Today's birth story podcast guest shares how she planned ahead for her hospital birth by doing research, setting intentions and hiring a doula. Kristin's number one goal was not to have a cesarean and she educated herself on many of the ways to avoid a c secti0n and used that knowledge to self advocate with the help of her doula throughout her labor that lasted over 24 hours.
In this birth story episode, Victoria Easter Wilson shares her two hospital births attended by midwives. The first birth was kind of overwhelming for her husband so when they were pregnant with their second daughter they spent some time processing the first birth story and preparing more this time by hiring a doula. This is a great episode if you want to hear some positive hospital birth experiences - I mean check out that tub and bar she got to use at the hospital!
Victoria is a wife and WAHM who thinks the Internet can be used for good and not evil if you have the right intentions. She is a new doula and birth educator, passionate about supporting women in their motherhood journeys. When she's able to sneak away from the busyness for a few hours, you can find her enjoying a pretty latte and the company of a friend...also probably talking about birth. Connect with her on Instagram.
Paul is a mother, doula, yoga teacher, meditation guide and facilitator of women circles living in Venice, California.
When she was pregnant with her daughter, Madeleine, and traveling on her own journey into motherhood, something shifted within her. She experienced a spiritual awakening that allowed her the opportunity to choose a more conscious way to approach her life as a woman and mother. In her yoga practice, she blends together her experience as a mother, her expertise as a doula and her extensive training in yoga, as a meditation guide and facilitator. Sharing what she knows and supporting women as they make their own journey into motherhood is her deepest passion. You can connect with her on her website or Instagram.
Amanda Moon Callahan lives in the woods with her family on a small farm in Upstate SC. They grow chickens, pigs, donkeys, and on the occasion, babies. Their first child, Aria Daphne is 3.5 and she just had her second. Other than farming and parent life, Amanda works full time at the local domestic violence shelter and spends all her free time cooking up delicious home grown food.
Bricia shares her hospital birth story and all of the preparation she did prior to the birth and although the birth went very much like she had hoped, her placenta didn’t come and she had to be taken to the OR. Listen to her tell her whole story in her own words.
Bricia is a partner at Guelaguetza, LA’s temple for Oaxacan cuisine. She has become a staunch proponent of Oaxacan culture and an integral figure in the gastronomic culture of Los Angeles. Her blog, moleandmore.com reaches a wide audience of young people in search of cooking tips and cultural experiences. Her and her family’s story have been featured in a number of multi-media national and international publications.
Bricia was also recently invited to the White house to participate in a roundtable discussion with President Obama and eight other of the country’s business leaders on immigration and economic issues. She has also spoken of young immigrant issues in front of Mexico’s President, Enrique Peña Nieto.
Bricia also co-hosts Super Mamas Podcast alongside her sister where new, experienced and expecting mothers come together to exchange knowledge and support. Connect with her on Instagram.
Todays's The Birth Hour podcast guest is Lynzy Coughlin who lives in the Northeast with her husband and two daughters. She is also the editor behind Lynzy & Co., a blog that she created quite awhile ago as a creative outlet to her job in the ER. In this episode she shares her two hospital birth experiences including details like the crazy drive to the hospital, epidurals that only halfway took and her outlook on the whole experience as an ER physician's assistant. Lynzy and I also had a great conversation covering helpful information about her postpartum and breastfeeding journeys.
Christy Lee Knutson is a communications and creative professional at MoxieSpeak.com. She lives in Raleigh, NC with her husband (Jon), two children, Annazalie and Bennet, and 2 cats. She is also the founder of BirthMemoirs.com and the creator of Your Birth Story Journals.
In this episode, Christy shares her birth stories, both in a hospital, and both with the same birth team. Christy had positive experiences both times which she attributes to planning ahead, choosing a birth team she felt comfortable with and confident in, and using a hospital friendly to midwives, doulas, and especially, babies.
Lauren Barlis is a teacher. She got her start teaching 10th grade English in Baltimore County and now teaches other teachers and administrators how to build powerful effective partnerships with the parents of their students. She is married to a wonderful man who also works with her at Step Up For Students, an education non-profit in Florida that provides scholarships to low-income families who want to send their children to private school. She has a daughter, Josie, who is 16 months old. She is also expecting a son, Benjamin, in May 2016.
Today's birth story episode features Marissa Lawton who discusses getting pregnant with PCOS (polycystic ovarian syndrome) and dealing with fertility treatments. Marissa is a military spouse and discusses the experience she had giving birth at a military hospital. She experienced vast differences between the day and night shift of doctors and nurses and was in labor for over 30 hours.
Marissa also discusses the anxiety she dealt with about infertility, about whether a fertilized egg would be viable, how many babies she would carry and whether her baby would be healthy throughout her pregnancy.
She also explains that her anxiety also caused her to make birth choices she probably wouldn’t have otherwise. For instance, she wanted a natural birth, and did deliver vaginally, but was induced (41 and 5) with pitocin and ended up having an epidural after feeling unsupported by some of the hospital staff. Marissa also dealt with a strong nesting instinct that manifested almost like OCD.
She was apply to rely on prenatal yoga to help with anxiety and practiced it all throughout her pregnancy and wishes she could have listened to her yoga training during labor including bodywork over what the doctors were saying that didn't feel right.
Daria Lazovskaya is sharing three birth stories, all of which took place in Russia. Daria was born in Siberia, raised in Sochi, and is currently living in Moscow. Her three children were born in Sochi which is more rural than Moscow, and I was very surprised at how birth takes place in a Russian hospital. Listening to her stories, it was like I was traveling back in time 60 years in the United States. Their approach to birth is very medicalized and institutionalized. There is very little attention paid to prenatal care, and the majority of women give birth alone with the medical staff and are generally not allowed to have their partner or another support person in the room with them.
Daria's did mention that there were more options available in Moscow and suggested that any expats living in Russia try to get to a major city like Moscow for their births. You can connect with Daria on Instagram @feedthezoo.
Kellie was planning a hospital birth with an OBGYN until 35 weeks pregnant when she switched doctors so she could give birth at a hospital that had better outcomes for mom's who want a natural birth. It also had a significantly lower C section rate. Listen to Kellie tell her birth story, in her own words.
Jessica is a mom to four boys living in Corona California. She writes about her family's adventures on House Inhabit and has an Etsy shop that sells adorable prints, tees and teepees!
Today she shares the stories of her pregnancies and births. Jessica had a great first pregnancy and birth experience. Her first birth was very fast with her son being born within 1 hour of arriving at the hospital! With her second pregnancy, Jessica experienced pre-term labor and had a cervical cerclage placed. She ended up carrying to term and had a cerclage placed as a precaution in subsequent pregnancies. Her biggest advice to pregnant women is to surround yourselves with positivity and she also also recommends waiting to find out the gender as that's been one of her favorite parts about her births.
Blythe's episode is pretty light hearted and will definitely make you laugh but I also think it's so valuable in that she wasn't afraid to trust her gut and go for the type of birth she wanted even though she had done things very differently the first FIVE times! I love how Blythe and her husband tease each other about how funny the hospital birth experience is after having so many homebirths. These two obviously really know each other on all sorts of levels and make an awesome birthing team.
Bailey Gaddis tells the story of her hypnobirthing hospital birth. She ended up uses the same visualization throughout the entire birth and sitting completely still and cross legged in the hospital bed which really surprised her since she'd imagined she'd be moving around a lot during labor.
Melissa Emler is a mom to three kids, Cooper, Addilyn and Conner and lives in Wisconsin where she works in education. She connects schools with the best and most useful tools available to them in the 21st century! Melissa also has a podcast called On the Vender Floor where she connects educators and entrepreneurs in conversations that positively impact learning.
Melissa's children were born in Iowa under the care of midwives but in a hospital setting. In Iowa all midwives who are legally practicing are Certified Nurse Midwives and many of them are providing care within a hospital setting. The hospital that Melissa gave birth at was set up more like a birth center than the typical hospital image that you may have in your head. It had a large tub as well as other comfort measures that aided her with finding more natural methods of coping with labor than typical hospital pain medications.
Melissa also practiced Hypnobirthing which really made a big difference with her births and kept her from even considering asking for an epidural.
Paige tells the story of the birth of her son. Paige was induced by choice 4 days after her due date, and after starting a Pitocin drip, things progressed rather quickly. So quickly in fact that by the time Paige was offered an epidural it was not really worth it to her. She trusted her body and decided not to interfere with the track that she was already on.