Healing Birth

After a hospital birth, then a midwife attended home birth, Brenna was ready the third time to follow the call she felt in her heart to choose freebirth. She describes it as the longest and hardest birth, but without a doubt the most peaceful, redemptive and transformative. Her daughter was born into the arms of her father, into a room full of sunshine, with the sounds of happy tears and rejoicing...

After a birth with many interventions, ending in a cesarean, Tamika's first baby spent a harrowing time in the NICU. When enough time had passed for Tamika to process this experience and heal, she was able to release the heavy weight of guilt she carried. With a deeper trust in her body, she chose to conceive again and gave birth to her second baby, at 43 weeks, in the comfort of her own home. Do...

Kaylee's first birth experience ended in a cesarean, after having been dropped by her midwives' care for going over 40 weeks. She partially credits the events of 2020 as being a huge awakening for her, so when she became pregnant again she knew she no longer wanted to engage with the medical system, and planned a free birth. When she went into labor with that baby, what transpired was a six day lo...

After two hospital births, Danielle decided she wanted her third to be born at home. However, she happened to live in one of the five (now four) states which do not allow licensed midwives to attend VBAC births at home. Listen to find out how she navigated this, and if she got her home birth! Danielle is also a fellow podcaster. You can find her show @birthjourneyspodcast Do you have a story you'd...

After the unplanned, but not traumatic, cesarean birth of her first child, Danielle felt a sense of grief she didn't understand. Despite having a successful VBAC in the hospital subsequently, that same feeling of grief and failure found her in her postpartum time. She eventually experienced post-partum depression severe enough to need medication. Something inside her knew there was a better way. T...

After a traumatic, unnecessary cesarean in an Australian hospital, Rebecca knew that she'd get pregnant again, and would not enter the medical system. She had a completely wild, peaceful pregnancy, and free birth with just her family present. (Be sure to check out our instagram page this week @healingbirth to see photos of this birth, and the "potato embryo"!) Do you have a story you'd like to sha...

Rebecca's first experience with birth was a miscarriage, which, in her words, left her with the beautiful message that "we are mother nature." When she conceived again, she was hit with the firewalk of hyperemesis, an initiation all of its own. She gave birth to that baby in an Australian hospital with midwives. Her story, sadly, is a perfect example of the ways that defensively practiced medicine...

Leah shares her four birth stories with us. Her journey includes suffering a serious birth injury, a devastating second trimester loss, a hospital birth after that loss, and finally, a blissful home birth. Of that homebirth Leah says, "I trusted my gut, my lived experiences, and the team that I had. I instantly felt this release of all of the trauma I had experienced. It was exactly the experience...

Audrey shares her three birth stories, all quite different, and all of which reflect her powerful nature. You can connect with Audrey on instagram @ajoyfulbirth and at www.ajoyfulbirth.org Do you have a story you'd like to share on the podcast? I would love to hear from you! Email me via the contact page at www.healingbirth.net. PLANNING FOR YOUR VBAC EVENT! On Sunday, April 30th, 2023 @5PM EST Jo...

During her first pregnancy, Chaya was dropped from her midwife's care for the sin of going past 40 weeks. She gave birth to that baby in the hospital, an experience that left her feeling a lot of anger. When she quickly conceived again, a series of life circumstances (and some slight denial), led her to have a wild pregnancy, and to freebirth her baby. Do you have a story you'd like to share on th...

Only in recent years has there finally been a recognition that birth trauma, affecting about one in three women in most Western countries (I would argue that number is much higher), has profoundly deleterious effects on a mother's mental health. But to my knowledge, there is no formal study or discussion about how traumatic births can affect our babies, who experience the birth right along with us...

Every now and then a story takes a twist I am not expecting during the interview - and it always makes for an even better story than the one I thought I would hear! This episode is a perfect example of that. Rebecca shares two birth stories with us. First, a traumatic, unnecessarian (major kudos to whoever coined that term), and a redemptive, led by faith freebirth. It is the extraordinary experie...

Nelia was assaulted during her first birth experience at her local hospital. Stories like hers are tough to hear, but unfortunately, common.  What is uncommon is that she understood immediately what happened to her was wrong, and  sought legal counsel to get justice and to heal. The second time she gave birth, she took back her power in a massive way.   We mention @birthmonopoly as a great resourc...

Carla's planned home birth with her first baby ended in a hospital transfer. Two years later, she conceived again. Armed now with more knowledge about the birth, she hoped and planned for a physiologic birth, without interventions, at home. This is part two of her birth stories. You can find Carla on instagram @carla.sage.birthwork Her website is www.traditionalhealingbirthwork.com Use the link be...

Carla's mother passed away on her first baby's due date. A week later, still grieving, she went into labor.  She had planned for and desired a home birth, but was transferred to the hospital. This is not, however, the traumatic story it could have been. While there it was evident that her mother's spirit was present, protecting Carla and her baby. And this birth experience, in the miraculous way t...

Lynsi Eastburn is the world's established expert in the field of hypnosis to promote fertility. She began professionally using hypnosis to facilitate pregnancy before anyone else had actively considered or pursued its benefits. Blending the scientific with the spiritual, she is also gifted with the intuitive capacity to sense spirit babies around their mothers. In this fascinating conversation, we...

After the devastating loss of her first pregnancy, Sharna became acutely aware of the lack of professional support for, and understanding of, the uniquely painful experience of pregnancy loss. Sharna is now a pregnancy loss life coach supporting women through miscarriage or pregnancy loss. She has also founded The Institute of Healing through Pregnancy loss, out of the need for there to be other p...

The power, mystery, love and rawness surrounding pregnancy and birth have intrigued Carla since childhood. In 1998 she became New Zealand's youngest graduate from the Direct Entry Midwifery program, and began work as a midwife.  Her experience as a midwife was eye-opening, to say the least. She became aware that the power and mystery of birth had, for many it seemed, been flipped on its head, with...

Sarah's journey includes multiple losses, two cesareans, two VBACs, and births both in and out of the hospital. Her story encompasses so much richness, that I had to break it up into two parts. In this part two, you'll hear about her third birth, a traumatic cesarean, and her fourth birth experience, a total reclamation of her power. Be sure to check our instagram page this week to see photos of t...

Sarah's birth journey includes multiple losses, two cesareans, two VBACs, and births both in and out of the hospital. Her story encompasses so much, that I had to break it up into two parts. In this part one, you'll hear about her first birth, which ended in a cesarean after the classic cascade of interventions in the hospital. Despite that experience, she still felt that people who gave birth at...

Corinne shares the story of giving birth in a birth center during the height of Covid. After the birth, her baby was transferred to the NICU where she spent her first   few days, seemingly unnecessarily. Thank you for supporting brands that help support the show! Treat yourself with Puffs for the Public. They make high quality, CBD & CBG products that I absolutely love. As a listener of this show,...

Nelson and Alison were so inspired by the home birth of their first baby, that it lit a fire in them to share what they learned through this experience with others. They believe that conception, pregnancy, birth, motherhood and fatherhood are all sacred experiences and should be honored as such.  Five minutes into speaking with them, I fell in love with their passion, their light, and infectious e...

After a birth experience that left her feeling trapped and traumatized, Sian developed severe postpartum anxiety and depression. Realizing she needed help, she turned to the National Health Service (UK) for mental health support, but the therapy she was received was nearly useless to her (and, delivered over the phone no less). Sian found her way out of the dark place from spiritual, rather than c...

After a long labor, and, feeling like she needed some relief, Emily transferred from her midwife-attended home birth to the hospital. The classic cascade of interventions ensued, beginning with an epidural, ending in a cesarean. At several points during her labor experience there, surrounded by total strangers and overwhelmed by the sensations in her body, the staff failed to support her in the wa...

Welcome to SEASON FOUR! Christina is a coach, doula, and childbirth educator, who helps new parents with the transition when a new child is born. Like so many of us who get into birth work, her passion for it comes from her own experiences giving birth, which she shares with us today. After two births in German hospitals, the second of which left her traumatized, she knew she wanted to birth her t...