Taking Back Birth

Margo joins me for the first in this new series about midwifery apprenticeship. As she says in our chat, it seems that the apprenticeship conversation has occasionally thrown the “baby out with the bathwater” (no pun intended!) around IF there is a structured path(And what it is), or not. I do feel like I have some responsibility to clear this up, since I may have muddied the waters over the years...

I left off with a podcast about leaving Sedona and the land there; so what more natural place to begin again than with a “hello” from Kentucky! I want to share with you the magic of the last 4 months in summary, with having landed at our new house and property. I want to share with you the magic of the land here, and the fun ways that we are connecting with her already. Listen in on how our road t...

A super short and last minute (and last!) podcast from Sedona. I wanted to say my goodbye and express my gratitude to this sacred land, to the mountain that has guided and guarded us. I also wanted to take one last visit to Rumi’s Cave, the special spot where I’d go in my pregnancy with him that helped shape my entire experience. Moving can be so transformative, and I give credit and thanks to thi...

One of my besties and former client Christina is back! She’s chatted with me twice on other podcasts (2 of her birth stories) but this time we talk about the ritual of placenta burial. We had the gift of doing this together recently, and like many things, it felt way deeper than we imagined it would be! Listen in for what our experience was like, and why giving our blood/placentas back to the Eart...

I’ve asked myself the community midwife question before but as I ponder what community actually is to me, or what I would want it to be, I feel like maybe the issue lies in the community. Midwifery is mostly fine! Women know how to take care of women, but it feels like we don’t generally know how to take care of our families, and larger groups of people that can support each other. In going to a n...

I talk with my amazing kindred sister friend Devon Battaglia on this episode! You’ll hear how we met and connected, but one of the topics that she’s written about captured my attention. Whether it’s birth or mothering or just being a woman, most of us can identify with “not being enough”. Listen to this juicy talk around the “mother wound” and feminine shame and more. I know you will hear JUST wha...

Ah, packing up a house! I stumbled upon notebooks and journals, all from past (in person) midwifery events of the last 15 years. It was so fun reading through conference sessions I had attended, and I wanted to share some of the brilliant teaching highlights with you from masters like Michel Odent, Marsden Wagner, Gail Hart, Lisa Barrett and more (and extra motivation if you don’t even know who so...

How do these two topics go together? They do! I want to share my perspective on MY reality of this virus thing and how ultimately, we need to choose each step of the way how we want to respond. Best way to do that? Get in touch with your own innate power and let your soul light the way. Sound too idealistic? Take a listen and let me know if you resonate with this. (And if you enroll in my new Witc...

After a moving update and a post-vacation summary, I’m back! I’m calling this “part 1” because I know there will be more ideas and a creative plan that come to be eventually as we settle down in our lives and I get back to birth work. As I share, this is the “burn it down” phase! I know what I want to change and what has not been working for me, so I ask you to reconsider too what your heart is te...

This may be an intense one, but is highly personal as our kids experienced the death of one of our beloved dogs recently. This is another ramble, but one about the belief systems that we have taught our kids regarding death, and also a sharing into what this has looked and felt like for different family members. Click the icon below to listen.          

This podcast was not what I was planning on, but it’s what happened when I started talking about asking for guidance from my (deceased) grandma and grandpa. It’s not entirely unrelated to the spirit world that we talk about when talking about spirit babies, so I thought I’d share it with you as a “creating ceremony 101” podcast. I’d love to hear your experiences, questions and comments about conne...

Wow, I’m feisty in this one! After a moving update and a nice card pull to share with you, I’m off…have you ever thought about the distinct differences between how midwifery and obstetrics are viewed in the world, and how most midwives have agreed to very little autonomy? This is NOT a new topic for me, but I felt a renewed interest in riling all of you wanna be midwives out there into choos...

On this podcast, I share my outlook on the energy of moving and what’s going on in my life and why it’s all good and magic! And also, a few brief book recommendations of things I pulled off my shelf that I have really liked reading over the years. Books mentioned: Surrender Experiment; Michael Singer When Things Fall Apart and The Places That Scare You; Pema Chodron Home/Birth-A Poemic; Arielle Gr...

It’s here! The episode on how sleep looks in our house; from newborns to teenagers, to what I have learned over the years about all of it; plus some pro tips I hope are helpful! Click the icon below to listen.          

I’ve been meaning to record this for a while but the timing is perfect because our own lives always get reflected in our midwifery work. In this podcast, I share my journey of spirituality from mindfulness to learning under a local shaman. I’m realizing more with each client and each experience that engaging in the emotional and spiritual aspects of pregnancy, birth and mothering is where my heart...

This monthly Q and A podcast wound up holding this theme of how we are in our power, and where we still need or want to claim it. But detail-wise, this podcast includes responses to questions about Pitocin, the newborn screen, intuition, marketing my midwifery business, the most impactful birth I’ve witnessed and many, many more. Hopefully you enjoy this and aren’t bothered by the extreme lack of...

Listen in as I share how, when and where I moved from practicing as a licensed midwife to autonomous midwifery, practicing under a PMA (aka PCA) structure in a state that requires mandatory licensing. This is NOT a “how to” set up a PMA or why I think you need to, but a chronological explanation of my own journey and how I came to this place for myself. I really urge you to listen if you are at AL...

How to sum up almost 20 years of breast-feeding my own 10 children? In a podcast of course! Impossible to completely cover this topic but in this one I talk about a few of my breastfeeding journeys, as well as nursing through pregnancy, tandem nursing, the tongue tie issue, how I’ve dealt with breast infections (mastitis) and more! I feel so grateful to be able to share this experience with you, a...

Maryn and Margo are together for this one! They discuss their “world view of midwifery” for anyone that is interested in this, and/or our Indie Birth Midwifery School. What is “midwifery” nowadays anyway? So many types of midwives, so many ways of practicing and so much confusing vocabulary and labels too (birthkeeper, anyone? We still don’t know what that means!) Have YOU thought about the actual...

In this monthly series, I take questions that have been gathered from our followers on Instagram and go from there. These questions cover a lot of territory, from birth to death, and mothering and beyond. Take a listen and let me know by email or comment if you want me to expand on anything you heard here. Also, you can submit questions to us on Instagram (@indiebirth) or email them to me at maryn...

I like placentas; but I LOVE placenta birth because it allows us the opportunity as women to fully OWN the birth process from start to finish. On this podcast, I share my own placenta birth history and how it evolved for me to go from not even remembering placenta birth to really looking forward to it. I love sharing this all and teaching it to women everywhere through knowledge, guidance and a co...

I get the honor of talking to my friend Christina again on this podcast about her 3rd baby’s birth. Christina has appeared before, when she shared about her first VBAC at home, but this story of her daughter comes with even more profound lessons. There were some clinical things for her to share and for us to discuss, but mostly I am blown away by this woman’s wisdom about herself, birth and the jo...

This podcast has been a long time coming! People often ask how we keep our 10 kids healthy; what modalities we use and so on. I think I more than covered it here; I talk about my own childhood health, belief systems that keep us bound to sickness, ways I want to inspire my kids to respect their bodies, setting a model for daily movement and strength; moving on to my stance on vaccines for my kids,...

I am starting the year with a review of the births experiences in which I had the honor of being in the midwife role. There were first time mamas, and fifth time mamas. There were water births and land births. Boys and girls (just about even!) and of course each experience was unique and beautiful in it’s own way. Listen in on some abbreviated stories from my perspective and some clinical notes; p...

You’ve likely read the birth story (indiebirth.org/rumisol) but this is a long podcast I did with baby Rumi on my lap about his pregnancy and birth from a spiritual perspective. This birth was an initiation; and I recorded this so I would remember all the cool and crazy details that make up this tale. I talk about the way his name came in, my premonitions about the birth and the spiritual meanings...