Down to Birth

Active management of the third stage of labor refers to interventions that are taken to speed up the delivery of the placenta and reduce the risk of postpartum hemorrhage. This typically involves the administration of an oxytocic drug like Pitocin or Syntocinon to increase the contraction of the uterus and the use of techniques like fundal pressure and controlled cord traction to guide the placent...

Anna is a Swedish-practicing midwife who was professionally trained in Australia. Anna discusses her view of birth as a rite of passage and a transformational experience, and she laments the current state of the maternity system, which often leads to birth trauma for women. She talks about the desire to control every aspect of pregnancy and birth, and the importance of relinquishing to the unknown...

Jessy is a  Certified Professional Midwife (CPM) in the state of Utah where breech home birth is against state law.  In her second pregnancy, she made three attempts using gentle version techniques to turn her baby, yet her baby turned back to breech every time. Weighing out the risks of breech vaginal home birth versus cesarean, she opted for home birth but kept her baby's  breech position t...

We are back with our first Q&A of 2023.  We begin today by discussing absurd comments shared with us around natural birth statistics before we jump into our regular Q&As, starting with:  How can I prevent another postpartum hemorrhage when I feel like I did everything right the first time but still bled too much? What role does a doula play in a home birth and how does she interact with th...

Sarah Hutchison & Lara Martens are the Dynamic Doulas of London, Ontario. Doula work is a delicate balance of keeping a "soft front and hard back", stepping-in and and not overstepping.  The fact is, doula burnout is high, the emotional work can be heavy, and the lifestyle is challenging. But as any doula knows, those who are called to the work can't imagine doing anything else...

If you are considering the birth control pill to fix your period, think again. Did you know the hormones in your pill don't replace the hormones your body naturally makes? Instead, they mask and suppress them.  The period you get at the end of your birth control pill pack is not a real period; it's simply a withdraw bleed from synthetic hormones. Your brain, bones, heart, mood, sex drive...

When Emma's first baby was one year old, she opened her phone to review her baby's photos and realized she had spent that year completely avoiding looking back at any images from the first three months of her baby's life. It was clear in that moment, she had experienced significant postpartum depression and delayed bonding with her baby, and the photos were a stark reminder of a tru...

Hello everyone! It is that time of the month, and we are back with our December Q&A. To kick it off, we have a follow-up conversation based on one listener's response to  episode #188 on Rhogam. Next, we jump into our questions discussing the actual risks of going past 24 hours or ruptured membranes without contractions and how you can mitigate those risks. We break down why meconium beco...

If we could share every single woman's birth story on this podcast we would; but instead, today we are giving you a glimpse into a handful of hospital stories and anecdotes that represent the rhetoric, mistreatment, and disrespect that mothers experience from hospital staff, midwives, OBs and pediatricians. In this episode, you will hear such things as a mother having her call light put on th...

Meghan Murray and her husband decided to have one more baby. She'd already experienced beautiful vaginal births with her first two boys and, like so many women, she mentally went through all the things she could do this time around to get things just right. In preparing for her dream birth, Meghan hired new midwives who practiced outside of a hospital setting and seemed perfectly aligned with...

No matter how beautiful, long, short or difficult your birth experience is, nothing compares to  the agony of your brand new baby being whisked out of your arms and admitted to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) or Special Care Nursery (SPC). Mothers in this position often experience less autonomy and authority over the decision-making and informed consent process than they did in their own b...

Hello everyone!  It is Wednesday, and we are back with our monthly Q&A!  In this month's extended Q&As (always ad-free and available to all by subscribing to Down To Birth + on Apple or joining our Patreon community) we discuss an interesting situation reported by one mom regarding  her "retained placenta" - or was it? How would you know if it's really a medical situati...

In today's episode we discuss the problem with Rh negative blood types and how it impacts future pregnancies. We've invited Courtney, mother of three, and her midwife, Jessica, to discuss her experience as an Rh negative mother who became isoimmunized against her baby, resulting in the need for multiple in-utero blood transfusions to save her baby's life.  Typically, women who carry...

Lindsey Meehleis is a midwife in Southern California who practices traditional midwifery and has supported women in home birth over the last nineteen years.  We invited her on the podcast today without a specific agenda (a rather unusual twist on our style) and let the conversation take on a life of its own.  We discussed what is happening with midwifery today as we pondered, "Where have all...

Emma of the naked doula is a mother, instagram phenomenon, artist, and passionate, bold birth educator residing across the pond from us, in England. She uses bright colors, raw imagery and impassioned language to teach her birth philosophy and method. Today, she joins us on the Down to Birth Show to share her secret sauce to your easiest and best birth. She explains five specific strategies that a...

When Reyna learned she was pregnant with twins she was told  she would need to be induced and get an epidural and that there was no point in staying pregnant beyond thirty-eight weeks. Refusing induction, she went into labor naturally at  39+2.  As labor progressed, her obstetrician told her she needed to give birth in the operating room. Without a second thought, Reyna turned and said, "No,...

Hello Friends! It is Wednesday, and Cynthia & Trisha are here with your October Q&A episode.  To kick it off, we share a story from a listener who wanted everyone to know how a routine gynecologic exam in her twenties turned into a precarious moment in her VBAC experience.  Next, we dive into our questions beginning with the potential association between  evening primrose oil in pregnancy,...

GBS affects approximately one-third of all pregnant women, and involves widespread use of intravenous antibiotics in labor even though the screening tests are known to be highly imperfect, and some women are at significantly greater risk of GBS colonization than others. Further, there are specific risk factors making some babies far more likely to contract GBS than others. This "universal&quo...

Dr. Rachel Reed, PhD, author, midwife, researcher and expert in physiologic birth joins us for the second time on the Down to Birth Show to discuss the differences between physiologic birth and induced labor. She shares with us the different ways in which Pitocin/Syntocin impacts the course of labor, including significant risk to mother and baby, versus our own natural oxytocin. You'll learn...

Melissa Pennel was thirty-four years old when she was pregnant for the first time. She already had experienced significant life challenges: She had lost her own mother a few years earlier, plus she was seven years sober. Her pregnancy presented several health scares along the way, such as a two-vessel cord and a perceived hole in the baby's heart, eliciting words like possible "fetal dem...

Hello all! We are back with our monthly Q&A. To kick it off, we have a short conversation on maternal instincts.  Next, we discuss how one woman should handle her mother-in-law's request to be called "Mama".  Then we review the very few reasons when an induction is absolutely needed, how long you can go with ruptured membranes before inducing labor, followed by a question on fam...

Infant sleep is one of the most important topics on the mind of every new parent. New parents are left wondering what normal infant sleep looks like, how much their baby needs at each age, and how create easier sleep routines resulting in longer stretches of sleep during day and night. Many of today's parents are afraid that any degree of crying will create negative associations or, worse, te...

Hermine Hayes-Klein is a fearless legal advocate for sexual and reproductive rights with a particular passion for defending women’s human rights in childbirth, which, she says, are routinely violated in maternity care systems. You may recall attorney Hermine Hayes-Klein from our previous episodes with her: Episode #138 | Legal Case Study #1: Traumatized at a Major Teaching Hospital While Interns W...

There are over 85,000 chemicals approved for use in personal care products and fewer than 200 of those have been tested for safety. Carly Hartwig is a home-birth mother of one,  Instagram influencer @cleanlivingwithcarly, and soon-to-be certified endocrine wellness and fertility counselor. Her passion for clean living grew out of her own hormonal havoc when she was told in her twenties she had the...

Hello! It is the last Wednesday of the month, and you know what that means.  We are here with our August Q&A episode. Today, Cynthia & Trisha are discussing weight loss after having a baby--can you lose too much too fast? What tests should be done if you've had multiple miscarriages?  Can you give us the scoop on Evening Primrose oil for getting labor started--is it helpful or hurtful...