Doing It At Home - The Home Birth Podcast

Today’s birth story features Briahnna Roy and Jeremy Scott, a couple sharing their journey to home birth.  For their first baby, Briahnna and Roy chose to deliver in a birth center. The experience wasn’t everything they wanted, and when it came time to decide on the location for baby number two, they opted for home birth.  From Briahnna: “The second birth was incredible. It was the most unreal, be...

What can you do to ease pain (or sensation) during labor and birth? Today’s interview with Sara Lyon, birthing expert, doula, founder of Glow Birth & Body, author of “The Birth Deck” and “You’ve Got This: Your Guide to Getting Comfortable with Labor” and mother of 2 (both home births), breaks down techniques for creating comfort during the labor and birth experience.  We also talk about how partne...

Can you over prepare intellectually for birth? This is a topic that comes up in our interview with Shira Page, NP and CLC. According to Shira, when it came to her first birth: “I had been planning to deliver at home my entire life because my mom gave birth to my brother at home. We did Bradley, I read all the books, watched all the documentaries, and listened to DIAH non-stop. My labor at home was...

How do you know if your prenatal vitamin measures up? When should you start taking a prenatal vitamin? When should you stop? Can a man take a prenatal vitamin? These are all such great questions when it comes to optimizing your health and nutritional needs during preconception, pregnancy and postpartum.  In today’s sponsored episode, we’re speaking with Ryan Woodbury, co-founder of Needed, a nutri...

Why choose home birth? This is a question we almost always ask in our interviews. Everyone has their own unique story and reasoning.  In our conversation with Abby Marks, she shares the journey of what felt like “giving power away” and not questioning any of the process in preparation for her first birth. Then changing plans and looking at things differently when it came to her second birth. We al...

How can care providers and patients work together to create greater understanding and better outcomes for mothers and babies? This is a question we found ourselves asking throughout our conversation with Dr. Nathan Riley, OBGYN. We’ve been in contact with Dr. Nathan for a bit and it was an incredible honor to have him on the show. This is the first kind of conversation like this on the show. It’s...

When it comes to birth, what does it mean to “do your homework?” This is a big theme of our conversation with Emily Stanwyck, birth doula, Birthfit trainer and home birth mom of 2. According to Emily, “you can have 2 perfect home births when you do your homework!” We talk about what this means for her not only as a doula but as a mother. Plus details of both of her home births, addressing the fear...

How can you utilize the power and intention of prayer for your birth? Regardless of your faith, setting intentions for your birth experience can be a big part of preparation for the experience. Today’s guest, Josephine Breen, weaves her faith into her birth story of her daughter Myriam. Josephine was born at home, and always remembers her mother being positive and open around the topic of birth. T...

How can fathers be prepared and support mothers during the pregnancy and birth experiences? This is the crux of David Arrell’s work as he helps partners to be helpful, supportive, involved and all the other great adjectives that benefit both parents. So this episode is absolutely one to have your partner listen to - either on their own or listen together as a couple. We break down how fathers can...

In today’s episode we speak with Dr. Sarah Buckley on the science of natural and undisturbed birth. Dr. Buckley is the author of the best selling book Gentle Birth, Gentle Mothering, the author the report Hormonal Physiology of Childbearing, and all around natural childbirth expert. We are honored and grateful to have Dr. Sarah Buckley join us on the Doing It At Home Podcast for many reasons. To s...

How do we deal with “expectations vs. reality” when it comes to birth? This is a great theme and pattern that shows up in today’s interview, and one that many of us can relate to. You think something will go one way OR you don’t think something will pop up and then what happens….you can guess! Miranda Cottrell, chiropractor and home birth mama shares her story. She always knew she wanted a home bi...

Why do a small percentage of planned home births transfer to the hospital?  There are a number of reasons. Today’s conversation is with our friend Anne Margolis, a certified nurse midwife and a powerhouse in the birth world. She has personally helped usher in over 1000 babies into the world. We’ve had her on the show a few times now and it’s always magical to speak with her, because she ends up bl...

How do you build trust for the birth experience? This entire episode encapsulates and embodies this question. Heather and Chris join us to share their birth journey of their daughter Eliana. Heather was born at home, so having a home birth herself was something she always wanted. We walk through the process of Chris preparing and supporting the experience. Also how they assembled their team and ho...

Did you hold onto any shame from your birth or postpartum experience? In today’s episode, our guest Dorit Palvanov is setting an example on how to let that go. She shares details of her 3 birth stories: from hospital to home to back to hospital. Dorit walks us through the processes and the ups and downs throughout her journey to motherhood. From interventions and a dissociated feeling with her fir...

How do we make birth better? Today we’re chatting with one of the country’s top leaders addressing this question, and not just addressing it, but matching his conviction with his actions. They say don’t meet your heroes...but I don’t think they included “birth heroes” in there. Because you should definitely meet those people! Dr. Stu Fischbein joins us at Doing It At Home for a powerful conversati...

In this episode, Matthew and Sarah chat with sisters Jenny and Wendy, creators of Pure Motherhood, a company that provides education, products, support and empowerment for moms and moms-to-be. We talk about how to mentally pivot when things don’t go the way you might have planned for in your birth. Some of the biggest “what if’s” and concerns around potential plan changes for home birth center aro...

Can you still have a home birth with gestational diabetes? This question comes up often in the community. Today’s birth story is an example of an answer in the affirmative. Crystal Boymistruk joins us to share her birth story of her second child, daughter Mila. After a hospital birth with her son Niko, Crystal wanted something different for her next birth. Her husband Rob was on board, and they mo...

How do you deal with the “what if” questions that can come up around any type of birth? Today’s guest Lauren shares how she and her husband Jordan navigated the “what if’s.” For one thing, it wasn’t certain that Jordan would be in town for their birth. It was also unclear if Lauren’s sister-in-law/doula would be able to attend.  And to make matters more interesting, the country went into lockdown...

How can you advocate for yourself in the midst of chaos? How can you be an active participant in your birth when you feel like all of your control is being taken away? In today’s episode, we’re talking to Caitlin Thompson about her 2nd birth, a planned home birth with a last minute hospital transfer.  This is the third time we’ve had Caitlin on the podcast (links to our first two episodes are belo...

What narratives are you telling yourself and buying into when it comes to pregnancy, birth and postpartum? We go through some of these in our conversation with Brooke Cates, CEO/founder of The Bloom Method, a pre and postnatal fitness method. Particularly the disempowering ones, and how we shift them into empowering ones. Phrases like: Pregnancy is miserable Birth is scary Postpartum is depressing...

How do you move through and relate to a lot of the challenges that can come up when you make the switch to have a home birth? Today we have a unique episode. Our guest is Sarah Bivens! Usually acting as co-host, the roles got shifted up a bit when Matthew and Sarah decided to sit down and have Matthew interview Sarah on her pregnancy and birth experience. In this part 1, we walk through the decisi...

What do you do when your care providers drop you and tell you to change your birth plan, at 35 weeks? This is the exact circumstance that Adina Rivers found herself in during her second pregnancy. Originally planning for a home birth with a midwife, Adina was now facing not only her midwife releasing her from her care, but no other midwife in her area in Bali would take her. Virtually everyone was...

What happens when you were born at home, and then you grow up to realize that it’s actually not considered “normal” for most people? For Morgan Oberstein, home birth was a very normalized thing within her family. Not only was she born at home, but she and other home birth children amongst the extended family would often be at attendance for other home births within the group. In this interview, Mo...

Can birth be redemptive? We often hear on the show how different birth experiences bring the opportunity to heal and take back your power.  This is an element of our conversation with Sarah Leahy. Sarah shares the varying aspects of her two birth experiences. Her first, an unplanned cesarean with multiple interventions, left her feeling like her body was broken and it had failed. Following her bir...

How do you even describe the floodgate that opens the moment you meet your baby? This is a question that comes up in today’s conversation, when Rose Schieck shares details from both of her birth experiences. Plus the fact that she was born at home herself, and had witnessed her sister’s births in both center and home settings. Her first birth was in a hospital, however it felt like a home birth, w...