Down to Birth

Dr. Nathan Riley is a board certified obstetrician in California advocating for autonomous birth. Through his experiences as a hospice care provider he learned that choices around end of life care are no different from choices in birth: What matters is that mothers feel in charge of their bodies during their birth experiences.  He argues that birth is so much more than the standard metrics of vita...

Kendra grew up around physiologic birth and was a VBAC, breech baby herself. She was planning a birth center birth when she went into labor unexpectedly at 35 weeks. Her physiologic birth plans quickly went out the window as she was continuously monitored,  poorly treated, stalled around 7 cm, got an epidural and ended up with a C-section when her baby's heart rate dropped. Despite being born...

Today's episode is another special roundtable, in which we sat with some postpartum women in Cynthia’s kitchen to talk about their experiences with anxiety, depression, panic attacks, arguments with their spouses, lack of professional and personal support and  unmet expectations. Amy is a young mother of three; Devon is a forty-year old mother of one. Through tears and some laughter, you’ll d...

Hey everyone! Starting this month, we have an exciting announcement: Down to Birth Show is now producing longer Q&A episodes. So if you can't get enough Q&A, and you want to enjoy ad-free episodes all the time, be sure to subscribe on Apple Podcasts! This week we're answering questions on: Difficult conversations with your doctor and how to discuss things like aging placentas, ea...

You may remember today’s guest from episode #105: Tips for Supporting Women in Labor with Guest Host Doula Krisha . This time, Krisha of @serenitylifedoula returns to the show to discuss her effective techniques for "training" - in the athletic sense - her clients for a natural birth. As a former collegiate athlete, Krisha has developed a methodology for training your mind and body to ha...

If you are on Instagram and you have a vagina, you most likely know Sara Reardon, aka the vagina whisperer , pelvic floor extraordinaire! Your pelvic floor is a group of muscles that attach to your pelvis and support your bladder, rectum, and reproductive organs. A healthy pelvic floor is essential to normal functions such as: peeing, pooping, sex, and childbirth.  But after pregnancy and childbir...

Yvonne Strahovski is the Emmy-nominated, SAG Award-nominated and Golden-Globe-nominated actress whose voice you may recognize as the stoic Serena Joy Waterford from The Handmaid's Tale. She is the mother of a toddler and newborn, with starkly different birth stories to share. During Yvonne's first pregnancy, she felt an intuitive pull toward birthing at home, but suppressed her inner voi...

It is time for our monthly Q&A episode!  This month we kick it off with a follow-up conversation on the impact of early, frequent breastfeeding on significant jaundice. Next, we address the question of why babies who are born "big" get heel sticks for blood sugar monitoring; the impact of a c-section birth on your pelvic floor;  how to manage family boundaries around your birth and b...

When Jessica Pin was a teenager, she became convinced her labia minora were unusually large and unattractive. Within days of her 18th birthday, she underwent  labiaplasty with a prominent and trusted OB/GYN. Without her consent or knowledge, her surgeon severed the dorsal nerve of her clitoris, resulting in a loss of clitoral sensation. In the face of clear evidence, her doctor denied wrongdoing....

Postpartum psychosis occurs in 1 to 2 per thousand births and involves extreme conditions such as hallucinations, intrusive thoughts, paranoia, suspiciousness, hyperactivity and inability to sleep. Today, Christa Ardelean joins us to share her powerful story of suffering with postpartum psychosis. Her story begins with a difficult pregnancy and birth, which, unbeknownst to Christa, included numero...

Gestational Diabetes Mellitus (GDM) is the most common metabolic complication of pregnancy impacting 5-10% of pregnancies in the United States. It is controversial, complicated and loaded with misinformation. Do I really have it? Can I reverse it? Is there a way to prevent it? According to Lily Nichols, RDN CDE author of Real Food for Gestational Diabetes and Real Food for Pregnancy, you can certa...

It is time for our monthly Q&A episode!  Thank you to all who submitted excellent questions. Today we are talking about managing postpartum boundaries with in-laws, newborn nursing blisters--are they normal or not? What can I do to ensure my baby is not separated from us after giving birth in the hospital--do they really need to leave the room to be examined? What are the actual reasons I migh...

"You'll never get sued for doing a C-section. You'll only get sued for the C-section you didn’t do." This is the narrative in obstetrics and the lens through which hospital birth is viewed. Litigation is feared in obstetrics but for the wrong reasons. What if, instead of resorting to C-sections to prevent liability exposure, doctors were rewarded for avoiding unnecessary C-sect...

Today's discussion with sisters Jenny & Carrie, the pediatric occupational therapists behind Ontrack baby and the NOEL method, is a fascinating exploration of how the way we give birth impacts infant development. In particular, when the baby does not experience the "vaginal squeeze" the infant Moro or "startle" reflex may become over-reactive, leading to more fussy bab...

"I don't have time for this today. My son has a soccer game. I am going to say that her baby's heart rate is decelerating and we need to do a c-section."  This is just one of the many things Shelby, a nurse in Arizona, heard from doctors in labor & delivery when she worked on the maternity ward.  This episode brings to light the very real fact that providers don't alwa...

Dr. Rachel Reed, PhD, is a midwife and author of Reclaiming Childbirth as a Rite of Passage. Since earning her doctorate, she is inarguably now among the world’s leading experts on placentas. The publication of her book has come during an era in which women are often told placentas can “fail”, “calcify” and “stop working”, or even cause stillbirth. This rhetoric - all of which we discuss in the ep...

We are back with our February Q&A episode! Today we are answering your questions around: Whether or not it is ok to eat in labor, leaking (or not leaking breastmilk), how long it takes to feel good in your postpartum body and relationship again; whether or not you need an OB in order to get prenatal ultrasounds if you are having a home birth; understanding ovulation postpartum; why not to birt...

Today we are joined by Diana Marks , a social media influencer and coach, who is deeply passionate about bringing awareness to women on how and why to consider egg freezing for fertility preservation. If this is a topic you've been curious about, today's episode will answer your questions from, "When should someone consider egg freezing," to "How much does egg freezing cos...

How do you know if you are carrying generational birth trauma? And if you identify it, what can be done about it prior to giving birth? Today we meet with  Stefanie, whose mother had a traumatic obstetrical experience while birthing to her second daughter, resulting in permanent brain damage and disability to Stefanie's little sister. Stefanie was five at the time. For nine months, she had ex...

Lizzie Bolliger of Fiercelizzy doesn't consider herself necessarily a fierce  person but very much a fierce advocate for autonomy and informed decision making in childbirth.  Today, she joins us as a guest host to discuss what it actually means to be fierce in your birth planning and preparation. Guess what?  According to Lizzie, it's not about having the most detailed birth plan because...

Our January Q&A is here and has a special treat! In addition to your more in depth questions we've add a "quickies" series to the end of the episode.  Be sure to check it out and send in your feedback! Today's Q&A begins with induction and hypertension: when is the right time to be induced (see our episode on Pitocin )? Next we touch on setting boundaries with passive-a...

How is yoga like birth? They both ask us to get uncomfortable and sit with that discomfort. How long can we sit with it? Where does our mind go when we get uncomfortable? How quickly do we reach for distraction? Yoga prepares us for birth not only physically but also by integrating the mind/body connection and strengthening our intuition and our physical body. Today, Deb Flashenberg of the Prenata...

Can you be so firm and stable in  your boundaries around pregnancy and birth that it doesn't actually matter who attends your birth because you know exactly what and what not you will let into your birth space?  In this conversation with HeHe Stewart of Tranquility by Hehe, we dive into hard boundaries versus soft boundaries; how to set them; and why they matter so much in our birth planning...

Molly had a textbook first pregnancy and went into labor just at 37 weeks. After an uneventful labor, her baby was born with an APGAR score of one.  Despite a successful resuscitation, her baby was put into an intentional state of hypothermia for seventy-two hours to prevent or reverse any potential brain damage. During this time, Molly knew very little about why this was happening, what caused it...

New Year's marks exactly two years since we launched our first episode of Down To Birth. While we didn't know what to expect, we never dreamed so many people from every single (inhabited) continent would become avid followers of our show, and we are deeply grateful  you find our show worth your time, attention and dedication.  Today we're going to delight you with a brief conversati...