Birthkeeper Banter

My dear friend and fellow birth worker Raina and I went deep diving on this episode. Through all the loss she has seen in her life, we explore some tear-jerking emotional experiences first and how those played a hand in her becoming a woman, a mother, and the birth worker that she is today. We talk on how birth attending is a fellowship, the differences in what we offer as traditional attendants a...

Our longest episode to date… for good reason! Here we are going to talk about why authentic birth workers that show up to walk and sit with women in the true sense of the original meaning are worth their weight in gold. We discuss recent births that have taken a toll on us, what makes it worth it, what behind the scenes hardships and tedious tasks that our clients don’t even know that we deal with...

Ashley is a wonderful student of ours, whom went on to birth her fifth baby FREELY! She talks about the variation in her baby’s head, handling dystocia in her freebirth, and how it differed from her previous hospital and midwifery led experiences. Such a good, insightful and informative share.

On this episode Desirae speaks with Clare, an Australia natural health practitioner, who struggled with infertility and went on to choose IVF. At the age of 43.5 she carried out an IVF pregnancy and chose to birth at home, a birth that ultimately ended up being unassisted! Listen to hear how that came to be. Clare shares about her journey and advocates for other women who desire to choose home as...

Desirae and Savannah Brigman talk about their personal experiences in attending while they were pregnant and fresh postpartum. What issues they ran into, what joys came along with it, as well as what they wouldn’t recommend or do again. If you are considering attending while pregnant or postpartum, give this podcast a listen. While it comes with its pros and cons, attending others while in the chi...

Desirae & Taylor hop on to share updates since the summer, as we have not had a podcast episode in a bit! We hope to share more soon, but as a summary, we are well and thriving. We hope you are all are doing amazing, too!

Desirae & Taylor share their thoughts on a variety of common judgements and understandings others hold, and those they may have held as well, and how their views on it have shifted from the beginning to now. Some have stayed the same despite many many births, and some have taken great shifts. It’s all about perspective and giving each other grace and trying to see from the other persons side, isn’...

Desirae and Taylor discuss how fear-based midwifery trainings are essentially just continuing trauma for women and bringing a watered down obstetrical model into women’s homes. If you feel lead to attend a specific training out of straight up fear, their marketing is working! Listen in for an alternative to the scared hype.

Desirae and Taylor have a conversation on attending the clients that no one else wants, aka the rejects of the regulated provider world. We talk about why they are rejected by licensed midwives and OBs, and why we simultaneously feel way comfortable, even motivated to take these women. Such a great listen for those that feel pulled to the “rejects” themselves.

Desirae and Taylor hop on this one to discuss the illusion of the necessity of many transfers, whether it was recommended by a provider because of their own limitations or if it was initiated out of a lack of knowledge on part of the expecting family planning a freebirth. We find the freebirth community is just not the same as it was when we were first exploring freebirth and it is hard to even be...

Audrey is such a joy to talk to!! Growing up with a mother who was a traditional midwife, homebirth was normalized to her. She talks about what that was like for her as a child having a mother that lived the on-call life. One day Audrey got to attend a birth with her mother and since that day she has had the “birth bug” as she endearingly calls it and supports women herself now as a doula in South...

Desirae and Taylor go over the perks of choosing HERBAL courses & programs, in general and in comparison to other similar programs! We love what we have birthed together and we are consistently proud of it. We get reminded all of the time how awesome it is and after a beautiful testimonial was provided to us in a call the other night, we decided we needed to share about all the wonderful things th...

Mandy Fae returns to our podcast to share her freebirth story!! Her second baby conceived with her husband post-vasectomy, and she made it the most intentional and sacred birth experience!

Desirae follows up from our previous podcast back in May 2022 on various topics pertaining to the Amish. She shares on how she first connected with the Amish, fun facts about their lifestyle, how their care often differs from our population, how the Mennonite differ from the Amish, various stories of her experiences with the plain community, and much more! If you are fascinated with the Amish and...

Christina has such a cool background! She learned about unassisted birth because her own mother had unassisted births, and her mom even wrote a book after her experiences! Due to freebirth being her normal, of course she went on to have an awesome uncomplicated first time freebirth. She is now planning another one with more advice based on what she previously felt under-prepared for the first time...

Mary comes on to share her four birth stories. Her first was a hospital birth with “all the works.” The next was a planned freebirth, that due to lack of support and fear, lead to a transfer and hospital staff bullying. She went on to have two different freebirth experiences, and stayed home, how healing!! Mary really elaborates on important details and we love her personality. Such a good listen!

Sammi started her motherhood journey with an emergency cesarean and NICU stay after a failed Biophysical Profile, which left her with a lot of trauma and a desire to heal. She did go on to have a powerful HBAC with a midwife! She talks about her postpartum transfer and different kinds of complications and healing she had to go through, but ultimately felt a lot of heart relief from that birth. She...

Kelly is seriously BADASS! She walks us through the diagnosis of a fatal condition with her first baby, how she was treated through the experience, finding out the doctors were actually wrong, and a physically & mentally traumatic birth. Her first steps into motherhood were certainly far less than acceptable and empowering. Kelly goes on to have a natural birth, three at-home losses, and then two...

Being held in Austin, Texas March 11th and 12th, you will find many birth lovers, educators and professionals at the Sacred Birth Symposium. This event is unique because it incorporates all birth options - including unassisted, which is so near and dear to all of our hearts. Nelson & Allison have a wonderful first time mother home birth story, and they want to share the joy of home birth with thei...

Desirae and Taylor have a raw conversation about the challenges of attending as a birth worker in the childbearing years. Whether it be an impact on you, others, or your loved ones, attending while you have little people at home DOES come with its own hardships that is exclusive to those of us in the Motherhood era of our lives. After visiting the hardships, however, we talk about the beautiful pa...

Nae has so many creative perspectives to offer! Firstly starting out with her wonderful same sex relationship, she walks us through their intentional pregnancies, conception journey and their initial plans with their births! Both ladies experienced a transfer in their first birth experience and discusses how that looked, what went differently for each of them and how they feel about it. Nae goes o...

In a powerful and insightful testimony, Brittany shared her stories, ranging from a medicated hospital birth with an OB all the way to a completely unassisted birth! We navigate conversations here on birth trauma, what it’s like to experience all levels of different providers, positive hospital birth, compromising with your spouse, the differences in postpartums after different birth experiences,...

Have you ever heard someone say, or maybe even said yourself, “I had to have X intervention done because…” This may have been due to misleading care solutions, and ignorance on your care providers part to give you true informed consent. This happens to so many women and it creates chaos and trauma in their lives. Let’s start being accountable as midwives especially, and stop misleading people, int...

Alina had 3 wonderful pregnancy and birth experiences, starting her motherhood journey out with a water birth with a licensed midwife for her first. All was well and fine, but ultimately there was so much more power to come for Alina. She found it, birth by birth, as she experienced an accidental unassisted, then went on to have an intentional, surprise baby girl at home after a wild pregnancy and...

On this episode, Desirae & Taylor discuss what it means to be dedicated and have initiative as a traditional birth attendant. These are just two of the most important qualities a good birth worker must hold to adequately serve the families they work with. For more discussion and training on how to be a badass traditional birth worker, check out our Traditional Midwifery Cohort at herbal.teachable....