Birth Agni

Back from a Break The entire next year now will have stories of Divya brings to you the new addition of Hospital birth stories to draw the distinction between what to expect in a system vs  The Home Birth stories The Free Birth stories Educative episodes on  Episiotomies Ultrasounds and more! There are more updates in here , tune in now! Support the show Sign up for Childbirth Preparation Programs...

"Birth" encompasses a multitude of social, cultural, and political dimensions. Whether considering human rights, power dynamics in families, bodily autonomy, government schemes, hospital protocols, reproductive rights, or policies, all the macro and micro aspects of our existence that constitute 'Life' impact a woman's birth. Today, I'm joined by Sanjana Krishnan, a P...

Sign up for the Free Birth Awareness Session: https://www.birthagni.com/contactus - Select 'upcoming free birth awareness' in the form Direct Registration: https://forms.gle/kYeTcRPMzZvWKcYA9 Contrary to her previous experience (EP 102) of a quick birth at the birth center, Sanjana manifested a slower transition this time and knew instinctively that she wanted to give birth at home, with...

Every woman sheds a part of herself as she goes through the rites of passage  - Menarche, Birth, and Menopause - the life-altering experiences that hold huge significance. We all arrive in pregnancy with something we have learned from our life experiences, which helps us visualize our birth in a certain way. Some of us desire it to be a breeze, some of us desire it to be painless, some of us desir...

Unnecessary Cesarean sections are common in India for unjustified reasons and poorly read overdiagnosed factors which in many cases have not been proven to be emergencies. The lack of application of basic evidence based information once applied can in itself lift our rates of natural birth high up. The maternity system today needs to keep up with atleast the guidelines in place as a starter and th...

Google tells me that the idea on Gentle Parenting has been around since 1930. The internet is now leveraging on its popularity including big media houses like the Times of India who recently , well , precisely on 26th March '24 published a photostory with the title that goes ' Why Gentle Parenting is not for Indian Kids'! This one poorly argued photostory had many FB groups and mom...

Pre eclampsia in late pregnancy is often arrived at with one episode of High BP, two episodes of High Blood Pressure or a case in previous pregnancy without any symptoms in the current one. We see how the current care dynamics in the medical world is quick to categorise a symptom which may need further diagnosis to confirm if someone really has a condition or not, Pre -eclampsia being one of them....

Dr. Brewer's pregnancy diet, also known as the Brewer diet, was developed by Dr. Tom Brewer in the 1960s. It emphasizes the importance of nutrition during pregnancy to prevent complications such as pre-eclampsia and to support healthy fetal development. The diet focuses on consuming a variety of whole foods to ensure adequate intake of protein, vitamins, and minerals.  The key principles of D...

This is Anjali's story. She attempted to birth all her three children at home and lives right behind my house.  First two were in the village and the youngest is in the city. The second birth was a transfer after laboring at home for quite a while, the baby was 1kg. If you are interested in enrolling for the two 'Childbirth Classes' with me , register your interest from https://birt...

Hear me out on a morning with sore throat . Had a good cup of tea today while I bring things again.  If you have any questions,  a hi goes a long way . Reach out through https://www.birthagni.com   Support the show Sign up for Childbirth Preparation Programs! visit https://birthagni.com/services#childbirth-preparation-programs https://birthagni.com/copy-of-services#breastfeeding-preparation-progra...

The various aspects of birth being a spiritual experience than mechanical or purely biological comes across through Mubina's Birth and Post Birth events. Mubina says towards the end, ' A beautiful birth and a beautiful death'. When we surrender to that one power there is no looking back, the answers always come around. It is when we fight the will of that one , we are left miserable...

They say whenever you start looking for the path, the path arrives, eventually. Mubina's homebirth story after four cesareans is a testament to the immense power of the body.  Mubina was unaware but looking for answers right after the first cesarean but like they say babies come the way they are supposed to we have no control on life. However, we all find the power eventually , Mubina found i...

Vinita Mansata's journey towards advocating for natural childbirth at home is a testament to the power of personal experience and determination. Disappointed by a typical caesarean delivery years ago, this with a vertical scar, Vinita ji found herself yearning for a different birthing experience, one that honored the natural process of childbirth and empowered women to make informed choices a...

The keyword is who is going to 'Sit with you' through it all with your choices and decisions and be nurturing in your journey! That's where the foundation is laid! As a trainee midwife and a practising doula as well as a lactation counsellor, I do a lot of home visits, have pregnancy support group meetings where women physically meet and discuss pregnancy, postpartum , breastfeeding...

Why a home birth , you may ask?  Why a home birth despite risks? What if you have worked in the medical system and chose to home birth realising that is the best option for you? That's Baneen Karachiwala , a Public Health Researcher,  Baneen has been associated with various organisations at the national and international level for the last 19 years, providing support in research, documentatio...

We all like to see things as linear so as to find a conclusive way to work at them.  In the product and consumption world , we are taught how to plan to achieve a desired goal, to achieve something exactly how we want it!  This is the opposite of how 'Birth' works. It is uncertain. It is unknown. It is being in the moment and the moment as your guide. All the knowledge helps and should b...

As a first time mother, Aparna knew that she wanted a Normal Delivery but did not know what decisions could maximize her chances. Register for Prenatal Village here https://forms.gle/a5cAyPgoLaXwz2K88 Instinctively, she knew she did not want to choose a fancy hospital , she was wary decisions would be made to increase the bills and it may not necessarily be based on her  health. She even enquired...

This episode is a part of our conversation on Obstetric Emergencies which are critical situations during pregnancy, labor, or the postpartum period that require immediate medical attention to safeguard the health and well-being of the mother and/or baby. But are these really emergencies or is there more to it? In Part I of this episode we discussed, Large for Gestational Age babies and its link wi...

Obstetric emergencies refer to critical situations during pregnancy, labor, or the postpartum period that require immediate medical attention to safeguard the health and well-being of the mother and/or baby. But are these really emergencies? Many women today are being told they either have a Large for Gestational Age Baby (LGA) or Small for Gestational Age Baby (SGA). IUGR is another term thrown a...

Does your baby have fussy evenings? Are you concerned about you baby or toddler's sleep ? If you are looking at the internet for answers, know that the Internet is flooded with inappropriate information about training babies to sleep. The various methods that include crying of the baby are suggestive of treating a baby , a whole human , like a machine, incapable of thinking for itself or feel...

A woman never forgets her birth  experience. This has more to do with how she was made to feel than the sequence of events or the mode of birth. Sometimes when it is the  events leading to a traumatic Birth experience, it deeply affects her . Trauma gets stored in the body and has physical expression as well . In this episode, we see that trauma is not necessarily a result of one event. It is an a...

In the first part of Sara and Khan's Birth story , we went over their decision to free birth , the factors influencing it and the entire experience of labor and birth. If you have not heard the first part , hop on to EP 84 and come back to this  In this episode: We go over : Placenta tinctures Breastfeeding Postpartum Care  Parenthood and more.. Tune in to know more... Support the show Sign u...

Sara conceived Zion at the age of 35 , a perfectly healthy young woman , active and a firm believer in the universe's power on us humans and everything life.  It was the time of the Covid fading in 2020, she had to renew her visa to continue her stay in India. She chose to go to the hospital to help with paper work but she was seen as a high risk case almost decided for a surgery after a shor...

Induction is offered to every mother routinely in the urban hospitals in India. The various issues are big baby, small baby, past due date , one episode of high blood pressure, all of which are not medical emergencies but perceived problems that are being brought to fit the solution to it. It is not a problem based solution scenario but more a solution based problem making.  Induction as a procedu...

Nisha, had her first born at Birth Village, Kerala, India. She is from Bangalore and moved  cities to birth. She had a vaginal / normal birth there however, something within her felt rushed, unheard and ordered around . It did not sit right with her. She longed to know more and by following the Free Birth Society Podcast and other resources she realised not everything she experienced was in alignm...