Healing Birth

Holly is a certified Fertility Awareness Method Educator and Licensed Acupuncturist. Her passion for periods and fertility stem from a long history of personal cycle issues. At 22, she was told she would likely have a hard time getting pregnant due to a consistently erratic menstrual cycle, and amenorrhea due to severe anorexia. A testament to the body's innate ability to heal, it was during a pas...

Lindsay is a mother of three, photographer, birth coach, and podcast host at Birth Like a Mammal™, a community that teaches parents and doulas how to give birth like a mammal. After over a decade of supporting families as a doula and working in birth advocacy, Lindsay founded Birth Like a Mammal™ in 2023. She feels deeply that most issues within our society and culture can be solved by birthing in...

During her first pregnancy, Amanda completely deferred to her medical team. The birth ended in coached pushing, a totally unnecessary episiotomy, and Pitocin. She describes herself as completely disconnected from the whole experience. And she left it knowing she would never do it that way again. In her postpartum period, Amanda discovered freebirth story podcasts, and it completely changed how she...

Tere shares the story of having a completely unexpected, euphoric, orgasmic birth with her very first baby! Her second birth experience was not like the first, and presented with a unique challenge. But Tere says that   both of her birth experiences taught her a lot about courage, surrender, and trust. Follow Tere @cyclealchemist www.teremariemartini.com If you love the show, I would greatly appre...

Taylor always envisioned the day she would give birth, unlike other young girls who dream of their wedding day. But when she unexpectedly went into labor at just 24 weeks with her first baby, she had to set aside her long-held dreams for a more medicalized experience. This is her bittersweet, yet ultimately beautiful, story of letting go. Photo by @angenobles If you love the show, I would greatly...

Lauren, an expat living in Brazil, planned a home birth with midwives for her first baby's birth. Near the end of her birth process, the midwives decided her baby was likely too big be born at home, and transferred her to the local hospital, where the birth ended with an episiotomy. It was a violent intervention that left Lauren, and her husband, traumatized (also, spoiler alert: the baby was a pe...

Sandra   shares the sweet story of the birth of her second baby, who came so fast, the midwife didn't make it. Deep down, a free birth was what she wanted anyway, and she got it! While the birth was triumphant, her postpartum period was very challenging. You'll hear us discuss the importance of being held spiritually and emotionally during that tender time, and why we culturally seem to lack aware...

Couple Marion and Banks share the sweet, intimate conception and birth story of their daughter. Banks was Marion's sole support during the birth and shares what it was like to witness, hold space, and have a vital role during the experience. I got to ask Banks some of the questions I have always wanted to hear from a conscious man about birth!   Among other things, he speaks to: How witnessing his...

Kaytlynn shares the beautiful and heartbreaking story of the birth, and death, at just a week old, of her first baby.  Still in the throes of grief, she quickly conceived again, and found a way to trust the process of life and birth once more. Follow Katytlynn on Instagram @kaytlynn_marie If you love the show, I would greatly appreciate a review on   Spotify or Apple Podcasts !  Follow me on Insta...

Alexa's first birth was attended by a medically minded midwife at home, who rushed her through the third stage of labor. What happened during this part of the birth experience left her traumatized and affected the critical bonding period between Alexa and her baby. In the aftermath, she experienced post-partum anxiety (you will hear us discuss the connection between Pitocin and post-natal mood dis...

Olivia shares the story of the conception and family birth of her fourth child, whose labor was just seven minutes long! You can listen to Olivia's first appearance on this podcast, from season one,  here . Follow Olivia on Instagram @discovermother If you love the show, I would greatly appreciate a review on   Spotify or Apple Podcasts !  Follow me on Instagram @healingbirth Do you have a birth s...

Heather's first baby was born via a traumatic cesarean after a grueling, two-day induction. She was told by the surgeon that her anatomy was such that she could never birth vaginally. That, plus the trauma of the induction experience, led her to choose an elective cesarean for her second baby, which at least offered her a degree of control. Serendipitously, one day at work, Heather found birth pod...

Mindy was a social worker, working in the labor and delivery ward of a hospital, when she became pregnant with her first child. She planned a home birth with a midwife with that first baby, but at 40 weeks and 4 days her midwife abandoned her care, leaving her with no other choice than to deliver at the hospital where she worked. Because she knew the nurses and staff so well, she was able to navig...

Brandy was raised on a farm, and witnessed plenty of animal births. But despite seeing first hand that mammalian birth works best when left undisturbed, when she was pregnant herself, she handed over all decision making and authority to an obstetrician, who ultimately convinced her to have an induction, which ended in a c-section.  She returned to that system again with her second baby and did ach...

Kawena, an indigenous Brazilian, was traveling the world nomadically when she fell in love, and became pregnant. She knew that she would return home to her ancestral land to birth freely on her family's farm. This is an especially radical act of reclamation in Brazil, where birth has been completely taken over by the medical industrial complex. Not only does Brazil have one of the highest c-sectio...

During the delivery of her first child, Kayla's care team believed that she experienced a shoulder dystocia, which led to violent, and rushed efforts to get her baby out as fast they could. This left Kayla with a fourth degree tear, a NICU stay for her baby, and lots of trauma to process in her postpartum time. It wasn't until she was considering having a second baby and was interviewing home birt...

Julie shares the sweet and beautiful story of finding love, experiencing pregnancy with ease, and having her baby at home, at the age of 41. Follow Julie @eatingwithbabies If you love the show, I would greatly appreciate a review on   Spotify or Apple Podcasts !  Follow me on Instagram @healingbirth Do you have a birth story you'd like to share on the podcast, or would like to otherwise connect? I...

Tiffany, a former doula and fellow podcaster, shares the story of having her first baby at seventeen in a hospital, and her second birth experience, which ended in a home birth transfer. Because she remained pregnant to 42 weeks, her midwife intervened in several ways to help induce labor, and in this episode you will hear exactly how those seemingly "harmless" and common induction interventions d...

Julia grew up with a fear of giving birth, due to what she knew of birth within the medical paradigm. But by the time she was ready to become pregnant, she had the awakening, mostly from listening to podcasts (!), that there was a better way, more aligned with her values: Freebirth. She spent her pregnancy traveling around the country with her husband in their RV, giving her fears to nature, and f...

Liz shares the story of her wild pregnancy, birth, and the loss, of her daughter Arati. Her experience is a deeply spiritual one where her daughter guided her toward all of the choices she made during her pregnancy. While   the outcome is one none of us would wish for, Liz says that she would still choose a wild pregnancy and still choose freebirth.  In honor of Aarti's first birthday, Liz is offe...

Amalia planned a home birth with her first baby. When she went into labor, despite many of hours of intense contractions, her body never dilated. They decided to transfer to the hospital, where she received all the things the hospital has to offer, ending, as it so often does, in a cesarean birth. But this is not a story of defeat. Amalia mined this experience for gold, and in retrospect, she sees...

Hannah returns to the podcast to share the story of the freebirth of her third baby, which was a surprise breech birth! All of Hannah's birth experiences have included something that falls outside the scope of "normal." Her stories are such a good example of why some women chose to freebirth. Had she been in the medical system, her birth outcomes would have looked very different. You can listen to...

Both of Ana's first two births were traumatic in different ways. Her first ended in an emergency cesarean, after a long labor. Her second was a VBAC birth, but during the birth, her baby's cord ripped, causing blood loss, and injury to both Ana and her baby. Because of the intensity and trauma of her two previous births, when Ana became pregnant with her third, she chose to have an elective cesare...

After a traumatic and disempowering hospital birth in 2020, which Ali compares to a prior sexual assault, Something deep shifted within her. She went from being a self-diagnosed hypochondriac who sought medical treatment for non-existing conditions, to a home-birthing, self-healing soul who has come to know the power of the mind and self-programming. Ali reconditioned her views on birth, pregnancy...

Aimee, a labor and delivery nurse, shares the story of giving birth to her second child after one of the worst tragedies I can imagine: losing her husband in a   car accident. Aimee says she was given divine grace to have exactly the birth she needed with that baby. Aimee went on to remarry and give birth again, this third time, at home. In a surprise twist, that baby resented with a prolapsed cor...