How did your birth location make you feel during your birthing experience-- confined and imprisoned, or totally set free?   This week, we're speaking to Esmeralda, a mother to 3 children, doula and homebirth shop owner. We'll hear how Esmeralda went from a confined hospital experience to absolute freedom in her homebirths.   If you're looking to prepare for your homebirth and motherhood, and you find yourself aligning with the information that I share, I would love to have you inside of one...

The wait is almost over, are you ready for the Fall2023 season of Happy Homebirth? Join me from your favorite podcast platform on September4 for our first brand new episode and mark your calendars for September 18, when my husband and I will be sitting down to tell all about our most recent birth experience.  It is completely unlike our previous experiences, and you don't want to miss it. What do Obstetricians have to say about homebirth?  Well, the one we're speaking to today certainly has...

The wait is almost over, are you ready for the Fall2023 season of Happy Homebirth? Join me from your favorite podcast platform on September4 for our first brand new episode and mark your calendars for September 18, when my husband and I will be sitting down to tell all about our most recent birth experience.  It is completely unlike our previous experiences, and you don't want to miss it.   What the heck is a rite of passage… and why does this matter in regards to birth?    This week, we are...

Let’s say you’re a birth expert- you’ve been working with pregnant mothers for years, and you’re finally having the homebirth of your dreams.  Is firm education enough, or will there possibly be unexpected tests in the emotional and mental aspects of birth? This week we’re speaking with the marvelous Dr. Courtney Kahla.  Dr. Courtney is a nervous system centered chiropractor specializing in families. She is the owner of Our Well House: a multidisciplinary wellness center in Dallas, TX. Her...

Have you ever been disqualified from something?  Maybe you were in a swim meet and your feet touched the bottom of the pool.  Maybe your scholarship essay was too short and you were taken out of the running…. But have you ever been considered disqualified in your birthing location?   This week we’re speaking with an incredible woman, Ginny Yurtich, founder of 1000 hours outsideJih, and mother of 5 children with very different birth stories.  In her first birth, Ginny’s pre-eclampsia...

What surprised you most about your homebirth?  Was it… the way you vocalized during your surges?  Or maybe it was how incredibly accomplished you felt afterward?  Or… was it the number of babies that you gave birth to?   This week we’re speaking to Elizabeth Parsons, who really brought the surprise factor to her fourth birth and first homebirth.    Episode Roundup: Can you imagine that experience?  The shock of thinking you’re pushing out a placenta, but then being handed a second...

Today's guest: Dr Rachel Reed is a midwife, academic, author, and international speaker who focuses on childbirth physiology, midwifery practice, and women's rights (and rites). She has provided midwifery care for many women and has attended births in a wide range of settings and circumstances. Rachel is the author of the award-winning blog MidwifeThinking and the co-host of The Midwives' Cauldron podcast. She has published widely in journals and magazines, and her first book Why Induction...

Show Notes:   Christine and Andrew started their pregnancy journey traditionally with OB care.  However, as the pregnancy progressed, they began feeling more and more frustrated about the fact that appointments were fast and shallow.  There was not in-depth preparation for childbirth, and they felt there must be something missing. The couple decided to begin their own research, which led them to switch to midwifery care and homebirth. Their commitment to giving birth at home grew as they...

Did you know that you could be so intimately aware of what's going on in your labor that you could be the one to reach down and catch your own baby?   I sure didn't with my first daughter, and there's absolutely no way I would have been able to take the death grip off of my husband to do any such thing.   But Emily... Emily planned and prepared for a mindful homebirth, and her goal was to catch her own baby (her first birth!).  She was a founding member of Happy Homebirth Academy, and I'm so...

Pregnancy and postpartum.  Many of us strive to maintain a healthy diet during these pivotal times, but what does a healthy diet look like?  Should we stick to the guidelines?   Enter Lily Nichols, RDN, CDE.  Lily is an expert on all things nutrition pertaining to the pregnant mother.  She is the author of two books: Real Food for Gestational Diabetes, and Real Food for Pregnancy.   Lily sheds light on what it looks like to eat nutrient dense foods, how our food choices affect ourselves and...

Have you ever been on a drive and say 15 minutes in you think to yourself, “Woah, how did I get here?  You realize you’ve lost your way and you need to turn it around and go back to the start.    In this week’s episode, we’ll be taking a look at the past, the history of midwifery and women’s care as it pertains specifically to the United States, and delving into some of the reasons that compared to many other westernized countries, women and babies in the US have abysmal outcomes. We’ll be...

Show Notes: Leah is a registered nurse engaged to a UFC fighter, Brandon Davis. They have just grown their family with a new baby! She had a homebirth with her first baby. When asked how she decided to have a homebirth, she said she’s always been fascinated with it, but she doesn’t have any friends or family members who had had homebirths previously.  That being the case, it took a large amount of research on her part to come to the decision and know for certain she wanted to give birth at...

Pain-free childbirth is a myth.... right?   Laura is a mother of 3, and she and her husband were newly married when they became unexpectedly pregnant.  They had recently moved, and found themselves moving back into Laura's parents' house as they got their finances in order.    Because she had never spent time around babies, Laura took a nannying job for a newborn during her pregnancy.  When he napped, she would read books.  A family member gave her Ina May's Guide to Childbirth, and at 35...

First births: You don't know what's going on with your body, they're long, and mothers enter them feeling uncertain and needing reassurance.... right?   This week we're speaking to Sara, who lives in Travelers Rest, South Carolina with her husband Rob, their first child and son, Charlie, and their two big all american mutts, Captain and Bucky. Sara and her husband Rob strive to live a gospel-centered and holistic/ancestral lifestyle to create the best and safest environment for their children...

What does your posture communicate to yourself, your baby, and the world? Perhaps it seems unimportant or insignificant, but as you'll learn today-- there is SO much to the way in which we hold ourselves.   This week we're speaking with my incredible friend, coach and mentor Paris Latka. Paris is the founder of her business IAM Health, which stands for Intelligent Alignment Movement Health.  It is her greatest passion to support people feeling fantastic in their bodies, connected to their...

Motherhood-- It has a way of bringing up the things that we thought were stored deep, deep down... it pulls 'em right to the surface. How can we find freedom in motherhood, be the most loving version of ourselves and heal our families at the same time?   This week, we're speaking with my dear friend Naomi Reyes. Naomi is the creator of Finding Freedom Collective where she leads Mothers to transform their lives from exhausted to empowered. Naomi is a Transformation Coach and MINDSET expert....

What does it mean to be truly informed regarding your pregnancy and birth?   This week, we're speaking with Dr. Elliot Berlin, who is an award-winning prenatal chiropractor, childbirth educator, labor support bodyworker, and co-founder of Berlin Wellness Group in Los Angeles, California. Dr. Berlin graduated Summa Cum Laude from Life University of Chiropractic in Atlanta, Georgia, and the Atlanta School of Massage.     His separate schooling in massage therapy, bodywork, and chiropractic form...

Tongue and lip ties... are they a nothing-burger, all-important, or perhaps misunderstood?   This week we're speaking with Michale Chatam, the clinical mystic, Dr. Molly of Living Adjusted and Natalie Healy, IBCLC. This conversation was recorded... a YEAR ago... and was somehow lost... I have searched for it so many times and couldn't find it, and suddenly, I found it... and I can't help but thinking that this is being released right on time.   We'll be discussing the lens-changes that make...

When you have fast, uncomplicated births, does the location really even matter at that point?   This week, we're speaking with Lauralee Kirkland, a mother to 3 babies earthside and one in heaven. We'll hear how Lauralee's decision-making has changed with each new birth, and how she's been able to step into both labor and motherhood more confidently each time.   Before we jump in, I'm going to give a little spoiler alert. Lauralee shares about the benefit of truly preparing for the birth...

When it comes to postpartum periods, what can we do to encourage healthy cycles? And... what do our cycles tell us about our health status?   This week, we're speaking with Leisha Drews, a holistic hormone coach, and host of the podcast Happily Hormonal.   Leisha is going to help us understand how our hormones postpartum will affect the return of our cycle, and what we can do to support those hormones, and thus support our entire health and wellbeing. And once you're finished with this...

We speak a lot about physiological birth around here- but how do we prepare for and experience a physiological postpartum? What does that even entail?   This week, we're speaking with Kela Futrell, a postpartum wellness doula with three babies of her own. Kela has had one hospital birth and two homebirths, and she's had quite an array of postpartum experiences between her three children. Today we'll hear her stories and glean from her wisdom.   Before we jump in, I want to remind you that if...

What happens when birth goes well, but postpartum throws you for a loop?   This week, we're speaking with Caitlin Cooper, a first time mom to her 4 1/2 month old son named Luke. Caitlin and her husband and I have been married for 5 years and they live in Hagerstown, MD about an hour and a half away from DC and Baltimore.    Caitlin will be sharing the rawness of her pregnancy, labor, and deeply important to her, her postpartum experience.   We CAN prepare. We DESERVE to have access to this...

When we've experienced tragedy, how do we heal and maintain a positive outlook?   This week, we're speaking to Jacy, a teacher-turned-homeschooling mom of four living children and a daughter in Heaven.  After four very different hospital births (including a stillbirth), Jacy unexpectedly became a homebirth convert.  Her fifth baby was born healthy at home in August, which was an incredibly healing experience for her.   As you can tell, this birth story is going to cover some extremely...

When you get pregnant on your wedding night and thrown into prenatal decision-making a little sooner than expected, what kinds of decisions do you make?   And this week we're speaking with my friend and student, Kelly Benner.    We'll learn about how Kelly and her husband Ian were thrown straight out of wedding prep and straight into baby prep.   It was such a joy and an honor to work with Kelly inside of The HBC-- where we dig so much deeper into preparation than simply looking for coping...

What is matrescence and how do we prepare for it?   This week, we're speaking with Anisha Patel, published author, speaker, postpartum coach and founder of MasalaMommy.com. Anisha has a heart for supporting women in their transition into motherhood, and she's going to be sharing her understanding of Matrescence and Ayurveda with us today.   I've got a free gift for you-- The Achieve Your Empowered Homebirth Mini Course. This course helps break down where we're having breakdowns in terms of...