HOLY WILD BIRTH : Training Christian Birthkeepers, Traditional Midwives in Faith-Based Birth Work

Have you ever considered that the way you enter a birth space affects both the birth environment and your attentiveness to serve the woman in front of you?Brooke & Lauren begin with the preparation before you even get in the car to drive to a birth. How prepared are you for the birth in mind, body, and soul?They share their own personal rituals when they enter the car, during the car ride, and when they approach the birthing family’s house, with the goal being full presence to the woman and family.Now, Brooke & Lauren go over their personal practices for being present in the home birth setting, which includes the WHOLE home. They also chat about taking in the birth environment when you first walk in the room, and how to best support the Basic Needs of a Woman in Labor.The Basic Needs of a Woman in LaborThe Basic Needs of a Woman in Labor (read by Brooke)Basic Needs ChecklistHand Washing Prayer (named Birth Processing Freebie)Birth Servant Starter KitMentioned in this episode: Non-Violent Communication by Marshall RosenbergConnect:Email us to say hi: [email protected] in a request for future topics and/or submit a question for future Q&A episodes: Fill out the formApply to tell your birth story on the podcast: http://sisterbirth.com/podcast-guestHang out with us and other Holy Wild Women in our private community (off Facebook): https://hearthmotherministries.app.clientclub.net/communities/groups/community/home?invite=6a3acb7b9e1f37cda3920fb6Become a holy, wild birthkeeper with us inside Hearthmother JourneyFrom Lauren:InstagramMidwifery consults: Email  [email protected] Brooke:InstagramTrust God, Trust Birth Workshop - a 5-part high-level roadmap to a confident home birth (pay what you can)Faith-Filled Home Birth Workshop - a free, 3-part video series delivered to your inboxEmbrace Birth Journey - comprehensive and holistic faith-based home birth preparation (courses + private community)Sister Birth: The Podcast - short, beautifully scripted episode to encourage your along the wayIntro and Outra Music Credit -Betty Dear By Blue Dot Sessions is licensed under a Creative Commons License.

One of the biggest questions women have who feel called to birth work is: “how can this work be sustainable with little ones at home?” And from women who have been in it for years: “Why does my fire for this come and go”?You’ll hear two women from our community hearth call - a Hearthmother Journey graduate and a doula of eleven years.One woman is wondering how she can take time away from her children to serve a particular mother postpartum. How does she reconcile how it feels wrong in her body and also how many people have encouraged her to support this woman? Lauren coaches her through her questioning and gives her things to ponder as she discerns.Another woman questions how to navigate birth work when her passion for it is low. Lauren gives some practical advice and strategies.Mentioned in this episode: 7 Sisters for 7 Days book:Seven Sisters for Seven Days: The Mothers' Manual for Community Based Postpartum CareConnect:Email us to say hi: ⁠[email protected]⁠Hang out with us and other Holy Wild Women in our private community (off Facebook): ⁠https://hearthmotherministries.app.clientclub.net/communities/groups/community/home⁠Become a holy, wild birthkeeper with us inside ⁠Hearthmother Journey⁠From Lauren:Midwifery consults: Email ⁠[email protected]⁠From Brooke:⁠Trust God, Trust Birth Workshop⁠ - a 5-part high-level roadmap to a confident home birth (pay what you can)⁠Faith-Filled Home Birth Workshop ⁠- a free, 3-part video series delivered to your inbox⁠Embrace Birth Journey ⁠- comprehensive and holistic faith-based home birth preparation (courses + private community)Intro and Outra Music Credit -Betty Dear By ⁠Blue Dot Sessions⁠ is licensed under a ⁠Creative Commons License⁠.

How can I serve in birth work when I have a completely different background? How can I find the transferrable skills? What does it practically mean to walk in the Way of the Hearthmother when serving women?Lauren coaches Pamela, an aspiring birthworker, through some of her main questions surrounding what it means to serve in birth work. Lauren helps Pamela see the transferrable skills she has as an OT into birthwork and what she particularly has to offer. Lauren shows Pamela that she can walk in the Way of the Hearthmother in the way she desires to serve women.Join our off-Facebook community & submit a question for our next Hearth Call! Hang out with us and other Holy Wild Women in our private community (off Facebook): ⁠Hearthmother Ministries | Hearthmother Portal⁠Email us to say hi: [email protected] in a request for future topics and/or submit a question for future Q&A episodes: Fill out the formApply to tell your birth story on the podcast: Holy Wild Birth Podcast : Guest ApplicationBecome a holy, wild birthkeeper with us inside Hearthmother JourneyFrom Lauren:InstagramMidwifery consults: Email  [email protected] Brooke:InstagramTrust God, Trust Birth Workshop - a 5-part high-level roadmap to a confident home birth (pay what you can)Faith-Filled Home Birth Workshop - a free, 3-part video series delivered to your inboxEmbrace Birth Journey - comprehensive and holistic faith-based home birth preparation (courses + private community)Sister Birth: The Podcast - short, beautifully scripted episode to encourage your along the wayIntro and Outra Music Credit -Betty Dear By Blue Dot Sessions is licensed under a Creative Commons License.

In this Cup of Tea, Brooke & Lauren chit chat about life, pregnancy, birth, family, and their business.Lauren talks about her pregnancy growing her 9th baby and discusses possible reasons why she is measuring so far ahead; plus, tentative outdoor birth plans (in January)!They discuss nitty gritty details of waterbirth, technical tools vs. minimalist births, Brooke being on call for three different births wearing three different hats, and the new documentary Allowed to Birth with Kristine Lauria.Brooke discusses her internal struggles and a conversation she had with a CPM/LM about mutual respect for those in birth work who hold different principles and practice differently than oneself.Lauren expounds upon what Proverbs 3:3-6 means for her as a midwife trying to find her specific calling and also fit in with her local community.Brooke & Lauren begin to unpack the new movements of the Lord refining their podcast and their ministry. They discuss what actually makes a Christian birthworker training, and what makes Hearthmother Journey unique among birthworker trainings.Listen in if you are a mom interested in home birth, because Brooke has a direction to point you in!Brooke & Lauren end with some life updates including chatting about neurodivergent children and also what it looks like for their unschooling children to go to college.Mentioned in this episode:Curabirth (birth pool heater)Allowed To Birth (documentary on Kristine Lauria)For Those Who Walk Between Worlds by Midwife AlyssaSing devotionalThe Other Bennet Sister (show)Community - join to find the free Monthly Hearthcalls, starting on October 16Connect:Email us to say hi: [email protected] in a request for future topics and/or submit a question for future Q&A episodes: Fill out the formApply to tell your birth story on the podcast: Holy Wild Birth Podcast : Guest ApplicationHang out with us and other Holy Wild Women in our private community (off Facebook): Hearthmother Ministries | Hearthmother PortalBecome a holy, wild birthkeeper with us inside Hearthmother JourneyFrom Lauren:InstagramMidwifery consults: Email  [email protected] Brooke:InstagramTrust God, Trust Birth Workshop - a 5-part high-level roadmap to a confident home birth (pay what you can)Faith-Filled Home Birth Workshop - a free, 3-part video series delivered to your inboxEmbrace Birth Journey - comprehensive and holistic faith-based home birth preparation (courses + private community)Sister Birth: The Podcast - short, beautifully scripted episode to encourage your along the wayIntro and Outra Music Credit -Betty Dear By Blue Dot Sessions is licensed under a Creative Commons License.

Can I be a doula if I only serve women in home birth?This is a common concern for women desiring to be a doula, but have a bias towards home birth. This question comes with a whole host of other ones, including:Should a midwife also carry emotional & spiritual support on top of physical support for a woman in labor? Or, is that just a doula’s job? Is advocacy support needed for women in home birth?Brooke & Lauren share their answers to these questions and their "hot take" on whether or not doulas are needed for home birth.They also dive into the definition of “doula,” as well as what it really means to advocate for women. They discuss the ultimate importance of knowing your specific role in the birth space, regardless of your title.Brooke & Lauren share very specific and helpful questions you can ask yourself to discern if you should be a doula in someone’s home-birth space.They also discuss incredibly practical details. They go in-depth into what support beforehand, during, and after the birth looks like. They discuss how a doula can support or fulfill the specific needs a woman has for support during labor, and how doula support at home may not look like mainstream doula support. They also discuss the delicate subject of how doulas can engage with midwives in the home birth space.Helpful tools to support moms as a home-birth doula:Embrace Birth Journey: Christian Home Birth Prep LibraryEBJ affiliate application (great for doulas!)Basic Needs of a Woman in Labor checklist Connect:Email us to say hi: [email protected] in a request for future topics and/or submit a question for future Q&A episodes: Fill out the formApply to tell your birth story on the podcast: http://sisterbirth.com/podcast-guestHang out with us and other Holy Wild Women in our private community (off Facebook): https://hearthmotherministries.app.clientclub.net/communities/groups/community/home?invite=6a3acb7b9e1f37cda3920fb6Become a holy, wild birthkeeper with us inside Hearthmother JourneyFrom Lauren:InstagramMidwifery consults: Email  [email protected] Brooke:InstagramTrust God, Trust Birth Workshop - a 5-part high-level roadmap to a confident home birth (pay what you can)Faith-Filled Home Birth Workshop - a free, 3-part video series delivered to your inboxEmbrace Birth Journey - comprehensive and holistic faith-based home birth preparation (courses + private community)Sister Birth: The Podcast - short, beautifully scripted episode to encourage your along the wayIntro and Outra Music Credit -Betty Dear By Blue Dot Sessions is licensed under a Creative Commons License.

If you are wondering if you can even say “yes” to birth work when you have small children, first listen to Part 1 of this 2-part series, then come back!If you are looking for the nuts & bolts of how to be a doula, childbirth educator, birthkeeper, or midwife as a mama, this episode is for you! What is it like to take your work home with such a unique job/calling? What does a “freedom lens” or a “creative family economy” mean? Brooke & Lauren discuss these topics in depth, and how that practically looks like in your life. Brooke & Lauren also discuss what it looks like for birthwork to be seasonal, sharing examples from their own lives. They go through different forms of birthwork that you can start today (even with small children!) that you may have thought doesn’t “count” as birthwork.How can you begin with the talent & skills God has already put into your hands?Brooke ends with a prayer for listeners who are wondering & wrestling with the call to birth service while they have small children. Connect:Email us to say hi: [email protected] in a request for future topics and/or submit a question for future Q&A episodes: Fill out the formApply to tell your birth story on the podcast: Holy Wild Birth Podcast : Guest ApplicationHang out with us and other Holy Wild Women in our private community (off Facebook): Hearthmother Ministries | Hearthmother PortalBecome a holy, wild birthkeeper with us inside Hearthmother JourneyFrom Lauren:Midwifery consults: Email  [email protected] Brooke:Trust God, Trust Birth Workshop - a 5-part high-level roadmap to a confident home birth (pay what you can)Faith-Filled Home Birth Workshop - a free, 3-part video series delivered to your inboxEmbrace Birth Journey - comprehensive and holistic faith-based home birth preparation (courses + private community)Sister Birth: The Podcast - short, beautifully scripted episode to encourage your along the wayIntro and Outra Music Credit -Betty Dear By Blue Dot Sessions is licensed under a Creative Commons License.

Brooke & Lauren address this exact question in 8 tips across this 2-part series. This episode goes over the first four “tips,” or rather, mindset shifts, for Christian women wondering if they can attend births while having little children. Brooke & Lauren discuss tricky subjects such as: can Christian women work outside the home? How do you know if a call outside the home is valid? On a very practical level, they discuss different ways of organizing family life that have worked for them to raise their children and how this allows them to be in birth work. They also touch on questions such as: what does it look like to have rightly ordered parenthood? Should only single & elderly women be called to birth work? Should/can other people take care of your kids safely? They discuss how the dynamics of how your family views your work is the key that unlocks whether or not you are able to serve as a midwife/doula/birthkeeper. What do you think? Which one of these mindset shifts was enlightening to you? Which ones do you still have more questions about? Catch Part 2 here!Take the first step towards becoming a Holy, wild birthworker today! Connect:Email us to say hi: [email protected] in a request for future topics and/or submit a question for future Q&A episodes: Fill out the formApply to tell your birth story on the podcast: Holy Wild Birth Podcast : Guest ApplicationHang out with us and other Holy Wild Women in our private community (off Facebook): Hearthmother Ministries | Hearthmother PortalBecome a holy, wild birthkeeper with us inside Hearthmother JourneyFrom Lauren:InstagramMidwifery consults: Email  [email protected] Brooke:InstagramTrust God, Trust Birth Workshop - a 5-part high-level roadmap to a confident home birth (pay what you can)Faith-Filled Home Birth Workshop - a free, 3-part video series delivered to your inboxEmbrace Birth Journey - comprehensive and holistic faith-based home birth preparation (courses + private community)Sister Birth: The Podcast - short, beautifully scripted episode to encourage your along the wayIntro and Outra Music Credit -Betty Dear By Blue Dot Sessions is licensed under a Creative Commons License.

Grab your cuppa and cozy up for our September conversation that feels like gabbing with a couple good gal pals. In this episode, traditional midwife Lauren and birthkeepr Brooke debrief and recount tales from their recent time together when Lauren's family drove up from Arkansas to spend a week with Brooke's in Michigan. During that time, they also facilitated a midwifery skills workshop for Hearthmother Journey students known as Threshold (a Not-Game), where real-as-can-be simulations of various birth scenarios and emergencies unfold as participants practice responding to them. As it turns out, and not surprisingly, the Holy Spirit hijacked the agenda, which left lots of room for things like a closely-guarded story to be a told, prophetic and healing prayer ministry to occur, and old traumas to be felt and released from the body. They also gab a bit about all the drool-worthy food they prepared and ate whilst together, their experience worshiping together at Brooke's Anglican church (by contrast, Lauren's family attends a charismatic-leaning non-evangelical church back home), and how that led to a humorous eucharist blunder, and how they're adapting their life-giving daily morning habits for a new season. Plus, Lauren shares a happy pregnancy update!Be ready to swing between being moved to tears by the beauty of the Lord's ways and being moved to giggling fits over silly conversations about horrible children's campfire songs that won't get out of your head. And everything in between.Mentioned in this episode:Olive sauce and homemade hamburger bun recipes (will be shared inside our community)SunHuggConnect:Email us to say hi: [email protected] in a request for future topics and/or submit a question for future Q&A episodes: Fill out the formApply to tell your birth story on the podcast: Holy Wild Birth Podcast : Guest ApplicationHang out with us and other Holy Wild Women in our private community (off Facebook): Hearthmother Ministries | Hearthmother PortalUp-Level your birth ministry/biz with Birth Servant Starter KitFrom Lauren:InstagramMidwifery consults: Email  [email protected] Brooke:InstagramTrust God, Trust Birth Workshop - a 5-part high-level roadmap to a confident home birth (pay what you can)Faith-Filled Home Birth Workshop - a free, 3-part video series delivered to your inboxEmbrace Birth Journey - comprehensive and holistic faith-based home birth preparation (courses + private community)Sister Birth: The Podcast - short, beautifully scripted episode to encourage your along the wayIntro and Outra Music Credit -Betty Dear By Blue Dot Sessions is licensed under a Creative Commons License.

Hearthmother Journey is a Christian training for Doulas, Birthkeepers, and Student Midwives that honor God's physiological design for birth. If you are wanting to keep Jesus at the center of your service of childbearing women, we'd love to invite you into our 1 year in-depth training. This episode will let you hear a little background on Hearthmother Journey and let you hear what a few of our students have to stay. This training is for you if you are:Aspiring and current birth servantsWomen desiring to be better friends, mothers, wives, sistersAnyone wishing to grow in her faith or re-center her birthwork on her faithThose willing to take responsibility for their education and becoming - hearthmother journey, that language is for a reason. Those willing to take the slow, windy road in step with the SpiritThose who are emboldened to be the “rebels” who operate outside the system, in responsibility to their community and YHWH onlyThose who are convicted to carry the heart of a Hearthmother into the system, bringing that light into hard places with confidenceIts not for you if:Those wanting surface-level, skills-only training or to amass intellectual treasuresThose needing to arrive at their destination ASAP Those who believe certification and credentials is the only measuring stick to know they are ready; are looking for us to tell them they’re allowed Those looking for a spoon-fed meal instead of a feast to sit at the table, bringing offering with them, and eat with sisters Those looking for black-and-white answers and a step-by-step “google maps” experience Doors are currently open, but are closing soon: this Monday Sept 14 2026.Learn MoreHave some questions?Book a 15 minute Exploration Call with Brooke or Lauren Connect:Email us to say hi: [email protected] in a request for future topics and/or submit a question for future Q&A episodes: Fill out the formApply to tell your birth story on the podcast: Holy Wild Birth Podcast : Guest ApplicationHang out with us and other Holy Wild Women in our private community (off Facebook): Hearthmother Ministries | Hearthmother PortalBecome a holy, wild birthkeeper with us inside Hearthmother JourneyFrom Lauren:Midwifery consults: Email  [email protected] Brooke:Trust God, Trust Birth Workshop - a 5-part high-level roadmap to a confident home birth (pay what you can)Faith-Filled Home Birth Workshop - a free, 3-part video series delivered to your inboxEmbrace Birth Journey - comprehensive and holistic faith-based home birth preparation (courses + private community)Sister Birth: The Podcast - short, beautifully scripted episode to encourage your along the wayIntro and Outra Music Credit -Betty Dear By Blue Dot Sessions is licensed under a Creative Commons License.

In this episode, Brooke & Lauren open up their doors to the public to an experience of which their Hearthmother Journey students get every week: a Hearth Call.In this podcast, they get curious with a podcast listener who wants to serve in birth work and also struggles with vasovagal response to bodily fluids/in certain medical situations - an incredibly real and honest question! Not only do Brooke & Lauren talk about the other ways one can serve women in the childbearing year, they also dig deep into the source of this question and help the question-asker excavate the why behind her fear of having a physical response to sensitive medical situations.Next, they discuss with Jeri the feeling of imposter syndrome in birth work. Brooke breaks open her definition of imposter syndrome and acknowledges how common this is for women called to serve in birth work, and addresses how it may never go away. Lauren goes over the curve of becoming an expert in something: unconsciously incompetent to consciously incompetent to consciously competent.Brooke & Lauren also deep dive into whether or not we should use social media for promoting birth services/businesses. They also chat about how to “invite yourself” into other women’s birth spaces while you are a student - the answer may not be what you think!This episode is for you ifYou have been wondering if you can be called to birth work but have a vasovagal response to certain medical scenariosFeel called to birth work but have imposter syndromeWonder if you should use a website or social media to share your birth servicesHow to share with others that you would be open to attending their birthsIf you would like to be part of the next community hearth call, join our online community.Connect:Email us to say hi: [email protected] in a request for future topics and/or submit a question for future Q&A episodes: Fill out the formApply to tell your birth story on the podcastHang out with us and other Holy Wild Women in our private community (off Facebook): https://hearthmotherministries.app.clientclub.net/communities/groups/community/home?invite=6a3acb7b9e1f37cda3920fb6Become a holy, wild birthkeeper with us inside Hearthmother JourneyFrom Lauren:InstagramMidwifery consults: Email [email protected] Brooke:InstagramTrust God, Trust Birth Workshop - a 5-part high-level roadmap to a confident home birth (pay what you can)Faith-Filled Home Birth Workshop - a free, 3-part video series delivered to your inboxEmbrace Birth Journey - comprehensive and holistic faith-based home birth preparation (courses + private community)Sister Birth: The Podcast - short, beautifully scripted episode to encourage your along the wayIntro and Outra Music Credit -Betty Dear By Blue Dot Sessions is licensed under a Creative Commons License.