Free Birth Society

Today , Jessica brings us the beautiful story of a mother reckoning with her inner authority as she navigates her way through multiple births. From her first baby being born at a hospital, to a “party birth” with her second daughter, Jessica shares how she learned each time to surrender more to the wild unknowing-ness of birth. With her third and fourth daughters, Jessica birthed freely and unhind...

On today’s show, Sarah shares a common and familiar story of women who trade in their pregnancy and birth desires in order to make other people comfortable. With her first child, Sarah had a homebirth, but many of the decisions she made were for her partner- and even for her midwife. Sarah shares how it wasn’t until she freebirthed her second baby, that she realized what went wrong with her first...

FBAC: Free Birth After Cesarean. After being deemed high-risk in her first pregnancy- despite feeling great and not presenting with any issues- Najma was taken down the conveyor belt of industrial birth. After hours of tortuous induced labor, she ended up with a surgical birth. The reason? “Failure to descend”. After meeting a woman who shared her powerful, physiological birth story, Najma felt in...

Mary Lou lived an anarchist lifestyle before getting pregnant, and when it came time for her to birth, choosing to birth outside of the system was a no-brainer. Her first pregnancy was completely and intuitively wild, but the first and second birth of her babies were both sabotaged by another woman’s presence. Now, 6 kids, 2 businesses, and 12 years of breastfeeding later, Mary Lou shares the impo...

In honor of Black Maternal Health Week , we have doula- turned -Radical Birth Keeper, Olivyah Bowens , from Baltimore, Maryland on the show today. Olivyah is a mother of two, a perinatal community health worker, a holistic birth educator, and a graduate of Free Birth Society’s Radical Birth Keeper School. After learning about the atrocious maternal mortality rate of Black women in the United State...

Rebecca left her first hospital birth thinking that the doctors saved her life. She went on to become a doula in the system, but all that did was normalize her traumatic birth experience. After removing her IUD unassisted, Rebecca discovered a newfound trust for her body. When she found out she was pregnant again, she asked for two things from her partner: total trust, and total support to birth u...

On today’s episode, we have Maura Sternberg: a healer dedicated to pelvic integrity, and the radical self-responsibility of the women she serves. We dive deep into the lineages of mainstream self-care practices, and their roots in patriarchy. Maura shares with us the wisdom of the cervix being the base of the vagus nerve, and the importance of somatic healing as a way to dismantle embodied patriar...

Before OBGYNs, stirrups, and forceps, there were wise women, herbal remedies, and soft touches. The procedures which we now view as “normal” in the birth world are actually a fairly recent addition to the patriarchal and medical model of modern industrial birth, and they do not center or serve women. In this episode, we answer the question: “How did women possibly survive childbirth before men and...

Arielle de Martinez is Free Birth Society’s in-house healer and herbalist who has spent the duration of her motherhood journey navigating illness outside of the system. She mentors mothers about plant medicine and natural healing in her local community, guides women as they hone their intuition, develop their skills, and find their confidence as mothers and leaders through the potent initiation of...

It was following the death of her father, that Rebecca got total clarity that it was time to call in her children. Rebecca shares about the harassment she dealt with from the NHS midwives in England, and how medical supposed midwifery felt wrong the entire time. She was unnecessarily and unfortunately transferred right before her son emerged, and Rebecca shares how the sabotage of her birth also l...

After finding out she was pregnant just 3 months into her relationship, Omni shares her story of stepping into full trust of herself and her baby. She speaks about letting it be easy, awakening to her instincts and her intuition, and how the mother always knows just what to do. Her freebirth story is an example of just how simple, and just how beautiful birth can be.  Check out Free Birth Soc...

Courtney Piper is a mother, birth attendant, activist, spiritual warrior, and director of Women Picket DC. She brings to us today the truth of how patriarchy seeks to destroy and erode our intuition, and how our embodiment is the antidote. We cannot afford not to speak out, and together, we dream of a woman-centered world where all are liberated. This podcast is dedicated to Carla Hartley- a devot...

Kara Dansky is a feminist and attorney, here to talk with us today about Executive Order 13988. In this EO,  the definition of sex is rewritten to include gender identity throughout all federally funded agencies. Kara brings us a message of hope-filled action as she informs us of what our future will look like if we don’t protect sex-segregated spaces for women and girls. How many women are w...

Radical feminist & activist Lierre Keith shares with us how the Equality Act will amend the Civil Rights Act of 1964, by inserting gender identity wherever biological sex currently exists. If this bill is passed, gender identity will trump biological sex in all federally funded agencies. Boys and men will be legally acknowledged as girls and women if they self-identify as girls and women. At F...

Qiddist Ashé is a birth doula-turned-radical birth keeper who, after years of witnessing hospital birth, made the  switch to supporting women outside of the system. It was in following the lead of her womb intuition, that she was able to go from surviving to thriving both in birth work and the world. From a Black feminist lens, Qiddist centers the experiences of the women of her community, kn...

After a standard, routine experience in the industrial birth system, Mallory knew there had to be more to birth than the hospital had to offer. Just before the birth of her fourth baby, Mallory broke up with her midwife, and felt a weight off her shoulders as she began to truly enjoy woman-centered pregnancy. Her decision to take full responsibility for her birth experience led to a deeper connect...

Alia shares how she discovered personal and spiritual freedom within tragedy and how she emerged stronger after contending with death on a regular basis with her firstborn. Alia shares her inspiring story of being called to both freebirth and authentic midwifery.   Disclaimer: Free Birth Society, LLC of North Carolina shares personal and educational stories and experiences related to fre...

Layla Verbance is a free-birthing mama who is well versed in walking the road from confusion to clarity in pregnancy, birth, and mothering. She counsels & guides mothers on a daily basis through her personalized ‘Motherhood Coaching Series,’ into permanent peace of mind and remembrance of one’s own authority, power, and ability to create.   Her passion is to make readily available benefic...

Nebila admits that she began her mothering journey truly terrified of giving birth, assuming that she would just go in for the epidural straight away. But after her hospital birth, she wanted more. So Nebila stayed home to have a pain free homebirth with a midwife. Nebila tells the charming story of her journey to freebirth with her third, finding herself in a foreign country during a pa...

Ashley didn’t know anyone who had birthed at home, but after a less than ideal first birth, she knew she wanted to birth at home without medical assistance. This is a beautiful story of a mother staking her claim, doing the work, and learning how to fully trust birth, herself, and her child.  Disclaimer: Free Birth Society, LLC of North Carolina shares personal and educational stories and exp...

We are kicking off the year with a fun episode with four previous guests from the podcast. We have Jessyl, Amanda, Jordan AKA Phoenix, and Layla. All four of these bad ass women were guests on my first two seasons and are back to tell their new birth stories. We get into the challenges of getting birth certificates after freebirth, what it’s like integrating a new child, having older kids at birth...

After two births in the system, Jamie planned a freebirth of her third child. Due to an autoimmune condition, she chose to still seek industrial prenatal care and it is soon revealed that Jamie is pregnant with twins. She continued on with both obstetrical care and plans to stay home when her birthing time came. At 36 weeks, she was surprised by the start of labor and ecstatically births her girls...

Today we have my dear friend Amelia, who shares her story of her spiritual journey into motherhood. After becoming sober and meeting her husband, Amelia embarked on a conscious conception journey that brings in her first son. After being mistreated by her midwives she found the courage to critique her birth experience and began the deep discovery process of what it could mean to take 100% responsi...

Today we have a story of the deep spiritual experience of carrying life and birthing a stillborn baby. Leticia joins us today to share the beautiful and heartbreaking story of her pregnancy, birth, and life after loss. Join us today for an important shared story of stillbirth and hear the sacred grace and wisdom Leticia has to share.  Leticia shares how she opened up to spirit, found her call...

Today we have a sweet story of a young woman named Sophia, who discovered she was pregnant when her pregnancy was already half way through, at 23 weeks. Sophia tells us her insightful tale of adjusting to a surprise pregnancy and how as she leaned into the work of her pregnancy she discovered the beautiful story of taking responsibility for creating her dream birth. Sophia and her partner road tri...