Birth Matters

Today Simone Toomer joins us again to share her second baby’s birth story. Simone is a Black perinatal professional who serves birthing folks and families in a number of capacities, but at this point in time is mostly focusing on supporting nursing parents. In today’s story she shares how she again chose a Black support team and how her decision to give birth at home was a very logical choice foll...

What happens when you’ve planned a peaceful, undisturbed birthing center birth but are diagnosed at 37 weeks with a rare form of preeclampsia called HELLP Syndrome? Jennifer shares how this unexpected news threw her for a loop but how she calmly drove herself to the hospital to check in for an induction in which she had the pressure of needing to give birth within a few limited hours or else a ces...

 In this last episode in our fertility journey series, we share a fertility journey story (2, actually), that may be particularly useful for folks who identify as queer and who are on the TTC path. Trigger alert: pregnancy loss is mentioned in this episode. Ashley tells her and her wife’s story of overlapping pregnancies via IVF using 1 anonymous sperm donor for both of them so their children coul...

In today’s episode, fertility coach Lisa Hendrickson-Jack joins us to explain how the fertility awareness method can be used for the TTC fertility journey as well as for postpartum and lifelong bodily awareness. Lisa is a certified Fertility Awareness Educator and Holistic Reproductive Health Practitioner who teaches women to chart their menstrual cycles for natural birth control, conception, and...

We’re nearing the end of our fertility journey series before we return to birth stories; this week we have a bit of both.  In the last couple of weeks of Jenn’s pregnancy and with the deadline set to induce labor, Jenn’s desperate to avoid induction and pulls out all the stops trying everything from bouncing on a yoga ball to red raspberry leaf tea because she had hoped for an unmedicated birth. F...

Today you’ll hear the story of fertility warrior Jasmine Katatikarn, who struggled to have a child for six years. After multiple IUIs and her 2nd IVF, she was told that she had a less than 1% chance of having a baby and to stop trying. However, Jasmine didn’t give up. Using her background as an artist, she applied an artist’s mindset to overcome her roadblocks and design a life that gave control o...

***Trigger alert: pregnancy loss is mentioned/described in this episode.*** Early in the podcast’s first season, in episode 5, Julie shared her baby’s birth story. She returns today to share her fertility journey whereby it took several years of perseverance to successfully conceive and give birth to her healthy baby boy.  The path to conceiving her son via IVF included unsuccessful IUIs, a chemic...

Today we continue our fertility journey series and share the second part of fertility doula Alison Wehr’s 2 IVF and birth stories. Alison’s second path to conception was a smoother one; today she shares how quickly IVF worked this time around, how she wasn’t nearly as anxious this time, and will detail her second born’s birth story that started with her water breaking a few days before her estimat...

Today, we continue our fertility journey series. In this and next week's episode, birth and fertility doula Alison Wehr shares the story of her two babies’ IVF conception and birth stories. Just need to give another trigger alert that this first story includes some stories of loss in the process of trying to conceive. If you listened to Episode 47, you heard a birth story that happened on the...

Today, Marise Angibeau-Gray, a Black mother and full-spectrum doula, shares the story of 3 pregnancy losses -- one in each trimester -- that led up to her 4th baby’s birth story. (Please note that this episode may be triggering for anyone who has experienced pregnancy loss or trauma.) Marise shares aspects of the emotional journey as well as how she selected each of her care providers and eventual...

Today is part 2 of the birth story that we started last week with Adriane Stare, so if you didn’t listen last week, be sure to listen to that first. To review, this is Adriane’s 2nd IVF and birth story to share. The first story was shared back at the top of Season 2 in episode 40 and was a birth at home. This birth story didn’t go quite the same way due to the fact that her baby was in an awkward...

In today’s episode, we kick off our fertility journey series as postpartum doula and babywearing educator Adriane Stare, who shared her first baby’s conception and birth story in Episode 40, returns to share her 2nd baby’s Christmas Day birth story. This is a story of a frozen embryo IVF conception and then a planned home birth that needed to transfer to the hospital in the pushing stage that resu...

When Erin shows up for her weekly prenatal appointment around 37 weeks without her partner due to Covid restrictions, she is caught by surprise when she’s told an immediate induction is necessary because they don’t detect enough fetal movement. They’re not even packed at this point, so Mike goes home to grab a few things. Birth intentions out the window, Erin finds new perspective and resolve to g...

Today’s birth story was one that took place back in May in the first couple of months of the pandemic in a Manhattan hospital, and it was recorded mid-June. Alissa initially hired a doula to help her remain calm, but due to the pandemic the hospital wasn’t allowing more than one support person, so she shifted that support to postpartum virtual support. Despite not having doula support for the labo...

Almost 2 years after her daughter was born, and following a cross-country move closer to family in California, Kirtan shares the details of her firstborn’s birth. She has an unusually quick, 6-hour unmedicated labor and arrives at the hospital just in time to push, similarly to Simone a couple of episodes ago, in Episode 47. Kirtan will then share quite a bit about her struggles with breastfeeding...

Today’s episode is the first time for this podcast to have one mother on the show to share all three of her babies’ birth stories. As a mom of 3, you’ll see how efficiently Traci shares her stories as this is, ironically, one of our shortest episodes. (We suspect that’s because when you’re a mom of 3 you learn to be as time-efficient as possible!) Traci shares how all 3 of her babies’ births were...

Today, we’re excited to have a local colleague on the show to share her first baby’s birth story. Simone Toomer is a Brooklyn-based Black mother of two as well as a perinatal professional who wears many hats -- she’s a doula, childbirth educator, sleep educator, lactation counselor and soon-to-be lactation consultant. At this point, Simone is mostly focusing on nursing support, serving as a leader...

Today, Mila & Shawn share their baby’s pre-pandemic, premature birth story. In the weeks leading up to Mila’s labor, the couple had been chosen to be on the tv show HOUSE HUNTERS. However, Mila’s water breaks at 36 weeks before they even finish shooting the episode. While Mila, who had done a lot of work to reduce her anxiety and build trust in the birth process, had hoped for an unmedicated l...

For the first time on this podcast, an almost-complete birth team is joining us today for a birth circle of sorts. Kelsey shares her firstborn’s story, with her midwife, Jenna Sood & her doula, Christine Gibson, providing their perspectives and filling in gaps where Kelsey’s memory becomes foggy. Kelsey had spent a lot of time in pregnancy envisioning and planning for the kind of birth she des...

In today’s episode, Toni & Peter share their firstborn’s birth story only about 6 weeks after the big day. Originally they had hoped for a completely unmedicated birth. They share how, as they approached and passed the due date, they tried everything under the sun to go into labor spontaneously, to no effect. The unexpected development of needing induction just after 40 weeks due to developing...

Today you’ll hear a story shared by Amayra, a black woman living in NYC who initially planned to give birth at home due to her knowledge about the poor outcomes for black birthing folks in hospitals.  Things took an unexpected turn when Amayra learned her baby had a cleft diagnosis so that she needed to switch to a hospital birth attended by midwives. Amayra shares how she intentionally chose blac...

Today we're excited to have a wonderful NYC midwife, Elaine Keller-Duemig, on the show.  Elaine was the care provider in last episode's 2 birth stories and, in this episode, shares her own baby’s birth story. She chose to gave birth at the hospital where she works with a midwife at her practice, Central Park Midwifery.  This is a story of a shorter than average first-time labor in which...

In this episode, Yuliya shares both of her babies’ birth stories. She explains how she made the intentional choice of working with a practice of in-hospital midwives as well as hired a doula for both births, as this was the kind of birth team that she felt could help her have the kind of physiological births she hoped for. While she didn’t plan or hope to have 2 inductions, that’s how things playe...

Adriane shares her very unusual fertility journey story as well as her distinctive choice to, following IVF, give birth to her first baby at home. Adriane is not only a mom of two, but is also a babywearing expert, postpartum doula, breastfeeding counselor, and the former owner of a baby boutique in Greenpoint, Brooklyn now called The Wild. She’ll share her 2nd IVF and birth story later on the sea...

SEASON 1 FINALE!  Today we have another home birth story for you. Actually, this episode is two home birth stories. And it’s shared by the dear friends of the couple from the last story whom Sarah mentioned. The day before Nora’s & Michael’s firstborn’s 4th birthday, and about a week before their 2nd born turns 1, they share both of their stories of uncomplicated births at home. Listen to hear...