Doing It At Home - The Home Birth Podcast

Have you ever done some serious traveling with your kids? Are you planning on it but are terrified at how it might go? Well fear not! In today’s episode Matthew and I are giving you some tips on traveling with your little ones. We just returned from a 2 week trip to Europe where we went all over the place, did a bunch of stuff, and managed it all with a smile on our faces. Yes, you can have a grea...

How do we heal? One way is to share with others, create community and connection. In today’s episode, we chat with Ash Luna, photographer and founder of 4th Trimester Bodies Project. Ash shares part of their incredible story with us. From their interest and desire for home birth to their experience with loss, trauma and grief. Ash opens up their world and gives perspective of life with her family...

Did you listen to (or are you currently listening)yourself when it comes to your desires around your birth? In today’s episode, we have the pleasure of speaking with Christy Robinson, holistic doula for birth as well as transition (death). Christy is not just a powerhouse of a woman and a pillar within her communities when it comes to service, education and creative work, but she’s a close friend...

How do you trust in the process of your birth experience? In today’s birth story, we’re chatting with Charly and Dan Swanberg about the births of both of their daughters: Luna and Kaiya. Charly’s mother had 3 home births herself, so the experience was already familiar and normalized for Charly. Both chiropractic students, Charly and Dan have cultivated a strong understanding and trust in the human...

What and how should you eat during pregnancy? This is a big question that comes up often, and there are lots of thoughts around it. So where is a place where you can get all the info you need, in a clear, empowering and informative way? Enter Lily Nichols, our guest today. Lily is a real food dietitian, specialist in prenatal nutrition and gestational diabetes, and best-selling author of two books...

How does your first pregnancy and birth experience impact your second? In today’s interview, we’re chatting with Carolyn about her pregnancy and birth story of her son Solomon, while pregnant with her second child. We go over her decision to have a home birth as well as the intense first trimester sickness she experienced. Also the denial around labor starting, which we’ve heard quite a few times...

How do you process when things don’t go the way you planned in your birth? We deconstruct this question with mamas Amy and Mallory Caldwell in today’s episode by taking it back to the beginning of their pregnancy journey. Both Amy and Mallory knew that they’d like to carry children at some point in their marriage and growing their family. So for their first, they made the decision for Mallory to g...

How do you stay in a space of trusting your body and the process when getting pregnant presents an emotional journey of challenges? This was Caitlin’s reality when she and her wife, Shona decided to start a family. First there were the conversations of who would be the gestational parent - which were relatively easy given that Caitlin wanted to be pregnant and Shona wanted to be a parent but didn’...

What if you had to change your birth plans on your due date? This happened for Laura Smoker, as she prepared for and planned a home birth, however had to shift plans when she risked out due to concerns around her blood pressure and possible preeclampsia. Laura and her husband Joshua wanted a home birth following 3 miscarriages and some of the hospital experiences associated with them. Laura is bea...

Don’t all moms ultimately want what’s best for their children? This is a question that Katelyn Fusco addressed in her work as a certified health coach for pregnant mothers. This question and the answers to it evolved and applied to the world of pregnancy and birth as well when Katelyn shifted to become a student midwife. As a cesarean baby herself, Katelyn and her husband Thomas decided for a home...

What do you do when it’s difficult to come to terms with how your birth unfolded? In today’s episode, Katie Suder shares her journey with us. From her unexpected and joyful pregnancy to currently 9 months postpartum and still processing a lot of her birth experience. While waiting the few weeks before she could see an OBGYN for her first appointment, Katie had time to reflect and research on her o...

Have you experienced postpartum PTSD? Today we’re talking with Stephanie Aberlich, not only about her home birth of her son Arlo (which she and her husband Dustin planned for and kept a secret from friends and family), but also the traumatic ER visit and hospital stay for baby Arlo just 24 hours after he was born and was experiencing fast breathing. Doctors later diagnosed him with polycythemia an...

How does the experience of one birth influence the plans for births that follow? Today we chat with Emilee Petrill, and we pack a lot into a sub-hour conversation. Emilee has experienced a hospital birth with her first son Corbyn, a birthing center for her son Penn and finally a home birth for her son Moxy. She walks us through the processes and decisions around each of those experiences. Then we...

What if you felt like no one believed in your body’s ability to birth your baby? What if a care provider told you that just by being pregnant you were making an unsafe choice? Today we talk to Dedra Straka, mama of 4. Dedra had a home birth for her fourth, after 3 cesarean births. She had always dreamed of a home birth, but due to multiple circumstances and methods of care after her first cesarean...

In today’s episode we’re talking with Laura Fifield and Natalie Bancroft, two amazing women who are linked with a quite famous recent birth story. You see Natalie, a birth photographer and doula as well as a mama of 3, gave birth to her third baby earlier this year at home. And baby Simon weighed 11 lbs. 2 oz!!! And Laura, Natalie’s friend, birth photographer and mama of 2, was there to document t...

How long was your birth? We tend to made assumptions about the birth experience based on how long it was. Especially if it was very fast. Some might think, “Oh, wow that’s awesome! You’re so lucky!” But it’s not always that simple. In today’s episode, we talk to both mom and dad! Caitlin and Drew Hutcheon join us to talk about their pregnancy and birth of their son Harbor. Both Caitlin and Drew ar...

What do you think it would be like to grow from a family of 2 to a family of 5 in just under a year? Well, you’ll hear a little bit about that today in our interview with Lynnea Krall. Lynnea is an RN turned doula who believes in the power of supporting women and families in birth. She and her husband Daniel struggled themselves when it came time to plan their family. After 2.5 years of infertilit...

Have you heard the term geriatric pregnancy? (Matthew hadn’t before this interview). Any pregnancy after the age of 35 is actually technically considered a geriatric pregnancy. But in our conversation today with Stephanie Dunne, we’re shifting that narrative and dropping age as a defining factor in pregnancy and birth. Stephanie shares her birth story of her son Sebastian with us and makes a very...

Can you train for the experience of birth? We’ve often heard birth compared to a marathon. Most people have a lot of intense and focused training when it comes to their marathons. So how can a woman prepare for the marathon of birth? In today’s birth story we’re chatting with Brooke Cates, the founder and CEO of The Bloom Method, a pre and postnatal fitness method and training for the modern mama....

If Tammy could, she would shout from every rooftop about how awesome her home birth experience was and how every woman can give birth without fear. Since finding every rooftop would take some time, having her on our “podcast rooftop” will suffice for now. Unsure of whether or not she’d be able to get pregnant, Tammy had a surprise first pregnancy at 38. In a circumstance where many women might fin...

What inspires birth workers to do what they do? In today’s episode, we’re chatting with Sarah DiMarco, a birth and bereavement doula and a mama of a blended family of 7. She shares both her experience as a doula as well as her birth stories. Following her first birth, which was in a hospital, and then experiencing 2 miscarriages after that, Sarah was led to working in the birth world herself. Her...

Did anyone create their birth plans before becoming pregnant? In today’s episode, we chat with Bailey Calvin about her birth story with her daughter Riley Jo. Bailey planned to have a home birth before becoming pregnant. She had just always envisioned a home birth for when she had babies. It did take a little while for her husband Taylor to get on board once they were pregnant. But after watching...

Did any naysayers try to convince you that you couldn’t have the birth you wanted? It can be very challenging to process and deal with the feedback we get from people around us, especially care providers. In today’s episode we’re chatting with Ruth Sufrin about her HBAC journey. After an unplanned c-birth with her son Zev, she grieved the natural birth she had desired, felt less than and like no o...

Any mamas out there who have birthed in multiple countries? Today’s guest, Lindsay Wolff shares her two home birth experiences with us. Her first with her daughter Isla was in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada and her second daughter Marin was in Boston, Massachusetts, USA.  Both times Lindsay and her husband Jeremy had to navigate entirely new birthing communities, laws and care systems.  Some...

Birth workers: what inspired you to start? Today’s birth story is packed full of awesome conversation. We chatted with Cayla Adkins about her 3 different birth stories: hospital with an epidural to a precipitous hospital birth to a home birth. Cayla walks us through the differences in these experiences as well as her evolution into choosing a home birth for her third.  We talk about the support fr...