Midwife Life: Midwifing you through health, motherhood, and the sacred mess of life’s transformations with Diane Ortega

There is a version of you that you didn't choose. She was built quietly, over years, by everything you watched and absorbed and inherited. And at some point, she starts running your marriage, your relationships, and the way you move through life. In this episode, I sit down with Molly Rubesh, relationship and divorce coach and creator of The Modern Marriage Blueprint. Molly helps women heal what's...

There is a life a lot of women are living that looks completely fine from the outside. Maybe even wonderful. And it is quietly draining the life out of them. This week, Diane gets honest about the thing nobody says out loud: you do not need permission to change your mind, change your life, or admit that the version of yourself you have been performing no longer fits. Not from your partner. Not fro...

Some people arrive at their power quietly. Others pass through fire, more than once, before they understand what they are actually made of. In this episode of The Midwife Life, Diane sits down with Holly Million, shaman, artist, herbalist, and founder of Soul Arts Workshop, to talk about what it means to move through spiritual emergence and come out different each time. Holly came from a dark plac...

What happens when the woman who has held space for a thousand others finally lets someone hold space for her? Jennifer Hoeprich spent over a decade as a licensed homebirth midwife, witnessing the raw, sacred threshold of new life. And then she reached her own threshold. Leaving clinical practice wasn't just a career change. It was an unraveling, a metamorphosis, and ultimately a rebirth into somet...

What if creativity wasn't something you had to find, but something you never lost? In this episode, I'm talking with Lydia Phelps-Alexander, an art education consultant who has spent 18 years and thousands of hours reminding people - especially women - that their creative potential is not gone. It was never gone. It just got buried under everything life piled on top of it. Lydia grew up as a minor...

Who am I when the thing that has defined me for years no longer fits? This week I removed “birth center owner” from my Instagram bio. What looked like a simple profile update turned into something much bigger: a conversation about identity, grief, reinvention, and who we become when the roles that once defined us no longer fit. In this episode, I’m sharing what it feels like to let go of an identi...

What happens when ambitious women stop trying to perform perfection - and start craving deeper, more honest connection instead? In this reflective solo episode, Diane shares what surfaced during a recent “Build Your Dream Network” challenge and the unexpected realizations it brought up about community, self-reliance, visibility, generosity, and receiving support. This conversation explores: Why hi...

What happens when the thing you’ve been surviving finally ends… but your nervous system doesn’t get the message? In this episode, Diane shares honestly about the weeks following the closure of Willow: the lingering exhaustion, waking up in the middle of the night, getting sick again, and the unexpected realization that rest doesn’t always feel peaceful when your body has been living in survival mo...

In this bonus replay, I sit down with Brielle Jenson, a psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner, a midwife with over 20 years of experience, an IBCLC, and the author of the stunning new book Confessions of a Midwife. Brielle has worked in hospitals, home births, and birth centers, bringing a rare, unfiltered perspective on the challenges, triumphs, and deeply human moments of birthwork. Her w...

Something in your life doesn’t feel the same anymore. Not in a dramatic way…but enough that you can feel it. You’re still showing up. Still doing what needs to be done. Still holding everything together. But something feels… off. In this episode, I’m exploring a shift I’ve been moving through personally, and what I’m seeing in so many women right now: A lot of what we call burnout…is actually some...

Something in your life doesn’t feel the same anymore. Not in a dramatic way…but enough that you can feel it. In this episode, I’m sharing a more personal reflection on a season I’m currently walking through , where something I built is coming to an end… and something new is beginning to take shape. We talk a lot about the “phoenix rising” moment- the strength, the clarity, the transformation. But...

This week, Diane almost didn't hit record. But she's glad she did. In one of her most personal and vulnerable episodes yet, Diane shares that after years of serving families, her freestanding birth centers in Arizona will be closing their doors on April 30th. And while the decision to close was hard, she's discovering that the transition itself is harder. Join Us: Rebirth Conversations (Live Event...

You can be surrounded by people… and still feel like you’re carrying everything on your own. In this episode of The Midwife Life, Diane explores the hidden loneliness many women experience during seasons of transition, especially high-functioning women who are used to being the strong one. If you’ve been trying to find clarity, make decisions, or navigate change on your own, this conversation offe...

Spring is here. But not everything blooms right away. There’s a part of this season that’s quieter than we expect, the in-between phase where something is shifting… but nothing fully makes sense yet. You can feel that something is different. But your life doesn’t look like clarity. It looks like uncertainty, space, and unfinished edges. And it’s easy to make that mean you’re behind. In this episod...

There’s a moment… quiet, often easy to overlook… when you realize: you can’t keep doing it this way. Not because everything is falling apart. Not because you have a clear next step. But because something deeper… isn’t working anymore. In this episode, I’m talking about that moment, the one many women feel but don’t always name. The subtle signs. The internal shift. And why the space before action...

For decades, women have been told that fatigue, weight gain, slower recovery, brain fog, and hormone shifts are simply part of aging. But what if the real issue isn’t that women’s bodies are failing them? What if the real problem is that we’ve been given incomplete information about how our bodies actually work - especially in midlife. In this episode of The Midwife Life, Diane sits down with Step...

This episode is for the woman who looks like she's holding it all together — but feels very tired in her bones. Diane is joined by Courtney Smith, registered dietitian, exercise specialist, certified lactation counselor, and founder of Maternally Nourished. Courtney supports high-achieving women through fertility, pregnancy, postpartum, burnout, menopause, and major life transitions using nutritio...

Last week, I shared the news about the closing of Willow Midwife Center and the complicated emotions that come with releasing something you built with your whole heart. Today’s conversation is different. This episode isn’t about loss or reaction. It’s about orientation. In this solo reflection, I share what I’m building now - not as a grand announcement, but as a deeper shift in how I want to crea...

This week’s episode is a personal one. After publicly announcing the closing of Willow, Diane shares a reflection on what it means to release something you built, not as failure, but as completion. In this conversation, she explores grief, identity, leadership, sovereignty, and what integration looks like in real time. What does it mean to close a chapter without collapsing? How do we separate end...

In Chapter Five of the Rebirth Journey, Diane explores what comes after shedding, remembering, rebuilding, and learning to live rebirth as a way of being. This episode is about Becoming — not as reinvention, but as embodiment. Becoming is the quiet integration that happens when you stop abandoning your body, stop making decisions from urgency, and begin living from nervous system safety and inner...

In this bonus replay, Diane welcomes two inspiring guests—her daughter Julia Ortega and her “adopted” daughter, Klea Soliman. Both are 23-year-old nurses navigating the ups and downs of their early 20s, from building careers in healthcare to prioritizing health and relationships. Together, they dive into the challenges of this transformative stage of life and share lessons on self-discovery, balan...

What if rebirth isn’t something you go through once, but something you learn how to live inside of? In this episode of The Midwife Life, Diane weaves together the four chapters of the Rebirth Journey: shedding, remembering, rebuilding, and integration—to explore what it looks like when rebirth becomes an orientation rather than a phase. This is a grounded, embodied conversation about cyclical livi...

After shedding and remembering comes rebuilding—but not the kind that asks you to override your body or repeat the patterns that led to burnout. In this episode of The Midwife Life, Diane explores what it means to rebuild from capacity instead of urgency, and how the body—not the mind—signals when it’s time to begin again. This is a conversation about rebuilding slowly, honestly, and sustainably—w...

In this bonus replay, Diane sits down with Nikki Brewer—ayoga instructor, doula, birth educator, and mom of three—to explore thepowerful connection between yoga, birth, and the motherhood journey. With over 15 years of yoga experience and a background supporting laboring women, Nikki brings deep wisdom and compassion to every class she teaches. From embracing strength and surrender during pregnanc...

(Chapter Two: Remembering) After shedding comes the in-between. In this episode of The Midwife Life, Diane explores the quiet, often misunderstood season that follows collapse, the moment when the old skin is gone, but clarity hasn’t returned yet. If you’re feeling foggy… undecided… or unsure of what direction to take next, this conversation is for you. Drawing from her own recovery and lived expe...