyone, even after such a huge loss.

Follow Tia on Instagram @thethrifty_homemaker

If you love the show, I would greatly appreciate a review on  Spotify or Apple Podcasts! 

Follow me on Instagram @healingbirth

Do you have a birth story you’d like to share on the podcast, or would like to otherwise connect? I love to hear from you! Send me a note at contactus@healingbirth.net

Check out the website for lots of other birth related offerings, and personalized support: www.healingbirth.net

Intro / outro music: Dreams by Markvard

Lindsey begins her motherhood journey with the experience of an ectopic pregnancy, which she - amazingly -  resolved without taking medication or having surgery.

Despite her being told by medical professionals that it would hard for her to conceive again, she did, easily.  Her first baby was born in a hospital, and this experience left her knowing that she would never give birth in a hospital again.

Her next baby was born at home, with a midwife.

Lindsey then began working as a midwife apprentice and quickly realized she was seeing many of the same interventions, interruptions, and violations at homebirths as happens in hospitals. She realized she wouldn’t want any of the midwives she was working with at her own birth. They were effectively bringing the hospital into the home.

Around this time, Lindsey’s third baby, in spirit form, was calling to her, but she knew she had to leave her apprenticeship to be in integrity with herself before this baby would come. She left the medical midwifery world and instead began supporting freebirths, and it was here she learned to trust birth again.

Her third baby was born at home with just her family present. It was just a normal Wednesday afternoon, except she gave birth in her bathtub! The mundane and sacred, intertwined.

If you love the show, I would greatly appreciate a review on  Spotify or Apple Podcasts! 

Follow me on Instagram @healingbirth

Do you have a birth story you’d like to share on the podcast, or would like to otherwise connect? I love to hear from you! Send me a note at contactus@healingbirth.net

Check out the website for lots of other birth related offerings, and personalized support: www.healingbirth.net

Intro / Outro music: Dreams by Markvard

Ali shares her experience giving birth at home with a midwife, and navigating a hospital transfer during covid, for post-partum blood loss.

While the transfer was a scary thing to happen to Ali, her partner was the most traumatized by the experience, which was exacerbated by pandemic protocols that kept him separate from her for a time.

Her story also includes hands down the most unique pregnancy symptom I have ever heard - comment on our social medias if you have ever heard of it too!

Support the show! www.patreon.com/healingbirth

www.healingbirth.net

In this solocast I explain why.

Let me know what you think! HMU @healingbirth or www.healingbirth.net

JOIN OUR ONLINE MEMBERSHIP HERE! https://www.healingbirth.net/membership

If you love the show, please consider supporting us on Patreon! www.patreon/healingbirth

After an unplanned pregnancy very newly into her marriage, Melissa planned a home birth, but was transferred out of midwifery care due to a pre-eclampisa diagnosis. She was given no other option than an induction in the hospital.

Overall, she was grateful to have not ended up with a cesarean, but there was so much that happened during that birth that was violating and unnecessary. After her baby was born, she started listening to birth story podcasts and realized that birth didn’t have to be that way.

During her second pregnancy, Melissa knew she wanted a different experience. She sought out a midwife with who had a wealth of knowledge about how to manage her blood pressure holistically in the event that she developed high blood pressure again.

Recorded at just 7 weeks postpartum, her second birth was full of joy, humor, and there’s a surprise twist at the end!

This is such a beautiful story!

Her high blood pressure prevention protocol:

• Passionflower tea
• Epsom salt baths
• Reducing stress
• Journalling

(Please note that I am never giving medical advice on this podcast, I am simply sharing women’s own stories!)

You can follow Melissa on Instagram @mklemens28

Join our online community! www.healingbirth.net/membership

If you love the show, please support us on Patreon! www.patreon.com/healingbirth

Liz shares the story of her wild pregnancy, birth, and the loss, of her daughter Arati.

Her experience is a deeply spiritual one where her daughter guided her toward all of the choices she made during her pregnancy. While  the outcome is one none of us would wish for, Liz says that she would still choose a wild pregnancy and still choose freebirth. 

In honor of Aarti’s first birthday, Liz is offering a giveaway. She is offering an "Energetic attunement for the womb & Spirit baby communication."

This session is designed for any woman who is pregnant, wishes to conceive, or has experienced loss. In it, we fine-tune the energetic field of their womb to erase any dissonant vibrations and increase the expanse of their luminous field. We also connect with the baby they wish to welcome or the baby who left too soon. It's a beautiful session exclusively thought of for this Special Giveaway.

Liz says that Arati brought her a mission, and she intends to fulfill it by assisting wombs thrive and anchor the Children of New Humanity.

Follow Liz on Instagram @spiritual.doula

If you love the show, I would greatly appreciate a review on  Spotify or Apple Podcasts!

Follow me on Instagram @healingbirth

Do you have a birth story you’d like to share on the podcast, or would like to otherwise connect? I love to hear from you! Send me a note at contactus@healingbirth.net

Check out the website for lots of other birth related offerings, and personalized support: www.healingbirth.net

Intro / outro music: Dreams by Markvard

Transition music:   Together by Justhea

Lauren, an expat living in Brazil, planned a home birth with midwives for her first baby’s birth. Near the end of her birth process, the midwives decided her baby was likely too big be born at home, and transferred her to the local hospital, where the birth ended with an episiotomy. It was a violent intervention that left Lauren, and her husband, traumatized (also, spoiler alert: the baby was a perfectly normal size).

When she became pregnant with her second baby, she knew she would not allow the same thing to happen to her again. She found the right team of wise women to surround her, set very clear boundaries (including with her husband, who was still working through his fears), and mostly importantly of all, trusted herself.

That second birth experience was the “birth of her dreams.” And Lauren wants every woman who hears her story to know that it’s every woman’s birthright to experience a birth like hers.

If you don’t already follow @healingbirth on Instagram, be sure to this week to see photos of Lauren’s birth. They are exceptionally beautiful!

If you love this podcast, I would greatly appreciate a review on  Spotify or Apple Podcasts! 

Follow us on Instagram @healingbirth

Do you have a birth story you’d like to share on the podcast, or would like to otherwise connect? I love to hear from you! Send me a note at contactus@healingbirth.net

Check out the website for lots of other birth related offerings and personalized support: www.healingbirth.net

Intro / outro music: Dreams by Markvard

After a pregnancy loss, and a history with an eating disorder, Kelly was not in a relationship of full trust in her body when she gave birth to her first baby. She agreed to be induced when her obstetrician pressured her into it, feeling that, her baby was safer outside of her body.

Kelly went on have her next two babies at home. Both experiences showed her how trustworthy, indeed, perfectly designed, her body was to give birth.

Do you have a story you’d like to share on the podcast? I would love to hear from you! Email me via the contact page at www.healingbirth.net.

You can find our new e-book, “Did I Really Need a C-Section?” on our website at www.healingbirth.net/shop

Intro / outro music: Dreams by Markvard

Transition music:   Waiting by LNDO

“It was so boring”

This is how my guest today described her birth, several times, during the course of our conversation. Of course, birth is not actually boring and certainly the journey that brought her to this birth is anything but - but that statement illustrates so perfectly the central theme of her story. That birth, when left alone, even in someone deemed high risk, even in someone who has only had cesareans, can and often does unfold in a very straightforward manner.

This is a story of a woman who radically trusted herself to know what was best for her baby, her body, and how to give birth. She finally said no the systems that had hurt her.

This is also my first returning guest! If you haven’t heard the first part of her story, go back to episode 6 of season two of the show, linked below:

https://www.healingbirth.net/podcast/episode/43559a5a/i-had-to-push-through-or-chayas-three-birth-stories

(The image of the pregnant woman that accompanies this episode is a stock image, and is not my guest.)

You can follow Chaya @themindfulwoman365

If you enjoy the show, please consider supporting us on patron! www.patreon.com/healingbirth

www.healingbirth.net

Esme vividly describes her first birth experience as a descent into the underworld. Ultimately, that birth process was interrupted by an overly cautious midwife, which had long term physical and emotional ramifications for both her and her son.

After a lot of healing work, her second child was born, in an experience she describes as blissful.

Esme’s entire story is nothing short of pure magic! I loved every second of our conversation.

You can follow Esme @esmeannarose

If you enjoy the show, please consider supporting us on patron! www.patreon.com/healingbirth

www.healingbirth.net

Tere shares the story of having a completely unexpected, euphoric, orgasmic birth with her very first baby!

Her second birth experience was not like the first, and presented with a unique challenge. But Tere says that  both of her birth experiences taught her a lot about courage, surrender, and trust.

Follow Tere @cyclealchemist

www.teremariemartini.com

If you love the show, I would greatly appreciate a review on  Spotify or Apple Podcasts! 

Follow me on Instagram @healingbirth

Do you have a birth story you’d like to share on the podcast, or would like to otherwise connect? I love to hear from you! Send me a note at contactus@healingbirth.net

Check out the website for lots of other birth related offerings, and personalized support: www.healingbirth.net

Intro / outro music: Dreams by Markvard

Brandy was raised on a farm, and witnessed plenty of animal births. But despite seeing first hand that mammalian birth works best when left undisturbed, when she was pregnant herself, she handed over all decision making and authority to an obstetrician, who ultimately convinced her to have an induction, which ended in a c-section. 

She returned to that system again with her second baby and did achieve a VBAC in the hospital, but also experienced medical rape. 

By the time she was pregnant with her third child, she felt confident enough to fire her doctor, and have her baby at home, which she did! 

Her fourth pregnancy offered her an even deeper opportunity to trust herself, when she recognized some red flags with her midwife. 

Brandy is now a holistic doula and birth keeper. You can find her on social media @wildandfreebirthwellness

Brandy’s website: www.wildandfreebirth.com

Brandy’s course: The Labor BluePrint 

If you love the show, I would greatly appreciate a review on  Spotify or Apple Podcasts! 

Follow me on Instagram @healingbirth

Do you have a birth story you’d like to share on the podcast, or would like to otherwise connect? I love to hear from you! Send me a note at contactus@healingbirth.net

Check out the website for lots of other birth related offerings, and personalized support: www.healingbirth.net

Intro / outro music: Dreams by Markvard

Transition music:   Oceanic Space  by Aryll

Kaylee’s first birth experience ended in a cesarean, after having been dropped by her midwives’ care for going over 40 weeks. She partially credits the events of 2020 as being a huge awakening for her, so when she became pregnant again she knew she no longer wanted to engage with the medical system, and planned a free birth.

When she went into labor with that baby, what transpired was a six day long ordeal, with many twists and turns, reasons and opportunities to give up, but she never did.

This is officially the wildest story I’ve ever shared - and that’s saying something!

Here is a link to Kaylee’s YouTube channel and birth video!

https://youtu.be/rbKgHg9Dz8o

You can follow Kaylee on IG @kreativekay_wilson

Do you have a story you’d like to share on the podcast? I would love to hear from you! Email me via the contact page at www.healingbirth.net.

Intro / outro music: Dreams by Markvard

Transition music: Chill Night by Amine Maxwell & MICHAL

Bella shares the birth story of her first baby, after multiple pregnancy losses and multiple rounds of IVF. She speaks candidly about the experience of infertility, loss, and how best to support others going through it.

She serves as the assistant director of Empty Cradle, a loss support group local to the southern California area. They offer in person and virtual support, and hold several events annually honoring the lives of babies who have passed. You can connect with her, and Empty Cradle, by searching for Empty Cradle on Facebook.

Support the show!

https://www.patreon.com/healingbirth

Our website is www.healingbirth.net

You know I love a VBAC story! Tessa shares her victorious, home birth, VBAC story, after having experienced a coerced cesarean due to breech positioning with her first child.

Her story is such powerful testament to listening to your own instincts, self-education, and the importance of leaving behind a system that consistently fails birthing women. 

Join me for our August Group Call - Healing Your Birth Story in Community

8/12 1pm HST / 4pm PST / 6pm CST. Book online at www.healingbirth.net

Support us on Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/healingbirth

Kristen shares her two pregnancy and birth stories, one, a home birth with a midwife, and the second, a planned free birth. Throughout her pregnancies, Kristen was in direct communication with the spirits of her babies on the other side, waiting to come through. In fact, it was they who guided her to make the decision to free birth the second time.

Kristen also shares how she resolved the retained placenta from her free birth naturally at home - something I have never heard anyone do before!

JOIN OUR NEW ONLINE MEMBERSHIP HERE! https://www.healingbirth.net/membership

If you love the show, please consider supporting us on Patreon! www.patreon/healingbirth

Two births in the Finnish medical system left Anahel angry and knowing, in her words, “something is not right here.”

She planned to have her third baby at home. That whirlwind birth experience completely healed the pain of the past two.

Anahel is a listener who reached out to me to share her beautiful story. If you have a story you’d like to share too, reach out! Send me a note at the contact page at www.healingbirth.net

If you love the show, support us on patreon! www.patreon.com/healingbirth

Amana is a mother, birthkeeper, deathkeeper, and host of the show The Heart of the Soul. Recently she invited me onto her podcast as a guest, and the conversation we had was so epic we decided to release it to both of our audiences!

In this part one, Amana interviews me. I share both of my son’s (very different) birth stories, and if you are a new listener and not familiar with my story, I think you will understand why I am so passionate about birth and birth trauma. 

Next week, in part two, you’ll hear Amana’s story.

Amana’s website

https://www.birthingnova.love/

Check out the Heart of the Soul Podcast!

https://www.birthingnova.love/podcast-theheartofthesoul

We have an upcoming event!

Rituals for Rooted Postpartum with Nicole Parker

Join us with traditional birthkeeper Nicole Parker as we integrate into embodied motherhood with the support of conscious, rooted rituals for postpartum.

In this live webinar, you'll learn about the energetics of postpartum descent and the biomarkers your body uses to communicate with you, over 30 simple nourishing rituals to support you as you integrate the initiation of motherhood each time you cross the veil, and reclaim the innate power of your inner matriarch.

www.healingbirth.net/events

ONLINE EVENT

SEPTEMBER 18, 2022 | 4 PM PST

Support the show!

https://www.patreon.com/healingbirth

Our website is www.healingbirth.net

I open season six of the podcast with the jaw-dropping story of a family who fled France after the authorities targeted them for freebirthing their baby. 

Katie initially planned a homebirth for her first child, but during labor, her midwife transferred her to the hospital, where she was given no option but to have a cesarean section. When Katie became pregnant with her second child, her family had relocated from the United States to Paris, France, due to a job transfer. Because of her prior cesarean, no midwife in France was willing to attend her birth. 

Faced with the prospect of another hospital experience as her only option, Katie chose to freebirth her baby. The birth was beautiful, but trouble arose when the family tried to obtain a birth certificate. Since there was no record of medical care during her pregnancy and no official attendant at the birth, the French authorities retaliated. After a series of bureaucratic encounters with government and medical officials, Katie learned that French Child Protective Services planned to remove her children from her care. 

With emergency passports issued by the American embassy and all their belongings still in Paris, Katie and her family fled the country, eventually making it back to the United States. 

Katie went on to have a third baby, another freebirth, which brought her healing, closure, and invaluable lessons. She is now planning to write a book about her extraordinary experience. You can follow her journey on Instagram at @thek80show. 

If you love the show, I would greatly appreciate a review on  Spotify or Apple Podcasts! 

Follow me on Instagram @healingbirth

Do you have a birth story you’d like to share on the podcast, or would like to otherwise connect? I love to hear from you! Send me a note at contactus@healingbirth.net

Check out the website for lots of other birth related offerings, and personalized support: www.healingbirth.net

Intro / outro music: Dreams by Markvard

Podcast cover photo by Karina Jensen @karinajensenphoto

Birth work is also death work.

Meet Wild Luna Raven, a radical birth keeper, and death keeper, who does not shy away from the death work.

She offers beautiful support for women who experience an early birth (a term we use intentionally, and you’ll learn why). We talk about her own experiences of early births, and the different ways that early births can unfold. We also talk about the birth of her son within the medical system, which (as so often happens!) led her on a path to offer women an alternative way.

If you’ve ever had an early birth, or want to lean into supporting other sisters in this aspect of birth work, this episode is for you!

Follow Wild @wild.womb.witch

www.laniraven.com

Heather’s first baby was born via a traumatic cesarean after a grueling, two-day induction. She was told by the surgeon that her anatomy was such that she could never birth vaginally. That, plus the trauma of the induction experience, led her to choose an elective cesarean for her second baby, which at least offered her a degree of control.

Serendipitously, one day at work, Heather found birth podcasts (like this one!) where other women shared their stories of free birthing - taking back their power from a system that says we need their interventions, their drugs, and surgeries in order to give birth. A lightbulb clicked on for her. She consciously conceived her third baby, and birthed her at home.

In doing so, she birthed a new version of herself.

If you love the show, I would greatly appreciate a review on  Spotify or Apple Podcasts! 

Follow me on Instagram @healingbirth

Do you have a birth story you’d like to share on the podcast, or would like to otherwise connect? I love to hear from you! Send me a note at contactus@healingbirth.net

Check out the website for lots of other birth related offerings, and personalized support: www.healingbirth.net

Intro / outro music: Dreams by Markvard

Amber shares the vulnerable and intimate experience of getting pregnant, and giving birth, at fifteen years old. Her experience with what was ultimately a traumatic birth, and post-partum depression, was the catalyst that compelled her into the important work she does now to support other mothers.

She is now a board-certified lactation consultant, functional nutrition practitioner, and certified doula. Amber has spent nearly a decade supporting families, and views birth as a natural, mother-centered event that unfolds best when led by the mom herself.

Follow Amber @ambertheibclc

Amber’s website:

nourishedroots.co

If you love the show, I would greatly appreciate a review on  Spotify or Apple Podcasts! 

Follow me on Instagram @healingbirth

Do you have a birth story you’d like to share on the podcast, or would like to otherwise connect? I love to hear from you! Send me a note at contactus@healingbirth.net

Check out the website for lots of other birth related offerings, and personalized support: www.healingbirth.net

Intro / outro music: Dreams by Markvard

Sian was 12 weeks pregnant when the United Kingdom announced a national lockdown, and she shares what it was like navigating her pregnancy, the birth, and the NHS during this strange time.

Her second baby was born just two months ago at the time of this recording, and overall her two birth stories are not at all what I was expecting to hear (which is always my favorite kinds of stories to share!).

Sian is now training to be doula, and you can find her on instagram @diaryofmrsk and at @sacredmagicbirthing

Support the show!

https://www.patreon.com/healingbirth

Our website is www.healingbirth.net

After two relatively routine hospital births, Shiloa’s third baby was discovered to be breech late in her pregnancy. Her care providers presented her with no option other than a c-section, which came as a huge shock. The surgical birth left her feeling traumatized.

As a birth worker herself, Shiloa was also attending births during this time and had developed an unshakable trust in the birth process. She learned that some midwives were comfortable supporting breech births at home, viewing it as a variation of normal rather than an emergency requiring surgery.

For her fourth pregnancy, Shiloa planned a home birth with a midwife. Once again, the baby was found to be breech toward the end of the pregnancy. However, she didn’t let the combination of a VBAC and the breech label shake her trust in the birth process. In fact, she had a strong sense that this baby was meant to be born breech for a reason.

Shiloa successfully birthed her breech, VBAC baby at home with her midwife, as planned. This empowering experience helped to heal the trauma from her previous birth.

If you love the show, I would greatly appreciate a review on  Spotify or Apple Podcasts! 

Follow me on Instagram @healingbirth

Do you have a birth story you’d like to share on the podcast, or would like to otherwise connect? I love to hear from you! Send me a note at contactus@healingbirth.net

Check out the website for lots of other birth related offerings, and personalized support: www.healingbirth.net

Intro / Outro music: Dreams by Markvard

Podcast cover photo by Karina Jensen @karinajensenphoto

After a traumatic, unnecessary cesarean in an Australian hospital, Rebecca knew that she’d get pregnant again, and would not enter the medical system.

She had a completely wild, peaceful pregnancy, and free birth with just her family present.

(Be sure to check out our instagram page this week @healingbirth to see photos of this birth, and the “potato embryo”!)

Do you have a story you’d like to share on the podcast? I would love to hear from you! Email me via the contact page at www.healingbirth.net.

Intro / outro music: Dreams by Markvard

Transition music: Free by KV

Natalie shares her story of giving birth via a cesarean that she could feel. 

We talk about her healing process, and the total lack of accountability from anyone at the hospital where her birth occurred.

Please be advised, this episode contains a graphic description of a traumatic surgical birth. Skip this one of you are pregnant, and need to protect your space.

Follow Natalie @mermaidnat1

Support us on Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/healingbirth

I share some recent observations and thoughts I've had from listening to a LOT of VBAC stories these past few months.

www.healingbirth.net/events for the upcoming webinars! 

Tiffany, a former doula and fellow podcaster, shares the story of having her first baby at seventeen in a hospital, and her second birth experience, which ended in a home birth transfer.

Because she remained pregnant to 42 weeks, her midwife intervened in several ways to help induce labor, and in this episode you will hear exactly how those seemingly “harmless” and common induction interventions directly compromised her safety in labor.

Follow Tiffany @sacredwomb.birth

Tiffany has her own birth story podcast, and if you like this show, you will love hers too!

Birth and Rebirth Podcast

Here is the episode where I appeared on her show.

If you love the show, I would greatly appreciate a review on  Spotify or Apple Podcasts! 

Follow me on Instagram @healingbirth

Do you have a birth story you’d like to share on the podcast, or would like to otherwise connect? I love to hear from you! Send me a note at contactus@healingbirth.net

Check out the website for lots of other birth related offerings, and personalized support: www.healingbirth.net

Intro / outro music: Dreams by Markvard

Transition music:   Bubbles by PALA

Mindy was a social worker, working in the labor and delivery ward of a hospital, when she became pregnant with her first child. She planned a home birth with a midwife with that first baby, but at 40 weeks and 4 days her midwife abandoned her care, leaving her with no other choice than to deliver at the hospital where she worked.

Because she knew the nurses and staff so well, she was able to navigate that birth experience without trauma - but the betrayal and grief of her midwife abandoning her stayed. It was a deep, sister wound, possibly with echos from other lifetimes.

During her second pregnancy, she did a lot of work to heal the pain from that first experience. She had a beautiful, healing home birth with that baby, but credits both experiences as catalysts for the work she does now.

Mindy does amazing work helping other women reawaken their inner wisdom, access their power, and heal + elevate their legacy! Her website is  https://effloresce.net/

Find Mindy on Instagram @effloresce_coaching

If you love the show, I would greatly appreciate a review on  Spotify or Apple Podcasts! 

Follow me on Instagram @healingbirth

Do you have a birth story you’d like to share on the podcast, or would like to otherwise connect? I love to hear from you! Send me a note at contactus@healingbirth.net

Check out the website for lots of other birth related offerings, and personalized support: www.healingbirth.net

Intro / outro music: Dreams by Markvard

Transition music:  Letting Go by Hotham

Kawena, an indigenous Brazilian, was traveling the world nomadically when she fell in love, and became pregnant. She knew that she would return home to her ancestral land to birth freely on her family’s farm. This is an especially radical act of reclamation in Brazil, where birth has been completely taken over by the medical industrial complex. Not only does Brazil have one of the highest c-section rates in the world, it is illegal there to birth alone.

Kawena roared her baby out at 43 weeks, her powerful voice echoing back to her across the canyon where generations of her family have lived. With her mother and aunt present, she says that this birth experience healed generations of birth trauma for her matrilineal lineage. Kawena also discovered that certain indigenous birth practices, long forgotten in her family, came to her quite naturally.

If you love the show, I would greatly appreciate a review on  Spotify or Apple Podcasts! 

Follow me on Instagram @healingbirth

Do you have a birth story you’d like to share on the podcast, or would like to otherwise connect? I love to hear from you! Send me a note at contactus@healingbirth.net

Check out the website for lots of other birth related offerings, and personalized support: www.healingbirth.net

Intro / outro music: Dreams by Markvard

Transition music:   Letting Go by Hotham

Bethany is a holistic womb-pelvic bodyworker, wild mama, and author of the book Pelvic Awakening. She guides women and mothers through deep-dive journeys into womb and pelvic healing, weaving together the physical and energetic and cultivating deep magical awareness, that makes big shifts. She believes that when a woman roots within her pelvic bowl, she finds the deep well of power and knowing that lives within – she comes back home to herself.

This is a wonderful, healing conversation for any woman who has experienced a surgical birth, a traumatic birth, or any trauma to the pelvic area (and if you can, join us at around the 35 minute mark, when Bethany takes us through a meditation called “Cultivating Joy,” that nearly brought tears to my eyes).

Bethany has put together a special offer for listeners of this podcast. You can find it on her website here:

http://www.bethanywilde.com/healingbirthpodcast/

Follow Bethany @bethany.wilde

www.bethanywilde.com

In a heart wrenching and raw interview, Ashley shares the story of the unnecessary cesarean birth of her first child.

From showing up in labor and being misidentified as a different patient, to having her doctor rush her labor process due to his golf tournament, her whole story is infuriating and deeply sad, most of all, because it’s simply so common.

Many times during this conversation, I had to mute my mic and take deep breaths, because so much of her story was personally relatable to me. 

I believe that as long as women are being brutalized during the most sacred thing we participate in and through, we have a moral imperative to share difficult stories like these.

If you have experienced a cesarean you feel was unnecessary, or simply found the countless indignities and traumas of industrial birth within the machine just wrong, this episode is for you.

You are not alone.

JOIN OUR ONLINE MEMBERSHIP HERE! https://www.healingbirth.net/membership

If you love the show, please consider supporting us on Patreon! www.patreon/healingbirth

Chandani was a doula working within the system when she became pregnant with her first baby. Witnessing the trauma and high cesarean rate in the hospital, she knew she didn’t want to give birth there and decided on a home birth.

Although she entered the pregnancy with extensive knowledge about birth and hired a midwife, her birth ultimately ended in a cesarean after her midwife transferred her during labor.

In the immediate aftermath, Chandani struggled to accept that this was her birth experience. However, as time passed, she began to reflect and realized that there had been red flags in her care, and her intuition had indeed been speaking to her. She also started examining other areas of her life where she wasn’t being true to herself. By the time she was pregnant with her second baby, she was fully ready to step into her power and birth in a new way.

Rather than hiring another medical midwife, Chandani chose a non-medical birth keeper who also became a friend. She emerged triumphant from that birth experience, feeling as though she could do anything.

If you love the show, I would greatly appreciate a review on  Spotify or Apple Podcasts! 

Follow me on Instagram @healingbirth

Do you have a birth story you’d like to share on the podcast, or would like to otherwise connect? I love to hear from you! Send me a note at contactus@healingbirth.net

Check out the website for lots of other birth related offerings, and personalized support: www.healingbirth.net

Intro / outro music: Dreams by Markvard

Podcast cover photo by Karina Jensen @karinajensenphoto

At just 21 years old, Trae’s experience giving birth to her first baby was a truly life threatening one.

Although she is still processing the events of that day, Trae is very passionate about advocating for other mothers who experience traumatic births. She shares the whole story with us today, including ways she has found healing in the aftermath. 

Please note that this episode contains a description of a traumatic birth, and take care of yourself accordingly.

You can follow Trae on instagram @traethurston

Join our online community! www.healingbirth.net/membership

If you love the show, please support us on Patreon! www.patreon.com/healingbirth

Join us this week for another conversation about giving birth in the time of coronavirus. We discuss what authentically supporting birthing women looks like now, how we can show up for our sisters, and near the end of the show, Isabella has a beautiful message for anyone who is pregnant and facing uncertainty about her birth.

Follow Isabella -

@whosebodyisit
www.whosebodyisit.com

Support the podcast! https://www.patreon.com/healingbirth

Dr. Sarah is a chiropractic physician, birth educator, and mother of three. She became entrenched in the birth world after a traumatic, unnecessary cesarean led her to have a subsequent, healing freebirth. In this episode, she shares the stories of both of those births.

Sarah is an advocate for bodily autonomy and human rights in childbirth, and believes that you deserve to be in charge and have a birth that transforms you. You will hear us talk quite a lot about that!

Follow Sarah @birthuprising

www.birthuprsing.com

JOIN US! BIRTH PLANNING WORKSHOP

Join Dr. Sarah of Birth Uprising and Lynnea Laessig for a two-hour, intimate birth planning session where you will learn about ALL of your options for birth and have a village to support you as you make decisions that feel best to you.

This workshop is an amazing foundation for first time moms and seasoned mothers who plan to birth in any setting to get curious and make informed choices about your upcoming birth.

Online Event | October 1, 2022 | 10AM EST

Sign up at www.birthuprising.com

Support the show and get bonus episodes! www.patreon.com/healingbirth

Kristen is a former nurse of 14 years, who spent most of her career in the NICU. She once believed that home birth should be illegal, and that doctors always knew best.

But in 2015, with the birth of her first son, she began to see things differently.

She is also one of the co-founders of Canadian Frontline Nurses. In that role, she has been a powerful, public voice advocating for medical freedom and true informed consent.

Follow Kristen @Kristen_Nagle

www.kristennagle.ca

Do you have a story you’d like to share on the podcast? I would love to hear from you! Email me via the contact page at www.healingbirth.net.

You can find our new e-book, “Did I Really Need a C-Section?” on our website at www.healingbirth.net/shop

Intro / outro music: Dreams by Markvard

Transition music: Chill Night by Amine Maxwell & MICHAL

Join Jonea and I this week as we talk about the massive maternal healthcare crisis facing black women and their babies in America today. The information contained in this conversation is absolutely vital for us all to grasp in order to, quite literally, help saves lives.

Anti-Racist Resources:

So You Want to Talk about Race

White Fragility

Rachel Cargle

Discussed in this episode:

History of the African American Midwife

Dr. J. Marion Sims Experimented On Black Women & His New York Statue Has People Outraged

Amber Isaac Story

Please support the woman in AZ we discuss who was separated from her baby. Venmo @desertwombsinbloom

Follow Jonea -

@wild.pregnancy_free.birth

Support the podcast! https://www.patreon.com/healingbirth

After a traumatic and disempowering hospital birth in 2020, which Ali compares to a prior sexual assault, Something deep shifted within her. She went from being a self-diagnosed hypochondriac who sought medical treatment for non-existing conditions, to a home-birthing, self-healing soul who has come to know the power of the mind and self-programming.

Ali reconditioned her views on birth, pregnancy, and life, and manifested her dream birth with her second baby.  She believes that it is our birthright to experience life altering and blissful birth, which is our portal to a deeper connection to the Divine, to the life force that guides us, and to our lineage and children.

Follow Ali on Instagram @alibarn3tt

If you love the show, I would greatly appreciate a review on  Spotify or Apple Podcasts! 

Follow me on Instagram @healingbirth

Do you have a birth story you’d like to share on the podcast, or would like to otherwise connect? I love to hear from you! Send me a note at contactus@healingbirth.net

Check out the website for lots of other birth related offerings, and personalized support: www.healingbirth.net

Intro / outro music: Dreams by Markvard

Transition music:  Crushing by Reveille

After the devastating loss of her first pregnancy, Sharna became acutely aware of the lack of professional support for, and understanding of, the uniquely painful experience of pregnancy loss.

Sharna is now a pregnancy loss life coach supporting women through miscarriage or pregnancy loss. She has also founded The Institute of Healing through Pregnancy loss, out of the need for there to be other perinatal and coaching professionals who know how to truly support women going through pregnancy loss.

This is deep, very important work, and a wonderful conversation especially for anyone who has experienced pregnancy loss. Sharna wants you to know that you can heal, and you are not alone.

Find Sharna at www.sharnasouthan.com

On Instagram @instituteofhealing_pl

Do you have a story you’d like to share on the podcast? I love to hear from you! contact me via the contact page at www.healingbirth.net

From the very beginning of her first pregnancy, Aeriel encountered discouragement and doubt from medical providers about her ability to birth naturally.

Unbelievably, she was even repeatedly encouraged to end her (unplanned, but wanted) pregnancy multiple times by the first doctor she saw. Reasonably shook by this, she sought other care and found a birth center mid-pregnancy.

Due to going to 42 weeks, she was transferred back to the same hospital that was affiliated with her first doctor to be induced. Aerial was absolutely set on having a natural birth, and despite being induced with Pitocin, and discouragement from the medical staff, she achieved it.

Find Aeriel’s blog at www.mamaunrehearsed.com

Aeriel’s on Instagram and Facebook @mamaunrehearsed

If you love the show, I would greatly appreciate a review on  Spotify or Apple Podcasts! 

Follow me on Instagram @healingbirth

Do you have a birth story you’d like to share on the podcast, or would like to otherwise connect? I love to hear from you! Send me a note at contactus@healingbirth.net

Check out the website for lots of other birth related offerings, and personalized support: www.healingbirth.net

Intro / outro music: Dreams by Markvard

Yolande Norris-Clark is a leader in the freebirth, birth-freedom, self-healing, and health liberation movements. She is a spell-breaker, way-shower, whistle-blower, trailblazer, and beloved guide to women all over the world who are awakening to the possibility of giving birth in peace and power.

Her mission is to dispel the myth that birth is an ordeal from which women must be “delivered,” and to share the truth that birth is primarily a spiritual experience, designed to be transformational, transcendent, and ecstatic, and that this is possible for every mother and baby.

We go DEEP. In this episode, you’ll hear us discuss:

• Why are so many women today leaving their birth experiences traumatized
• Coping with fear in pregnancy
• How she had a blissful, painfree birth with her ninth baby
• Reflections on, and lessons from, her nine births
• Her approach to self healing, based on the work of Dr. Ryke Geerd Hamer

Buy her book Portal: The Art of Choosing Orgasmic, Painfree, Blissful Birth

Connect with all of Yolande’s work: www.yolandenorris-clark.com

You can find Yolande on Instagram @bauhauswife

If you love the show, I would greatly appreciate a review on  Spotify or Apple Podcasts! 

Follow me on Instagram @healingbirth

Do you have a birth story you’d like to share on the podcast, or would like to otherwise connect? I love to hear from you! Send me a note at contactus@healingbirth.net

Check out the website for lots of other birth related offerings, and personalized support: www.healingbirth.net

Intro / outro music: Dreams by Markvard

Transition music:   What Did You Name Your Island by Aardverk

What if breech birth is not the inherent emergency we are conventionally told, but rather, an expression of intelligent, deeply empathic, communication between mother and baby?

Jess shares her three birth stories with us  - actually four, as we begin with her own -  all of which carry the through line of breech presenting babies and maternal communication.

This is another one of those stories where ancestral and matrilineal healing come from a powerful reclamation of what it means to birth in sovereignty.

You can follow Jess @jess.aralia

JOIN OUR ONLINE MEMBERSHIP HERE! https://www.healingbirth.net/membership

If you love the show, please consider supporting us on Patreon! www.patreon/healingbirth

What does it mean to take responsibility for our birth experiences? How do we learn from it, digest it, and, in the case of a traumatic birth, heal from it, without staying in a place of victimhood or self blame?

This is extremely tricky work! Join us this week as explore this topic with sensitivity and loads of compassion, for all of us.

If we can get to the point of owning our stories, we can be the ones to heal it.

If you love us, support us on Patreon!

Patreon.com/healingbirth

Hannah returns to the podcast to share the story of the freebirth of her third baby, which was a surprise breech birth!

All of Hannah’s birth experiences have included something that falls outside the scope of “normal.” Her stories are such a good example of why some women chose to freebirth. Had she been in the medical system, her birth outcomes would have looked very different.

You can listen to Hannah’s first appearance on this show, where she shares the story of her first and second birth experiences here:

Trusting Birth at 35 Weeks

Follow Hannah @theprimalpriestess

If you love the show, I would greatly appreciate a review on  Spotify or Apple Podcasts! 

Follow me on Instagram @healingbirth

Do you have a birth story you’d like to share on the podcast, or would like to otherwise connect? I love to hear from you! Send me a note at contactus@healingbirth.net

Check out the website for lots of other birth related offerings, and personalized support: www.healingbirth.net

Intro / outro music: Dreams by Markvard

Transition music:   Snowfall by Vendredi

Mandy was induced for all of her births, until her fourth. She was told by medical professionals that her body just “didn’t go into labor on it’s own” and she “needed a little help.”

The resulting distrust in her body was something she carried within her until, after having had enough with the conveyer-belt style standard maternity care, she sought out a midwife who would support her to birth at home.

And after three previous births, all induced and two of them, cesareans, she birthed this baby at home without surgery or drugs.

Turns out, her body knew how to give birth just fine.

If you love the podcast, please consider supporting the show! www.patreon.com/healingbirth

I love to hear from you! Send me a note at www.healingbirth.net

Tune in for a RADICALLY HONEST conversation between Diana & Lynnea on the transparency (or lack of) around the cultural expectations of these roles.

Women serving women in birth is not a new concept, and it's crucial for the preservation of birth and the well-being of women and babies to acknowledge the appropriation of traditional wise-woman practices into the modern day "band-aid" we market to women today.

Hiring a doula or midwife alone is not enough to save you from the system, or the trauma that comes with it. Here we explore why and how you can use this information to protect your birth space, what finally, what is a “true” sense of security?

Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome (EDS) is a connective tissue disorder that presents differently in each individual. For Emily, it significantly affected her digestive system. During her first pregnancy, she struggled with severe hyperemesis, unable to keep any food down at all. 

In this episode, Emily shares one of the most unique and challenging stories of pregnancy, birth, and postpartum I have ever encountered. Her journey is a powerful testament to the resilience of the mother-baby bond and her incredible strength. 

Despite the hardships she faced, Emily has recovered and found joy in the small but profound moments of motherhood. She recalls the first time her baby smiled at her—a moment when her heart truly felt light for the first time. 

Tune in to hear Emily's inspiring story of determination, love, and healing. 

If you love the show, I would greatly appreciate a review on  Spotify or Apple Podcasts! 

Follow me on Instagram @healingbirth

Do you have a birth story you’d like to share on the podcast, or would like to otherwise connect? I love to hear from you! Send me a note at contactus@healingbirth.net

Check out the website for lots of other birth related offerings, and personalized support: www.healingbirth.net

Intro / Outro music: Dreams by Markvard

Holly is a certified Fertility Awareness Method Educator and Licensed Acupuncturist. Her passion for periods and fertility stem from a long history of personal cycle issues. At 22, she was told she would likely have a hard time getting pregnant due to a consistently erratic menstrual cycle, and amenorrhea due to severe anorexia.

A testament to the body’s innate ability to heal, it was during a passionate love affair in her thirties that she conceived her daughter, and had a beautiful, easy home birth.

One of the key components to her journey of healing was to uncover what was really going on with her body through charting her cycle. Implementing  fertility awareness completely changed her life, and offered her a different relationship with her body. Now, she works with other women, helping them do the same.

Work with Holly www.rosebudwellness.com

Follow Holly on Instagram @rosebud_wellness

Find Holly’s Podcast The Fertile Womb

Check out Real Food for Pregnancy & Real Food for Fertility

If you love the show, I would greatly appreciate a review on  Spotify or Apple Podcasts! 

Follow me on Instagram @healingbirth

Do you have a birth story you’d like to share on the podcast, or would like to otherwise connect? I love to hear from you! Send me a note at contactus@healingbirth.net

Check out the website for lots of other birth related offerings, and personalized support: www.healingbirth.net

Intro / outro music: Dreams by Markvard

An end of year message from my heart to yours.

Thank you so much for listening! I love you!

Send me a note at www.healingbirth.net

We're on Instagram @healingbirth

Diana

Mothers have always been at the forefront of the medical freedom movement - the fight for the freedom to decide what is or is not injected into their bodies and those of their children.

We are a time in history where the fight for medical freedom has never been so crucial, and so heated. 

This is part one of a three part series where mothers share their personal stories of why medical freedom matters to them. #believewomen. 

This is Sarah's story. 

To find out more about ILLUMINOUS, our newest offering, go to https://www.healingbirth.net/events

Kristyn was 37 weeks pregnant with her first baby when she developed acute appendicitis. in order to be treated for it, her baby needed to be delivered immediately, but due to delayed diagnosis and dismissive care at the hospital, she suffered a great deal of pain, delivered via cesarean under general anesthesia, and had her baby separated from her postpartum.

Kristyn shares with us the long term ramifications of this experience, the impact of having a healing, subsequent birth at home, and finding her place in the movement to improve birth for women in Australia via craftivism.

Follow Kristyn @buntingforbirthrights

www.buntingforbirthrights.com

Carla’s mother passed away on her first baby's due date. A week later, still grieving, she went into labor. 

She had planned for and desired a home birth, but was transferred to the hospital. This is not, however, the traumatic story it could have been.

While there it was evident that her mother’s spirit was present, protecting Carla and her baby. And this birth experience, in the miraculous way that birth can, allowed for deep healing of her matrilineal line.

This is a truly magical story.

And it’s only part one! Tune into next week to hear Carla’s other birth stories.

You can find Carla on instagram @traditional.healing

Her website is www.traditionalhealingbirthwork.com

Use the link below to purchase amazing CBD products from Puffs for the Public. They are offering 25% off your order when you use the coupon code “healingbirth” (all one word).

Thank you for helping to support the show!

LINK TO PURCHASE

Do you have a birth story you’d like to share on the podcast? I would love to hear from you! email me via the contact page at www.healingbirth.net.

If you love this show, please consider supporting us on Patreon! We have bonus episodes, video podcasts, and lots of other exclusive resources. www/patreon.com/healingbirth

The power, mystery, love and rawness surrounding pregnancy and birth have intrigued Carla since childhood. In 1998 she became New Zealand’s youngest graduate from the Direct Entry Midwifery program, and began work as a midwife. 

Her experience as a midwife was eye-opening, to say the least. She became aware that the power and mystery of birth had, for many it seemed, been flipped on its head, with medical minds, hands and machines seeking to control, categorize and sanitize the innately unique and unpredictable experience of birth.

Leaving midwifery behind, Carla has now stepped into the role of supporting the emotional needs of parents who are struggling to come to terms with a traumatic birth experience.

Carla is doing very important work! 

Her website: 
www.healingbirth.co.nz

Instagram: 
@healing.birth

Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/healingbirthwithcarla

Book:
https://www.healingbirth.co.nz/mybook

Birth trauma survey report:
https://www.healingbirth.co.nz/_files/ugd/d9a2d7_e161fa673d704be386f2a83b5301927d.pdf

Podcast:
https://spotifyanchor-web.app.link/e/TcDUwP4Atxb

If you have a birth story you’d like to share, please reach out! Contact me at www.healingbirth.net. 

I love to hear from you!

Before having children, and doing the work that I do now, I spent ten years working within the health insurance industry.

I sat in on a lot meetings that (accidentally) shared what I believe to be the truth about our healthcare system - namely, that it doesn't really create health.

Above all, it's a really big business.

I focus this episode mainly on the myth of preventive care, because it's of particular relevance to pregnancy and prenatal care. 

If you love the show, please consider supporting our work on Patreon! www.patreon.com/healing birth

Go to our website to find out more about Healing Birth! www.healingbirth.net

The image accompanying this episode was taken by the wonderful photographer Jade Beall. 

Busy with graduate school, and pregnant with her first child, Christina carefully chose her birth team and planned a to have a home birth. But her birth experience took an unexpected turn when, deep into her labor, her midwife decided they needed to transfer. Her baby was born only fifteen minutes after arrival at the hospital, but not before the doctor, without consent and against her will, gave her an episiotomy. This incredible violation left her with PTSD for many months postpartum.

Christina found healing with EMDR therapy, sharing her story, and blogging about it. You can find a written version of her story below:

https://healthwellnesswoman.com/libbys-birth-story/

If you love the show, I would greatly appreciate a review on  Spotify or Apple Podcasts! 

Follow me on Instagram @healingbirth

Do you have a birth story you’d like to share on the podcast, or would like to otherwise connect? I love to hear from you! Send me a note at contactus@healingbirth.net

Check out the website for lots of other birth related offerings, and personalized support: www.healingbirth.net

Intro / outro music: Dreams by Markvard

Transition music:  Snow Fall by Vendredi

Audrey shares her three birth stories, all quite different, and all of which reflect her powerful nature.

You can connect with Audrey on instagram @ajoyfulbirth and at www.ajoyfulbirth.org

Do you have a story you’d like to share on the podcast? I would love to hear from you! Email me via the contact page at www.healingbirth.net.

PLANNING FOR YOUR VBAC EVENT! On Sunday, April 30th, 2023 @5PM EST

Join Healing Birth and Dr. Sarah (@birthuprising) for a women-centered approach to planning for your VBAC!

Through the combined powers of modern research and the ancient wisdom of sisterly storytelling, we will cover:

• How to choose a provider & birth setting that aligns with your personal needs
• Utilizing the power of your mind-body connection
• The statistics & social evidence of VBAC
• Planning for your VBAC with Logic + Deep Intuitive Trust
• The hindsight wisdom of VBAC preparation, as told by women who have been there!

Your $22 investment includes:

• Admittance to the Live Event with Q&A
• The event recording sent directly to your inbox
• A copy of Dr. Sarah's Birth Plan
• Our OVERCOMING THE TOP 10 VBAC OBSTACLES instant download, printable PDF

LINK TO REGISTER HERE

In her former role as a newborn photographer, Laura had witnessed plenty of births before having her own. She intuitively felt that something about the experience, as it occurs for most women, was wrong.

When it came time for her to have her own first baby, she chose to have a wild pregnancy and free birth, deep in the Peruvian jungle with only her husband present.

Recorded at just four months postpartum, you will be be able to hear her joy and elation about her experience, as well as her huge passion for all things birth, babies, and motherhood.

You can follow Laura on Instagram @natural_lau

Do you have a story you’d like to share on the podcast? I would love to hear from you! Email me via the contact page at www.healingbirth.net.

You can find our new e-book, “Did I Really Need a C-Section?” on our website at www.healingbirth.net/shop

Intro / outro music: Dreams by Markvard

Transition music:   Take me Back by Strength to Last

This is part two of a series exploring, through personal stories, how the experience of prior sexual assault can show up when we give birth.

Rebecca shares the incredible story of the birth of her fourth child, born at just 32 weeks, in a teaching hospital. This is one of the most emotionally intense stories I have ever recorded, both in its beauty and pain.

(Please note that while we do discuss sexual assault, this conversation does *not* contain a description of sexual assault).

You can follow Rebecca on instagram @cosmic_love_child

JOIN OUR ONLINE MEMBERSHIP HERE! https://www.healingbirth.net/membership

If you love the show, please consider supporting us on Patreon! www.patreon/healingbirth

JOIN OUR LIVE WEBINAR EVENT: Discovering Your Mothering Superpower with Emily Bruce on May 15, 2022 4PM PST https://www.healingbirth.net/event

Andrea’s first birth experience is a perfect example of what it can look like when your midwives work for the state, not you.

After a traumatic cesarean birth, she was determined to birth her second baby at home.

Unfortunately (or maybe, fortunately?) no one in her province you could offer her the kind of support she needed, so she birthed that baby with just her partner as support.

That birth was a firewalk, but in it, she found the connection to her ancestors that wasn’t present the first time when she called on them for support. She could feel them witnessing her in this powerful act of reclamation.

Around the one hour mark, Andrea mentions a few resources that were really helpful along her journey to free birth.

1. Christine Murphy - you can find her on instagram @wildwomanmothering

2. Yolande Norris Clark - www.freebirth.ca and on instagram @bauhauswife

3. Freebirth Society’s The Complete Guide to Freebirth online course - link

JOIN OUR NEW ONLINE MEMBERSHIP HERE! https://www.healingbirth.net/membership

And, if you love the show, please consider supporting us on Patreon! www.patreon/healingbirth

After a birth experience that left her feeling trapped and traumatized, Sian developed severe postpartum anxiety and depression. Realizing she needed help, she turned to the National Health Service (UK) for mental health support, but the therapy she was received was nearly useless to her (and, delivered over the phone no less).

Sian found her way out of the dark place from spiritual, rather than cognitive, solutions, and the joy she now feels from her new son.

We also talk about the importance of planning your postpartum period intentionally, accepting help when it’s offered, and asking people to bring you food (SERIOUSLY. Trust us).

Speaking of accepting help…treat yourself with Puffs for the Public! They make high quality, CBD & CBG products that I absolutely love (in fact, I wish I knew about CBD when I was postpartum!).

As a listener of this show, you get 10% off at check out with code “healingbirth” (one word).

Here’s a link to Soothe the Soul

Here’s a link to Snooze Button

Use the link below to purchase! It lets them know you heard about them from me Thank you for helping to support the show!

LINK TO PURCHASE

Rebecca’s first experience with birth was a miscarriage, which, in her words, left her with the beautiful message that “we are mother nature.” When she conceived again, she was hit with the firewalk of hyperemesis, an initiation all of its own.

She gave birth to that baby in an Australian hospital with midwives. Her story, sadly, is a perfect example of the ways that defensively practiced medicine, intervening in the natural process that is birth, is leaving so many of us with unnecessary surgery, trauma, and lifelong repercussions.

But this is only part one! Rebecca has a second child, and you’ll hear the story of that pregnancy and birth next week. You do not want to miss how her journey unfolds!

(I am adding the disclaimer to this one that I am not a doctor and nothing that I say on this podcast should be taken as medical advice.)

Do you have a story you’d like to share on the podcast? I would love to hear from you! Email me via the contact page at www.healingbirth.net.

Intro / outro music: Dreams by Markvard

Transition music: Letting Go by Hotham

Jodi is a postpartum registered nurse and lactation consultant who works at her local hospital. After two very medically managed, in-hospital births, one of her friends shared the concept of freebirth with her, and that there were women choosing a totally different way to walk through their pregnancies and birth their babies. At first, she thought this idea was crazy, but the seed was planted.

By the time Jodi was pregnant with her third, that seed had sprouted, due to the combination of what she was witnessing at work everyday, and listening to free birth and home birth podcasts (yay!). She chose a mostly wild pregnancy that allowed her to deepen her relationship with her intuition, be present with this baby, and cultivate peace.

She birthed that baby at home, completely in her power.

Do you have a story you’d like to share on the podcast? I would love to hear from you! Email me via the contact page at www.healingbirth.net.

You can find our new e-book, “Did I Really Need a C-Section?” on our website at www.healingbirth.net/shop

Intro / outro music: Dreams by Markvard

Transition music: Free by KV

Jackie shares the story of having her first baby via unplanned cesarean at 35 weeks.

After the NICU stay, and very tough first year, she found healing in getting answers from a spiritual perspective to the “what, why and how” of that birth experience. When she was ready, she and her daughter had a rebirthing ceremony that also helped to heal the trauma of the birth.

Be sure to check out our instagram page @healingbirth for a bunch of photos that accompany this episode!

Jackie is a listener who reached out to share her story. If you have a story you’d like to share on the podcast, please reach out! You can send me a note via the contact page on our website which is www.healingbirth.net

If you love the show, please consider supporting us on Patron! www.patron.com/healingbirth

Lindsay is a mother of three, photographer, birth coach, and podcast host at Birth Like a Mammal™, a community that teaches parents and doulas how to give birth like a mammal. After over a decade of supporting families as a doula and working in birth advocacy, Lindsay founded Birth Like a Mammal™ in 2023. She feels deeply that most issues within our society and culture can be solved by birthing in alignment with mammalian biology. 

In this episode, you’ll hear Lindsay discuss:

• How her background working with animals informed how she understands birth.
• Why she chose to freebirth her first baby, and hired a midwife for the next two.
• Her time working on Exposing the Silence Project, a photography project that documented and brought awareness to birth trauma and obstetric violence.
• All about her upcoming retreat, Hope for Healing. The retreat is for any woman who has been affected by birth trauma, and is looking for healing.

Follow Lindsay on Instagram @birthlikeamammal

Listen to the Birth Like a Mammal Podcast

Learn more about and register for the Hope for Healing Retreat

www.exposingthesilence.com

Birth Allowed Radio

If you love the show, I would greatly appreciate a review on  Spotify or Apple Podcasts! 

Follow me on Instagram @healingbirth

Do you have a birth story you’d like to share on the podcast, or would like to otherwise connect? I love to hear from you! Send me a note at contactus@healingbirth.net

Check out the website for lots of other birth related offerings, and personalized support: www.healingbirth.net

Intro / outro music: Dreams by Markvard

Chaya shares her three birth stories which include a loss, a cesarean twin birth, two subsequent cesareans, and a fairly harrowing experience with post-partum birth control and PPD. Throughout her story is the theme of having to push through these difficult experiences in order to survive them.

Mentioned in the episode: Nancy Wainer Cohen’s Silent Knife and Jennifer Block’s Everything Below the Waist (a must read!)

Follow Chaya: @themindfulwoman365 and www.themindfulwoman.org

Join our upcoming webinar with the wonderful birth educator Maha Al Musa on April 11th! www.healing birth.net/events

If you enjoy the show, please consider supporting us on Patreon! Patron.com/healingbirth

Lynsi Eastburn is the world’s established expert in the field of hypnosis to promote fertility. She began professionally using hypnosis to facilitate pregnancy before anyone else had actively considered or pursued its benefits.

Blending the scientific with the spiritual, she is also gifted with the intuitive capacity to sense spirit babies around their mothers.

In this fascinating conversation, we talk about:

• How spirit babies come through to her
• Do we all have spirit babies around us?
• How do they communicate with us?
• What could be the deeper spiritual reason for miscarriage?
• Who are the pink starlights, and the spiritual shift that is happening on the planet
• The 3 keys to conception

You can find Lynsi via her website www.hypnofertility.com

on Instagram @lynsi.eastburn

Link to her books

Do you have a birth story you’d like to share on the podcast? I would love to hear from you! email me via the contact page at www.healingbirth.net.

If you love this show, please consider supporting us on Patreon! We have bonus episodes, video podcasts, and lots of other exclusive resources. www/patreon.com/healingbirth

Patience is a doula and birth keeper, and was quite familiar with birth when it was time to have her first baby. She chose to give birth in a midwife-run birth center, but her labor progressed so fast that they never made it inside, and the baby was born in the doorway!

When she became pregnant with her second baby, she wanted a more autonomous experience, and chose to birth at home with just her husband and a non-medical birth keeper for support.

Patience has an unshakable faith in the wisdom of the birth process which is inspiring and infectious. She attends home births and offers placenta encapsulation + art services in the Sonora, California area.

Follow Patience on Instagram @atouchofpatience_birth

Patience’s website: www.atouchofpatiencebirth.com

If you love the show, I would greatly appreciate a review on  Spotify or Apple Podcasts! 

Follow me on Instagram @healingbirth

Do you have a birth story you’d like to share on the podcast, or would like to otherwise connect? I love to hear from you! Send me a note at contactus@healingbirth.net

Check out the website for lots of other birth related offerings, and personalized support: www.healingbirth.net

Intro / Outro music: Dreams by Markvard

My guest this week shares the story of the births of all three of her babies, with an emphasis on the birth of her twins one year ago. Her story is of the clearest examples of coercive, abusive, obstetric violence I have ever heard.

We also talk about the importance of telling your story, as many times as you can, the importance of sisterhood, and how we can begin to hold physicians and hospitals accountable for experiences like hers. 

Please note that this episode contains a description of a traumatic birth, skip it if you are pregnant, or needing to protect your space.

Erica hired a “midwife,” had a healthy uneventful pregnancy, and meticulously planned for an unmedicated vaginal birth. What transpired at the hospital when it was time to deliver was a cascade of dehumanizing and unnecessary interventions, culminating in Pitocin and finally, a cesarean.

Erica is now 15 months postpartum, and shares how she’s healing the PTSD from this experience. We talk about how difficult it is to struggle with the question, why did my birth go this way, when it is so easy for others? We end with some thoughts on how traumatic births impact our babies, and a call to action to listeners to share any resources you have on this subject.

Follow Erica: @e_m_kenner

If you appreciate the show, consider supporting us on Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/healingbirth

From the moment she knew she was pregnant, Hari felt an extraordinary, intuitive bond with her baby. Guided by this inner knowing, she knew she would  freebirth—believing this was the path her baby's soul desired.

But at 34 weeks, things took an unexpected turn when Hari went into labor. Faced with the unforeseen, she chose to embrace trust over fear, staying true to her plan of giving birth at home, accompanied only by her partner. In a remarkable journey of intuition and courage, Hari allowed her baby's soul to lead the way.

follow Hari @Sacred_flute

Spirit Babies by Walter Makichen is the book you’ll hear Hari recommend in our conversation.

If you love the show, I would greatly appreciate a review on  Spotify or Apple Podcasts! 

Follow me on Instagram @healingbirth

Do you have a birth story you’d like to share on the podcast, or would like to otherwise connect? I love to hear from you! Send me a note at contactus@healingbirth.net

Check out the website for lots of other birth related offerings, and personalized support: www.healingbirth.net

Intro / outro music: Dreams by Markvard

Ashley’s first two babies were born in the hospital, and both experiences left her traumatized. By the time her third baby was conceived, Ashley had been through an awakening to many truths, among them, the truth about birth. That was a natural birth with a midwife, but still not without interventions that were harmful.

Finally, after serving as a doula for free birthing women completely outside of the medical system for some time, she became pregnant with her fourth and knew this was her turn to trust birth fully.

You can connect with Ashley, and learn about the farm she lives on at www.sacrednectarsanctuary.com

Ashley’s on Instagram @river_wolf_369

If you love the show, I would greatly appreciate a review on  Spotify or Apple Podcasts! 

Follow me on Instagram @healingbirth

Do you have a birth story you’d like to share on the podcast, or would like to otherwise connect? I love to hear from you! Send me a note at contactus@healingbirth.net

Check out the website for lots of other birth related offerings, and personalized support: www.healingbirth.net

Intro / outro music: Dreams by Markvard

Transition music:    Chill Night by Amine Maxwell & MICHAL

Both of Ana’s first two births were traumatic in different ways. Her first ended in an emergency cesarean, after a long labor. Her second was a VBAC birth, but during the birth, her baby’s cord ripped, causing blood loss, and injury to both Ana and her baby.

Because of the intensity and trauma of her two previous births, when Ana became pregnant with her third, she chose to have an elective cesarean.

Of all her births, this one was the most peaceful, and in it, she found healing.

If you love the show, I would greatly appreciate a review on  Spotify or Apple Podcasts! 

Follow me on Instagram @healingbirth

Do you have a birth story you’d like to share on the podcast, or would like to otherwise connect? I love to hear from you! Send me a note at contactus@healingbirth.net

Check out the website for lots of other birth related offerings, and personalized support: www.healingbirth.net

Support the show on Patreon! patreon.com/healingbirth

Intro / outro music: Dreams by Markvard

Transition music:  Ocean Space by aryll

During her first pregnancy, Chaya was dropped from her midwife’s care for the sin of going past 40 weeks. She gave birth to that baby in the hospital, an experience that left her feeling a lot of anger.

When she quickly conceived again, a series of life circumstances (and some slight denial), led her to have a wild pregnancy, and to freebirth her baby.

Do you have a story you’d like to share on the podcast? I would love to hear from you! Email me via the contact page at www.healingbirth.net.

PLANNING FOR YOUR VBAC EVENT! On Sunday, April 30th, 2023 @5PM EST

Join Diana, Lynnea, and Dr. Sarah (@birthuprising) for a women-centered approach to planning for your VBAC!

Through the combined powers of modern research and the ancient wisdom of sisterly storytelling, we will cover:

• How to choose a provider & birth setting that aligns with your personal needs
• Utilizing the power of your mind-body connection
• The statistics & social evidence of VBAC
• Planning for your VBAC with Logic + Deep Intuitive Trust
• The hindsight wisdom of VBAC preparation, as told by women who have been there!

Your $22 investment includes:

• Admittance to the Live Event with Q&A
• The event recording sent directly to your inbox
• A copy of Dr. Sarah's Birth Plan
• Our OVERCOMING THE TOP 10 VBAC OBSTACLES instant download, printable PDF

LINK TO REGISTER HERE

www.healingbirth.net/events

I took a poll on instagram and you have spoken! Tune in to hear me speaking about what it's like to parent a child with special needs during this very interesting year. I speak about why it's taken me so long to talk about parenting an autistic child, major compromises I have had to make, masks, surprises, and most of all, solidarity with all of you who are going through the same thing. 

This kind of content is only something I create for Patreon. If you like it, please consider supporting us there! Either way, thanks for listening!

Ada’s first baby was born at home, attended by a midwife. The birth was uncomplicated, but she realized in retrospect that the way her midwife handled the birth of the placenta was problematic, and could have caused serious complications.

She knew when she conceived again, it would be just herself and her partner at the birth. And that’s exactly what happened - in an off grid home, with no electricity and no running water! A testament to what’s really the most important thing to have while giving birth: someone there you can really trust.

She says that she feels this birth was a powerful initiation for him, too.

You can follow Ada on Instagram @wildridgeherbfarm

Do you have a story you’d like to share on the podcast? I would love to hear from you! Email me via the contact page at www.healingbirth.net.

You can find our new e-book, “Did I Really Need a C-Section?” on our website at www.healingbirth.net/shop

Intro / outro music: Dreams by Markvard

Transition music:  My Way by Roa https://roa-music.com

Julia was planning for a peaceful home birth with her third baby, but plans changed when her labor began at 34 weeks gestation. Even though she gave birth in an environment she didn’t want, she did an amazing job advocating for herself and her baby during his subsequent NICU stay, and medical complications.

She truly believes that the circumstances around his birth were exactly as they should be.

I am always amazed at the miracles that happen when we honor our maternal intuition, and listen to guidance from our babies. This story is perfectly illustrative of that truth!

If you love the podcast, please consider supporting the show! www.patreon.com/healingbirth

I love to hear from you! Send me a note at www.healingbirth.net

Transition Music by: @jaysomeday

Jenna, a spiritual life coach for moms (and friend of mine!), shares her two birth stories. One, midwife assisted at a birth center, and the second, a very consciously chosen free birth.

Guiding her through her pregnancies and birth experiences was Jenna’s strong intuition and willingness to trust herself.

She also shares much about the always unfolding lessons of motherhood, and has a special message for anyone who is struggling to process a birth experience that left them in pain.

She’s funny, wise, and spiritual, I loved every second of this conversation!

If you would like to work with Jenna, you find her at www.jennawalenga.com and on Instagram @whole.heart.mama

JOIN OUR ONLINE MEMBERSHIP HERE! https://www.healingbirth.net/membership

If you love the show, please consider supporting us on Patreon! www.patreon/healingbirth

Clancy spent three and a half years calling in her second child.

Swimming in sacred fertile waters, speaking desires into the ethers, dreaming, ritual, ceremony, creating altars, writing letters, journalling, setting intentions, kinesiology, acupuncture, medical intuitive session, not trying, psychics, therapy, family constellations, womb work, chi ne tsang massage, herbs, and vaginal steaming. You name it, she did it. Often with pure hopeful intentions, sometimes tinged with desperation and sometimes with an agenda “that maybe this will be the thing”.

If you have been wanting to conceive a baby, and it’s taking longer that you feel it should, this episode  is for you.

This is Clancy’s second time on this podcast. If you would like to hear the first part of her story, here is a link to Season 1, episode 12 which first aired in March of 2020.

https://open.spotify.com/episode/5eovKK5sbMLyPFpNwahnTD?si=e75daf521fa24c71

You can follow Clancy on Instagram @womancraftway

Do you have a story you’d like to share on the podcast? I would love to hear from you! Email me via the contact page at www.healingbirth.net.

You can find our new e-book, “Did I Really Need a C-Section?” on our website at www.healingbirth.net/shop

Intro / outro music: Dreams by Markvard

Transition music: Flow by Nomyn

Meet the host of the Healing Birth Podcast, Diana Forsell Tayan.

In this episode, Diana shares her two birth stories. She shares about the healing journey from a traumatic cesarean with her first, to a beautiful, powerful home birth with her second.

Follow us @healingbirth

www.healingbirth.net

Follow Diana @aninstrumentofthypeace

www.dianaforsell.com

Support the podcast! https://www.patreon.com/healingbirth

Sandra  shares the sweet story of the birth of her second baby, who came so fast, the midwife didn’t make it. Deep down, a free birth was what she wanted anyway, and she got it! While the birth was triumphant, her postpartum period was very challenging.

You’ll hear us discuss the importance of being held spiritually and emotionally during that tender time, and why we culturally seem to lack awareness around that. 

Sandra wants other women to know that birth itself offers an incredible initiation into healing, if we are open to it. 

You can follow Sandra @sandrablex

If you love the show, I would greatly appreciate a review on  Spotify or Apple Podcasts! 

Follow us on Instagram @healingbirth

Do you have a birth story you’d like to share on the podcast, or would like to otherwise connect? I love to hear from you! Send me a note at contactus@healingbirth.net

Check out the website for lots of other birth related offerings and personalized support: www.healingbirth.net

Intro / outro music: Dreams by Markvard

Sondra, a former healthcare worker herself, shares her experience of navigating the healthcare system, and giving birth, during the covid pandemic.

Her story is such a beautiful example of what is possible when we are spiritually prepared for birth. Even when the outcome is not what we desire (or perhaps, even what we fear the most), we can emerge from our birth experience empowered and avoid trauma.

Sondra now works as a doula, and you can follow her on IG @maternalintuition, and find her at www.nursedoulabirthworker.com

Support the show! www.patreon.com/healingbirth

www.healingbirth.net

Dr. Sarah is a chiropractic physician, birth educator, and mother of two. She became entrenched in the birth world after a traumatic, unnecessary cesarean led her to have a subsequent, healing freebirth. In this episode, she shares the stories of both of those births.

Sarah is an advocate for bodily autonomy and human rights in childbirth, and believes that you deserve to be in charge and have a birth that transforms you. You will hear us talk quite a lot about that. 

Follow Sarah @birthuprising

Follow us @healingbirth

Support the podcast! https://www.patreon.com/healingbirth

Najma spent her early career in the pharmaceutical field, and trusted the medical system. During this time, she also had the sense many times that something wasn't right. 

When it came time to have her own children, she chose to keep them pharmaceutical drug-free, until that choice  was taken away from her without her consent or knowledge. As a result, her child suffered a vaccine injury. 

This is warning to anyone who has their child in a government school, it could happen to any of us. 

Located in Egypt, Najma also offers us a window into what is happening there in terms of mandates, medical freedom, and the global tyranny we are all experiencing to one degree or another. 

If you appreciate the show, please support us on patreon! patreon.com/healingbirth

Unhappy with her previous experience birthing within the medical system, Saphron decided to simply stay home and free birth her second baby.

Leading up to the birth, she had constant, vivid dreams with visual representations of transformation. Reflecting back on the two birth experiences, she’s says that physiological birth is what helps us cross the transformational threshold, ushering us into our full power as a mother.

Having experienced both ways of birthing myself - I fully agree.

We wrap up our conversation talking about the of sacred role of the birthing woman’s partner in birth.

If you love the show, please consider supporting us on Patron! www.patron.com/healingbirth.

I love to hear from you! If you would like to send me a note, please use the contact page at www.healingbirth.net. And if you have a story you’d like to share on the podcast, reach out to me there as well!

Milena, the daughter of a licensed German midwife, grew up around babies, pregnancy, discussions about birth, and even attended births with her mom.

When it came time for her to give birth the first time, she chose a midwife assisted home birth. But the second time she became pregnant, she was strongly drawn towards having a wild pregnancy and to freebirth.

In addition to hearing her two birth stories, we talk about why there’s really no such thing as a “normal” labor pattern, and what it was like  for her to choose to free birth as the daughter of a midwife.

Do you have a story you’d like to share on the podcast? I would love to hear from you! Email me via the contact page at www.healingbirth.net.

You can find our new e-book, “Did I Really Need a C-Section?” on our website at www.healingbirth.net/shop

Intro / outro music: Dreams by Markvard

Transition music:   Take Me Back by Strength to Last

After two hospital births—one of which was extremely traumatic—Laura decided to homebirth her third baby. 

During her 20-week anatomy scan, a velamentous cord insertion was discovered. Laura’s main concern with this complication was the risk of intrauterine growth restriction. She chose to closely monitor her baby’s size through ultrasounds, and by 35 weeks, it was clear she was carrying a large, healthy baby. Feeling confident, Laura moved forward with her plan to give birth at home. 

Her birth experience was fast, powerful, and profoundly healing. 

We close this episode with Laura reflecting on the unexpected grief she felt for her older children’s birth experiences. She shares how she now recognizes the ripple effects of those births in their lives. 

Listen to Laura’s first appearance on this podcast, where she shares her first two birth experiences, here.

If you love the show, I would greatly appreciate a review on  Spotify or Apple Podcasts! 

Follow me on Instagram @healingbirth

Do you have a birth story you’d like to share on the podcast, or would like to otherwise connect? I love to hear from you! Send me a note at contactus@healingbirth.net

Check out the website for lots of other birth related offerings, and personalized support: www.healingbirth.net

Intro / Outro music: Dreams by Markvard

Podcast cover photo by Karina Jensen @karinajensenphoto

The medical system couldn’t offer Tiffany the kind of birth she wanted for her twin boys, so she fired her doctor, and planned to birth them at home. 

Needless to say, this was a choice that took a great deal of courage, trust, and consciousness. All along the way, Tiffany was shown signs from the universe that she was on the right path, and was in alignment with what was right for her and her babies. 

Her twin boys, Astro and Cosmo, were born at home, in the presence of family, on Halloween!

If you love this podcast, I would greatly appreciate a review on  Spotify or Apple Podcasts! 

Follow us on Instagram @healingbirth

Do you have a birth story you’d like to share on the podcast, or would like to otherwise connect? I love to hear from you! Send me a note at contactus@healingbirth.net

Check out the website for lots of other birth related offerings and personalized support: www.healingbirth.net

Intro / outro music: Dreams by Markvard

Transition music:   Cool Cats by Smith the Mister

Nelia was assaulted during her first birth experience at her local hospital. Stories like hers are tough to hear, but unfortunately, common. 

Lauren was pressured into a “natural” induction by her midwives as she approached 40 weeks pregnant. After multiple rounds of herbal cocktails and finally, the dreaded castor oil, her body was forced into the labor process.

She believes that the labor was so intense, painful, and her baby mal-positioned because her body and baby weren’t actually ready to begin. And, after a very long time laboring at home, she transferred to the hospital, which had been her biggest fear.

While postpartum with her son, Lauren’s twin sister (who has also been a guest on this podcast!) freebirthed her second child at home. Witnessing her sister do this made Lauren realize that was also the path forward for her.

(If you’d like to hear Lauren’s twin sister’s episode, it is season two, episode 20: “The Incredible Power of a Mother’s Intuition | Spirit Baby Communication, Free birth, and Resolving a Retained Placenta at Home.” Here is a link.)

JOIN US on Sunday, July 16th for  Reclaiming The Village with Neena Brunngraeber, of Great North Postpartum.

This is an interactive webinar & workshop for dissecting depletion culture, excavating your core needs, and reclaiming the village you & your baby deserve.

You can register here:

https://www.healingbirth.net/reclaiming-the-village

Ariana shares the story of her daughter’s birth, a planned homebirth that ended in a cesarean.

Recorded at only four months postpartum, she shares some of the insights she’s already gained from this experience, and reminds us that’s its okay to feel it all -  happy that you have a healthy baby, and perhaps, sadness or other complicated feelings about how the birth itself happened.

This is exactly the kind of story that I needed to hear, years ago when I went through a very similar experience with my own first baby, and her story is still medicine for me, today.

You can follow Ariana @arianafotinakis on instagram, and via her website www.arianafotinakis.com

JOIN OUR ONLINE MEMBERSHIP HERE! https://www.healingbirth.net/membership

If you love the show, please consider supporting us on Patreon! www.patreon/healingbirth

Molly planned to give birth to her first baby at a birth center, but when she hit 41 weeks, she was bait and switched into a hospital induction. The Pitocin-induced birth was traumatic and excruciating, and ended with a week long NICU stay for her son.

In retrospect, Molly believes the induction, and the trauma to her and her son, was completely unnecessary. 

It wasn’t until she began therapy at one year postpartum to address the scars of this first birth experience that she began to heal, and consider that she could give birth again without interventions and trauma.

Discovering Hypnobabies, was also a complete game changer for her the second time around. The affirmations and hypnosis techniques helped her to address her fears and feel confident. She describes that birth experience, using Hynobabies, as pain free!

At the time of this recording, Molly is pregnant and planning a home birth with her third.

If you love the show, I would greatly appreciate a review on  Spotify or Apple Podcasts! 

Follow me on Instagram @healingbirth

Do you have a birth story you’d like to share on the podcast, or would like to otherwise connect? I love to hear from you! Send me a note at contactus@healingbirth.net

Check out the website for lots of other birth related offerings, and personalized support: www.healingbirth.net

Intro / outro music: Dreams by Markvard

Robyn describes her first birth as a ‘weird, numb experience.’ She was in the hospital, on an epidural, and slept through most of it.

However, a family car accident became a turning point for Robyn, prompting her to make holistic health changes for her family. As she began to explore ways to take charge of their healthcare more naturally, her perspective on birth shifted. By the time she was pregnant with her second child, she knew she would give birth at home, with a midwife. (In fact, the midwife she chose had been a former guest on this show!)

For her third birth, Robyn chose to give birth at home, unassisted.

In reflecting on her birth experiences, Robyn shared with me: ‘I want to address the idea that a midwife or doula will save you during labor or birth, or somehow prepare you better than you can prepare yourself for birth. Instead, birth should be viewed as an opportunity to fully surrender and trust yourself.’

If you love the show, I would greatly appreciate a review on  Spotify or Apple Podcasts! 

Follow me on Instagram @healingbirth

Do you have a birth story you’d like to share on the podcast, or would like to otherwise connect? I love to hear from you! Send me a note at contactus@healingbirth.net

Check out the website for lots of other birth related offerings, and personalized support: www.healingbirth.net

Intro / Outro music: Dreams by Markvard

Podcast cover photo by Karina Jensen @karinajensenphoto

Katie’s journey with birth has been one of both trauma and triumph. It begins with an excruciating, 3-day Pitocin induction, ending in a c-section, which left her devastated and later diagnosed with postpartum PTSD. She endured months of nightmares, flashbacks, and depression.

In contrast, Katie later experienced a second trimester loss, and says that her experience in the medical system managing the death of her baby was better than the previous live birth - because this time she had trauma-informed, deeply compassionate care providers.

Katie finally has her healing birth, a VBAC, at a trauma informed hospital. She describes this experience as incredibly beautiful, and something she sources strength from even to this day.

If you love the show, I would greatly appreciate a review on  Spotify or Apple Podcasts! 

Follow me on Instagram @healingbirth

Do you have a birth story you’d like to share on the podcast, or would like to otherwise connect? I love to hear from you! Send me a note at contactus@healingbirth.net

Check out the website for lots of other birth related offerings, and personalized support: www.healingbirth.net

Intro / Outro music: Dreams by Markvard

A big story in a lot of little ways, the end of Sonja’s pregnancy was a rollercoaster of minor “complications” which led to her being induced at 42 weeks. The classic cascade of interventions ensued, ending in a very unwanted c-section.

One of the hardest things for Sonja to cope with in processing this experience, is that there was no external villain in her story, but on a level, she let it happen.  We talk about how hard it is to come to terms with the role that we play in the traumas in our own lives. 

If you love this podcast, I would greatly appreciate a review on  Spotify or Apple Podcasts!

Follow us on Instagram @healingbirth

Do you have a birth story you’d like to share on the podcast, or would like to otherwise connect? I love to hear from you! Send me a note at contactus@healingbirth.net

Check out the website for lots of other birth related offerings and personalized support: www.healingbirth.net

Intro / outro music: Dreams by Markvard

Transition music by Jessica Villa