Resilient Birth

Keywords: birth trauma, breastfeeding, maternal health, postpartum care, lactation consultant, hospital policies, trauma recovery, maternal bonding, cesarean birth story, NICU birth story. In this episode of the Resilient Birth Podcast, Justine and Sarah welcome Erin Northrup, an international board certified lactation consultant, to discuss the profound impact of birth trauma on breastfeeding and...

Keywords: abortion, perinatal care, women's rights, personal choice, government intervention, healthcare access, miscarriage, reproductive rights, trauma, maternal death   Justine and Sarah recorded this episode of the Resilient Birth podcast on abortion access and abortion care the day before the election in the US. At the time of recording, we thought we'd be releasing it after the results were...

Keywords: birth plans, informed consent, birth preferences, healthcare communication, obstetric care, birth experience, birth trauma, obstetrics, patient care, unconditional positive regard, healthcare relationships   In this conversation, Justine Leach, Ph. D. and Sarah Adelmann, L.M.H.C.,  discuss birth plans, emphasizing the need for a more holistic approach that incorporates the emotional and...

In this conversation, Justine Leach, Ph. D. and Sarah Adelmann, L.M.H.C., explore the themes of connection, vulnerability, and trust within the context of perinatal healthcare, particularly in pregnancy and birth. Sarah begins with a quote by President Barack Obama from his book   A Promised Land . They discuss the importance of deep listening from OBs and midwives, and the challenges of building...

In this episode of the Resilient Birth Podcast, Justine Leach and Sarah Adelmann delve into the complex interplay between trauma, birth experiences, and the importance of consent and validation in therapeutic settings. Justine shares her personal journey of navigating her traumatic birth experience as a survivor of sexual assault, highlighting the disconnect between what she wanted for her birth a...

This week Sarah introduces us to Max, who has brought so much joy and comfort to her life over the last few months. Using a quote from  Dog Medicine by Julie Barton, Sarah brings insight into the healing power of animals, particularly dogs, who can offer such unconditional loving support and shares her own experience with Max, who came into her life a few months ago and nourishes her as a person a...

In this episode, Justine and Sarah interview Lacey Castilleja Fisher,   a licensed professional counselor and registered play therapist. Lacey specializes in working with parents and parents-to-be who have experienced sexual trauma, as well as individuals dealing with a range of mental health issues. Lacey shares two quotes that resonate with her work: one by  Natasha Trethewey  about the importan...

In this episode, Justine and Sarah are joined by Helena Vissing,  PsyD, SEP, PMH-C, a licensed psychologist practicing trauma-informed somatic psychotherapy. They discuss the quote by Rosemary Balsam that highlights the relationship between a woman and embodied events, such as birth, across her entire lifetime. They explore the significance of birth as a prism that captures the past and future, th...

In this conversation, Sarah and Justine discuss the impact of trauma on our sense of time and how the past can erupt into the present or shift our perception of what is about to happen in the future. Justine shares a quote from the book Trauma and Human Existence by Robert D. Storolow. She was reminded of this quote, in particular his words, “Trauma destroys time,” after a recent personal experien...

  In this episode, Justine and Sarah are joined by Marissa Hathaway, a certified birth and postpartum doula. They discuss the harmful impact of 'at least' statements and how they can be invalidating to individuals who have experienced trauma or infertility. Marissa shares her personal journey of going through IVF and the challenges she faced as a doula supporting families while navigating her own...

In this episode, Justine and Sarah are joined by Mara Tesler-Stein, a clinical psychologist and founder of the Touchstone Institute for Psychotherapy and Training. We talk about EMDR for the perinatal population, the impact on Mara's own perinatal journey as the parent of preemie twins on her professional career, and the experience of having a baby in the NICU. Summary Mara begins by sharing the T...

We welcome Jana Glass,  a Licensed Professional Counselor certified in Brainspotting, Addictions, and Perinatal Mental health, to the podcast this week. In this conversation we explore what it means for therapy to be truly client led and how can therapists support parents who have experienced perinatal trauma to find and trust in their brain's own capacity to heal. Summary Jana begins our conversa...

This week, Liz Gray, LCSW, RPT, shares her birth story in which she explores the complex feelings she has about the OB at her birth, who provided physically good medical care but whose language and attitude was extremely harmful. Her story includes navigating a lack of trauma-informed care during infertility treatment, a birth center to hospital birth transfer, an unplanned a cesarean birth, and a...

In this episode, Sarah brings in a quote from Simone Biles in her documentary "Rising." Join us as we find deep connections between Simone's words and the weight of expectations around the identity of motherhood and the narratives that bear down upon women's bodies. We find inspiration in Simone's story and how she said refused to perform for others when that would not be safe for herself. On the...

In this episode, we are joined  by Kate White, who talks intimately about integrating implicit memories and her experience supporting mothers and babies through trauma-informed somatic healing approaches. She starts our conversation, which explores what healing from perinatal trauma can look like when we take into account the baby's experience of birth and what is happening in the relationship bet...

In this episode Sarah and Justine's guest, Morning Alexander, a birth and postpartum doula and soon to be labor and delivery nurse, surprises us with a quote from Justine that she wrote on the Resilient Birth social media. She shares how Justine helped reframe dissociation for her, shifting the shame she her felt about experiencing dissociation during a traumatic birth experience. Here are links t...

In this episode Sarah and Justine talk with Kristi Field about how her work as a birth and postpartum doula is  grounded in Polyvagal Theory and how trauma can be stored within the nervous system. Join us as we explore how this understanding of trauma impacts people's birthing and postpartum experiences and what it means to truly hold space throughout the whole perinatal journey. Here is a link to...

  In this episode, Justine and Sarah debate definitions of birth trauma. Is birth trauma really just any experience of distress in childbirth? Does it occur because we had unrealistic expectations? And what is the impact of other people in the birthing space on the extent to which we experience birth trauma? On the Resilient Birth podcast, Justine and Sarah explore the impact of trauma in the peri...

  In this episode, Sarah and Justine explore the value of shifting your mindset in the perinatal period as Sarah was inspired this week by words from a competitive cyclist that helped reconnect her to her power. Justine had some audio issues at the end of the episode, but Sarah managed to bring the recording to a close with such wisdom and grace we did not want you to miss it. On the Resilient Bir...

This is our second episode of Season 2 and today we are talking to Erin Ronder Neves, a birth and postpartum doula, about her experiences with Postpartum Depression and OCD. In this episode, Erin shares candidly about the intrusive thoughts she experienced and the support she sought to help her through this frightening experience. We wanted to link to this helpful article to help you understand ho...

We are excited to announce the first episode of Season 2 of the Resilient Birth Podcast! In this episode Justine speaks about her own experience of suffering a third degree tear with her first child after reading the recent report by the all-party parliamentary group on birth trauma. Link here to a copy of the report: https://www.theo-clarke.org.uk/sites/www.theo-clarke.org.uk/files/2024-05/Birth%...

In today's Resilient Birth Short why you should care about trauma-informed care and we introduce our training Trauma Informed Fundamentals, which provides a really great introduction to trauma and trauma-informed care.  Learn more about our course called Trauma Informed Fundamentals here: https://resilient-birth.mykajabi.com/traumainformedfundamentals While we record Season 2 of the podcast we wil...

In today's Resilient Birth Short we discuss debriefing a birth with your client. We discuss how your client may be looking for more than just person to listen to the story of the birth.  So often our clients want to be witnessed and have their experience of birth and what has come after validated. They want to feel seen and heard. While we record Season 2 of the podcast we will be sharing some of...

In today's Resilient Birth Short we discuss what we need to be mindful of when thinking about our intake questions and asking about prior trauma during that first meeting. While we record Season 2 of the podcast we will be sharing some of our weekly conversations from our Facebook group the Trauma-Informed Perinatal Professionals. Sarah is a licensed mental health counselor, educator, and mom of t...

While we record Season 2 of the podcast we will be sharing some of our weekly conversations from our Facebook group the Trauma-Informed Perinatal Professionals. In today's Resilient Birth Short we discuss how thinking flexibly about how we give birth can reduce anxiety and what are some the questions we might ask clients to help them still feel how they want to feel even if birth plans have to shi...