Between Contractions

It’s spooky season, and nothing is scarier than bad advice that spreads like wildfire through Facebook groups, family group chats, and well-meaning Instagram comments. Amsy and Stephanie are back together to call out the most common pieces of advice in the pregnancy, birth, and postpartum world that need to be officially ghosted — and why. Bad advice on the chopping block: “Just wing it with birth...

Abby would like to dedicate this episode to her dad, Tim Murray, who suddenly passed away just 5 days after this episode was recorded. He was an incredible father and a wonderful part of her support system during her pregnancy and postpartum journey. He showed up just an hour after she gave birth to meet her son, his firstborn grandchild, and expressed similar excitement to listen to this episode....

This episode is a little different. Pregnancy and Infant Loss Remembrance Day — Amsy takes a quiet moment to honor the babies who were lost too soon, and the families who carry them.  1 in 4 people will experience pregnancy or infant loss in their lifetime. That includes early miscarriage, stillbirth, SIDS, ectopic pregnancy, and loss within the first year of life. It is extraordinarily common. An...

Amsy is joined by her good friend Nicoletta Whiteman or “Nico” — licensed professional counselor, complex trauma specialist, and maternal mental health advocate — for one of the most important conversations this show has had.  The timing is intentional. The Lindsay Clancy trial is in the news. People are talking about postpartum mental health in ways they rarely do — and Nico and Amsy want to keep...

Amsy and Stephanie have been saying it for 40 episodes: go see a lactation consultant. But what actually happens when you get there? In this episode they pull back the curtain — step by step, start to finish — so you know exactly what to expect and there's nothing left to be nervous about.  Who is a lactation consult actually for?  Everyone who is feeding a baby. Not just people trying to excl...

Nobody really wants to go back to work after having a baby. But for most families, it's not optional. In this episode, Amsy and Stephanie tackle one of the most stressful transitions in new parenthood — with practical advice on childcare, feeding on the job, bottle introduction, pump breaks, and a few things that didn't make it onto anyone else's list.  Start with childcare — before the baby comes...

In this episode, Amsy and Stephanie sit down with their friend and fellow doula Destiny Perez for a conversation that covers nearly a decade of perspective — from a surprise pregnancy she wasn't ready for, to a birth center birth during a hurricane, to the postpartum season that changed the entire trajectory of her life.  Destiny is a birth doula, childbirth educator, and Lakeland local who kn...

Every doula gets asked the same question by every client: what do I actually need in my hospital bag? The online lists exist, but they leave everyone wondering what's missing, what's overkill, and what they'll actually use. So Amsy sat down to go through it — category by category — so you can send this episode to your pregnant friend instead of typing it all out again.  Documents &...

What if one of the biggest threats to your birth experience isn't your due date, your hospital, or your provider — but your inability to say no?  Amsy and Stephanie are back this week with an episode that is going to hit close to home for a lot of people. People pleasing isn't just a personality quirk. In pregnancy, birth, and postpartum, it can cost you your experience, your confidence, y...

We've heard Carlee's story across two episodes. Now it's Shane's turn.  Shane Castro — husband, dad, and business development director — sits down with Amsy and Stephanie to share what the last two years have looked like from his side of the room. The losses, the C-section he never saw coming, the tongue tie journey, and what it actually means to show up for your partner when you d...

Carlee Castro is back for Part 2, and this one goes even deeper. What started as a birth story becomes something bigger: a conversation about postpartum anxiety, the pressure to track and control everything, the power of couples therapy, advocating for yourself in a waiting room with no underwear and a doctor who's already reaching for the prescription pad — and a baby who almost wasn't. ...

This episode, Amsy and Stephanie sit down with Carlee Castro for the first of a two-part conversation about her journey through pregnancy loss, a breech baby, a scheduled C-section that didn't go as planned, and the postpartum experience that taught her more about herself than she ever expected.  Carlee and her husband Shane had a five-year plan. House, stable cars, babies. They moved fast — a...

There's a new hospital opening locally, and everyone wants to know: does it have tubs? Does it have showers? Is it actually going to be different? Amsy and Stephanie took that energy and ran with it — building out their full dream hospital wishlist, room by room, from labor and delivery all the way to the doula lounge they desperately need someone to build.  Some of this is realistic. Some of ...

Pitocin might be the most fear-mongered medication on the internet right now. Every corner of Instagram and TikTok seems to have a take that boils down to: never, ever do it. And while some of that concern is valid, Amsy is here to push back on the idea that it's simply bad — because like most things in birth, the truth is a lot more nuanced than a hot take allows for.  This episode is a thoro...

We're doing something a little different for Episode 30. Amsy and Stephanie handed the microphone to their kids — ranging from age 5 to 12 — and let them ask every question they've ever had about babies, birth, and what their moms actually do for a living. The result is exactly as chaotic, adorable, and surprisingly insightful as you'd expect.  Questions from the kids, answered by the...

Florida parents, this one is for you — but honestly, wherever you live and whatever weather you're bracing for, this episode applies. Amsy and Stephanie are back together this week to talk about something nobody really thinks through until they're in the middle of it: what happens to your birth plan, your feeding journey, and your newborn when a storm rolls through?  The answer is: a lot c...

Amsy is joined by Dr. Kristen Kleponis, a pelvic floor physical therapist, co-owner of Wonderfully Made PT, and co-founder of Swann Collaborative. If you caught Dr. Arielle's episode a few weeks back, you already know this practice — and this conversation is the perfect companion to that one.  Here's the thing about pelvic floor PT: most people either don't know it exists, think it&#39...

In this episode, Amsy talks with Stephanie about a service that's often overlooked until it's too late: the prenatal lactation assessment. The core idea is simple but powerful — it's so much easier to build a plan for feeding success before a baby is in your arms than to troubleshoot it in the fog of those first days postpartum.  Why do this before birth?  A prenatal assessment gives y...

In this episode, Amsy and Stephanie introduce a concept they think every parent needs in their toolkit: psychological capital. This isn't about toxic positivity or pretending everything is fine — it's about building the real, practiced emotional resources to keep going, ask for help, adapt when plans change, and recover when things don't go the way you expected. The good news? These ar...

In Part 2 of this conversation, Stephanie, Amsy and Dr. Ariel pick back up where they left off, moving from the birth story into the emotional terrain of NICU life, discharge, and what came after. They talk about the guilt so many NICU parents feel for stepping outside the hospital — even briefly — and why that time in the sunlight actually matters for being able to walk back in and show up fully...

In this episode, Stephanie sits down with Dr. Ariel Evans — pelvic floor physical therapist, co- owner of Wonderfully Made PT, co-founder of Swann Collaborative, and one of the funniest humans you'll ever meet — to talk about something no amount of clinical training can fully prepare you for: becoming a NICU mom.  At 26 weeks pregnant, a car accident set off a chain of events that would land A...

Amsy and Stephanie are back with Part 2 of their pet peeves episode, and they've still got plenty to say. From old wives' tales to outdated hospital practices, here's what made the list this time around.  Pet peeves covered in Part 2:  Baby must fully empty one breast before switching to the other — This is one of those rules that gets repeated constantly but isn't a one-size-fits-...

Amsy and Stephanie had so many pet peeves to get through that this episode turned into a two-parter. In Part 1, they dig into some of the most common misconceptions, misleading narratives, and outdated practices in birth and postpartum care that they wish people would stop accepting at face value.  Pet peeves covered in Part 1:  "The cord was around the neck!" — Nuchal cord is extremely...

In this episode, Amsy and Stephanie tackle one of the most common — and least talked about — realities of new parenthood: bed sharing. Studies suggest around 65% of families in the U.S. bed share at some point, and yet most people won't admit it, often because they planned not to and ended up doing it out of desperation. The hosts want to change that conversation — not by encouraging everyone...

In this episode, Amsy and Stephanie walk through the Five S's — a classic framework for soothing a fussy baby — plus a handful of bonus techniques that go beyond just feeding. Whether you're a partner trying to help, an exhausted mom, or a family member wanting to support, this episode gives you a practical toolkit for calming a crying baby that doesn't start and end with the breast. ...