We talk a lot about choice in our society, particularly women’s rights to abortion. However, we don’t talk much about how women have been controlled when giving birth and how empowering it can be when a woman steers the ship on her own childbirth experience. We don’t talk about the critical connection between how women are treated during the birth of their child and the larger ramifications of that treatment. Join Eliza VanCort as she sits down with award-winning obstetric nurse Shannon Cheng to discuss the larger story behind birth stories. Cheng talks about empowered births, birth, trauma, informed consent, and the crisis in maternal mortality rates in the Black community. This is the episode for every person who might give birth, and it will be healing for those who had a difficult birth experience. Finally, it will give men a window into the challenges and joys women experience during one of the most powerful moments of our lives.