Down to Birth

Have you ever wondered why we call it "labor" or say he or she "delivered" my baby? Maybe you felt defeated when your care provider diagnosed you with "failure to progress" or suggested you had an "incompetent cervix". The words we use matter a lot. Sara is a mother, educator, birth worker and founder of Birth Words. With a master's degree in linguistic...

So many excellent questions came in for this week's Q&A episode!  We begin with a brief discussion on the possibility of a little silver lining for mothers & babies giving birth during Covid-19. Next, we tackle the question of changing placental function based on maternal age, followed by chapped, bleeding nipples two-weeks postpartum and how to fix them.  We discuss how all women can...

Hi everyone! We're back today with another HypnoBirthing mini. Regardless of whether you have taken - or plan to take - a HypnoBirthing class before giving birth, we're going to talk about one of the tools in the program that's application to all of us: Affirmations. How do they work? What do they have to do with your belief system? And how can you use them toward preparing your mos...

We love dogs and we love babies, so what is the best way to bring your baby home when you already have a dog in the house? All of us at the DTB show are dog owners and dog lovers, and we thought this was not only a fun, but also an important topic for new parents. Today, we have Heather Corum from Canine Company to give us the dog's perspective on what it's like when baby comes home and...

Chloë Lubell is a midwife living and working in New York City. She has worked in a number of different settings including public hospitals, private hospitals, birth centers, and homes. After the birth of her own daughter she transitioned out of the hospital to grow a new practice: Cosmos Midwifery. Chloë’s story shares why a hospital-based midwife made the change to home birth practice and details...

Hey, everyone! We've got another great birth story for you on this mini-episode Monday. Tiffany shares the birth stories of each of her sons. Tiffany's first birth was incredibly arduous; after hours of laboring and pushing, her baby started to emerge breech, resulting in an emergency Cesarean section. During her second pregnancy, Tiffany invested extra energy to fetal positioning exerci...

Sex after childbirth. The topic everyone’s thinking about, but hesitates to bring up. Whether it’s pleasurable or painful, we can put a lot of guilt and pressure on ourselves to do things a certain way, or in a certain time period. Dr. Lauren Crigler is sexual wellness therapist and specializes not only in pelvic floor physical therapy, but also in helping couples have more pleasure and connection...

In this bonus mini-sode, Trisha address the questions and concerns related recent data released by the CDC and published in the New York Times article by Apoora Mandavilli: Study Raises Concerns for Pregnant Women With the Coronavirus. Learn what the new CDC data on COVID-19 really means for pregnant women and whether you need to feel especially concerned just because you're pregnant. Tune in...

Jen Schwartz is the founder and CEO of Motherhood Understood , a community for women affected by pregnancy and postpartum mental health issues. Jen had the perfect fairy tale vision of what life with a baby would look like. But, almost immediately after giving birth, everything felt different and she knew something was not right.  She tells of how her mother described “the light going out of her e...

In this "Mini-sode Monday" episode,  Trisha shares the first and most important rule of breastfeeding--there are no rules!  In this short episode, she explains how breastfeeding is a right-brained activity and doesn't require logic, thinking, and planning to be successful. In fact, those left-brained functions can be just the thing that interferes with the natural flow and process o...

It's the last Wednesday of the month, which means it’s time to answer your pregnancy, breastfeeding, birth and postpartum questions. Today we're discussing birth support and boundaries, especially when it comes to having a family member, like your own mother, attend your birth. Next, we discuss membrane-stripping for full-term pregnant women. Is it safe? Is it effective? How well does it...

We love a good birth story, and especially one that can’t help but inspire you to give a little or a whole lot more trust to the birth process! Megan, a blogger, homesteader, and lover of all things DIY, founder of the Wilson Family Homestead, joins us today to share the unassisted home birth story of her second child. After three weeks of prodromal labor, Megan figured it was just another night o...

Hey, everyone! We've got a great birth story for you on this mini-episode Monday. Lydia shares the story of her second pregnancy and natural birth - it was a fast ride in labor to Yale New Haven Hospital and an even faster ride once they got there! Lydia gave birth to her daughter before they could even get her to the maternity ward! If you'd like to share your own pregnancy, postpartum...

Today, we are having a different kind of conversation--one about how to not get pregnant and yet another on how to rev up that lagging sex drive after having kids. We have Ann Konkoly, Certified Nurse Midwife, on the line to give us the run down on the best available contraceptive options from IUDs to implants to the withdrawal method, as well as sharing her tips on how to boost your libido. Be su...

Claude Racine-Valinsky is a professional dancer and social media influencer who developed determination and grit in an industry that tells pretty much anyone over thirty that they're too old for dance. Refusing to buy into those limitations, her career and social media following skyrocketed in her thirties. So when she and her husband were newly pregnant and expecting their first baby at age...

Hey, everyone! It's another Mini-Episode Monday and today I describe the burden we impose on pregnant and postpartum women when we lovingly predict she'll be a "wonderful mother". It may come as a surprise to learn that this term actually has a causal relationship to postpartum depression and anxiety. Where does this come from, what does it mean, and how can we reshape this tho...

We are back with another monthly Q&A episode. This week we have some big topics such as "mandatory" newborn interventions: can I say no to the antibiotic eye ointment and/or the Vitamin K shot? Next, we explain the birth of the placenta: when it happens and what to expect. Also, we address how to get started with breastfeeding immediately following birth--don't miss the one simp...

In today's episode we're sitting down with physical therapist Tara Gibson, founder of Aligned Life Physical Therapy and Pelvic Wellness, where she works with prenatal and postpartum women in repairing and maintaining a healthy core and pelvic floor. Just think Kegels, sex, abs, peeing when you sneeze, diastasis, and what can be done about scar tissue. Let's learn to how to strengthe...

Hi, Listeners! In this first Monday-Mini-Episode, I share the story of one of my HypnoBirthing clients, Christina, who was diagnosed with Group B Strep at 36 weeks. When her membranes released at 39 weeks, her midwives made the evidence-based recommendation that she go immediately to the hospital for induction and antibiotics, even though labor hadn't yet begun. When she and her husband got t...

Our guest today is blogger and mother-of-six, Lisa Bass, who you may recognize by her social media platform Farmhouse on Boone. Lisa is the epitome of the modern-day natural living mother. She's making sourdough starter one moment and sewing her children's clothes the next, while wearing her baby in a sling and managing her multi-platform business. Her husband is home with her full-time,...

Elena Tonetti-Vladimirova is one of the pioneers of the Conscious Birth Movement. From 1982 to 1989, she was one of the original organizers of the birth camps at the Black Sea in Russia, where many women gave birth in shallow lagoons in the presence of wild dolphins. If you've taken a HypnoBirthing class, you may have seen this in Elena's movie, Birth As We Know It. Elena is revered as a...

How can you stay your healthiest during pregnancy? While the immune system is slightly compromised and worries are higher with COVID-19, there are many healthy, easy ways to keep yourself strong and healthy. Tune in to hear our tips! In this Q&A we also answer questions around experiencing painful, sexual intercourse several months postpartum, the key reasons babies are unnecessarily separated...

Hey podcast community - We've been getting so many questions around COVID-19, we wanted to dive deeper on how doulas are supporting couples right now. In this bonus episode, we spoke with birth- and postpartum-doula Colleen Myatt to find out how doulas are supporting couples during social distancing and/or while certain hospitals currently disallow doulas from attending couples' births....

When it comes to having babies we all agree health matters most. While the benefits of delayed cord clamping are well known, less understood is cord blood banking--that is, saving those stem cells for potential use later on. Marion Welch, cord blood educator from Cryo-Cell International is here today to share some of the promising new developments in this field. Did you know cord blood is being us...

Today's episode depicts Lindsay’s story of healing from the emotional and physical trauma through her own grief, and how each of her births brought her one step closer to freedom from her past . * * * * * * * * * * If you enjoyed this episode of the Down To Birth Show, please share with your pregnant and postpartum friends! Between episodes, connect with us on Instagram @DownToBirthShow to se...