The Birth Trauma Mama Podcast

In this episode of the Birth Trauma Mama Podcast , Kayleigh sits down with Meg to share her powerful story of developing severe preeclampsia at just 24 weeks pregnant and welcoming her daughter, Beaux, at 26 weeks and 4 days. We hear about the fear and uncertainty of an unexpected hospitalization, the emotional experience of delivering a baby weighing just 1 pound, 5 ounces, and the 90-day NICU st...

In this powerful episode of the Birth Trauma Mama Podcast , Kayleigh sits down with Amber, a midwife and mother of three, to share her story of a life-threatening pregnancy and birth experience with her twins in July 2019. What began as a relatively uneventful twin pregnancy quickly turned into a medical emergency involving acute fatty liver of pregnancy (AFLP), disseminated intravascular coagulat...

If you’re rocking your baby in the middle of the night, replaying your birth experience for what feels like the hundred-thousandth time, this special mini episode of The Birth Trauma Mama Podcast is for you. ❤️‍🩹 In this deeply personal and grounding episode, Kayleigh speaks to the version of herself who once sat in the nursery at 2 AM, overwhelmed by memories, grief, and the fear that she had so...

In Honor of National Pregnancy and Infant Loss Remembrance Day, we are re-releasing one of our favorite episodes with The Adalyn Rose Foundation.  The Adalyn Rose Foundation was created in 2019 on what would have been Chloe and Adam Ciferri's daughter's second birthday. Chloe was having a seemingly normal pregnancy with her daughter Adayln, until about 20 weeks. Chloe and her husband wer...

In this Mini Series episode, I dive into a nuanced conversation around gratitude practices for perinatal trauma survivors. While gratitude can be a powerful tool for healing, it often becomes complicated when paired with the experiences of trauma, grief, and loss. Whether you’ve felt pressure to “just be grateful” or are searching for ways to reconnect with yourself and your story, this episode of...

In this listener series episode of the Birth Trauma Mama Podcast , Kayleigh sits down with Lauren to hear the story of her traumatic pregnancy, unexpected diagnosis of placenta accreta, life-threatening hemorrhage, emergency hysterectomy, and the premature birth of her daughter at just 23 weeks and 6 days. Lauren shares what it was like to know throughout her pregnancy that her life was at risk, t...

What if part of you is actually afraid to heal? We talk about healing from birth trauma as though the goal is to eventually feel completely okay with what happened. But what if healing doesn’t mean that at all? In this solo episode of the Birth Trauma Mama Podcast, Kayleigh explores the complicated relationship many birth trauma survivors have with healing, including the fear that if the pain gets...

In this episode of the Birth Trauma Mama Podcast, Kayleigh sits down with Brittany to hear about two birth experiences that left a lasting impact on her. Brittany shares her experience with an initial molar pregnancy diagnosis that was later determined to be a healthy pregnancy, followed by a difficult first birth involving a third-degree tear and feelings of invalidation. Years later, Brittany be...

A special re-release: In this episode of The Birth Trauma Mama Podcast, Kayleigh opens a gentle and honest conversation about the journey of considering pregnancy after birth trauma and introduces her new workshop, created specifically for this season. The Pregnancy After Birth Trauma Workshop was designed as a supportive, trauma-informed space for anyone exploring a subsequent pregnancy after a d...

In this listener series episode of the Birth Trauma Mama Podcast , Kayleigh sits down with Melissa to hear her story of pregnancy, unexpected complications, premature birth, and an almost six-month NICU stay. Melissa shares how her experience at 25–27 weeks pregnant turned her birth plans upside down and how her son’s congenital heart defect and battle with NEC added layers of fear and uncertainty...

In this episode of the Birth Trauma Mama Podcast , Kayleigh sits down with Lo Mansfield, MSN, RNC-OB, CLC , an OB nurse, educator, mom of four, and creator of The Labor Mama. Lo shares her journey into nursing, what she calls the “art of nursing,” and how her experiences both as a nurse and as a mother have shaped the way she thinks about birth. Kayleigh and Lo dive into the importance of nuance,...

On today’s listener series episode of the Birth Trauma Mama Podcast , Kayleigh welcomes Shelby  to share the story of her traumatic birth experience and the unexpected complications that changed her life forever. What began as a planned C-section due to placenta previa and cholestasis quickly became a life-threatening emergency involving severe hemorrhaging, multiple interventions, blood transfusi...

In this episode of the Birth Trauma Mama Podcast, Kayleigh sits down with Alexsis Gilles, founder of The Postcare, to talk about her experience of birth trauma and the journey that followed. Alexsis shares the story of her daughter Ella’s birth, including a difficult induction, 11 attempts at an epidural, an emergency C-section, a severe hemorrhage, and being separated from her daughter while she...

In this episode of the Birth Trauma Mama Podcast, Kayleigh sits down with Liz Gray, a fellow perinatal therapist, to hear her deeply personal story of infertility, birth, sexual trauma, and obstetric violence. Liz shares how her history of sexual trauma shaped her experience with fertility treatment and birth, and how moments of dismissal, lack of empathy, and feeling unseen ultimately contributed...

What does it actually mean to have a positive pregnancy experience, especially when we know that birth and postpartum don't always go according to plan? In this episode, Kayleigh sits down with Nina Spears, birth and postpartum doula, childbirth educator, and author of Positive Pregnancy , to talk about preparing for pregnancy, birth, postpartum, and everything in between. Nina shares her une...

In this episode of the Birth Trauma Mama Podcast, Kayleigh welcomes Stacy to share her powerful story of experiencing birth trauma through two very different pregnancies. As a labor and delivery nurse, Stacy entered motherhood with an understanding of the medical side of birth, but that knowledge made it even more difficult to process what happened when both of her births took unexpected and traum...

What happens when we look at perinatal patient safety as more than protocols, checklists, and clinical outcomes? In this episode of the Birth Trauma Mama Podcast , Kayleigh sits down with Cheniqua Morales, a perinatal patient safety nurse, to talk about the human side of making birth safer. Cheniqua shares how her experiences as a doula, labor and delivery nurse, educator, and patient safety leade...

Rebecca's story is one of extraordinary resilience. What began as a routine induction quickly turned into a life-threatening postpartum emergency, followed by the discovery of a rare orbital tumor, multiple surgeries, and a long road through PTSD and healing. In this heartfelt Listener Series episode, Rebecca shares how community, therapy, faith, and giving back helped her reclaim her life af...

This week's episode is a solo conversation about one of the most complicated parts of healing after birth trauma: anniversaries. Whether it's your baby's birthday, the day you were admitted to the hospital, your NICU discharge, or another date tied to your experience, trauma anniversaries can bring up overwhelming emotions, even years later. Kayleigh shares why these reactions are s...

In this heartfelt listener story, Liana shares how three very different pregnancies and births each shaped her experience of motherhood in unexpected ways. After developing gestational hypertension that progressed to postpartum preeclampsia with her first baby, she found herself navigating the uncertainty of a premature birth and NICU stay, all while trying to understand what had happened to her o...

This week's episode is a solo conversation tackling one of the most common, and most painful, themes that emerges after a traumatic birth: self-blame. If you've ever found yourself replaying your birth and thinking, "I should have spoken up," "I should have known something was wrong," or "My body failed my baby," this episode is for you. Kayleigh explores wh...

In this moving listener story, Carmen shares her complicated journey through pregnancy loss, recurrent miscarriage, TFMR (termination for medical reasons), traumatic births, emergency deliveries, and ultimately building the family she always dreamed of. As a mother of 12 babies, five Earthside and seven who are no longer physically here, Carmen offers a powerful perspective on grief, resilience, a...

We often use the terms birth trauma, perinatal trauma, and PTSD interchangeably, but they're not actually the same thing. In this episode closing out PTSD Awareness Month, Kayleigh breaks down the important differences between: Birth and perinatal trauma as an experience Post-traumatic stress symptoms (PTSS) that may not meet diagnostic criteria Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) as a clin...

Kayleigh sits down with her former therapist, Hilary Waller, to reflect on the years they spent working together after Kayleigh's amniotic fluid embolism (AFE), birth trauma, and the life-altering experiences that followed. Together, they explore the therapeutic relationship, what healing actually looks like over time, and how trauma recovery often evolves from surviving to grieving to fully...

In this listener story, Jess shares her experience with preeclampsia that went from seemingly mild and manageable to severe in a matter of days. As a first-time mom with an otherwise uncomplicated pregnancy, she found herself blindsided by a diagnosis she knew very little about and quickly facing decisions she never imagined having to make. Jess opens up about the fear, confusion, and lack of educ...