Healing Birth

As Lauren approached 40 weeks pregnant with her first baby, she found herself being pressured into a "natural" induction by her midwives. After multiple rounds of herbal induction cocktails and, finally, the dreaded castor oil, her body was pushed into labor before she believes she and her baby were ready. What followed was an incredibly long, intense, and painful labor, complicated by her baby's positioning. Lauren believes the interventions played a significant role in how her labor unfolded, ultimately leading to a hospital transfer, the very outcome she had feared most. While Lauren was still navigating the postpartum period with her son, her twin sister, who has also shared her story on this podcast, freebirthed her second baby at home. Witnessing her sister give birth on her own terms was a profound turning point for Lauren. Through her sister's experience, she began to envision an entirely different possibility for herself, one rooted in trust, autonomy, and the freedom to birth without interference. (You can listen to Lauren's twin sister's episode here.) If you love the show, I would greatly appreciate a review on  Spotify or Apple Podcasts! Follow me on Instagram @healingbirth Do you have a birth story you'd like to share on the podcast, or would like to otherwise connect? I love to hear from you! Send me a note at [email protected] Intro / Outro music: Dreams by Markvard Podcast cover photo by Karina Jensen @karinajensenphoto

When a birth experience leaves a mother feeling violated, disconnected, and deeply wounded, where does healing begin? Seven years ago, while living in Austria, this week's guest hoped for a natural birth but instead found herself caught in a cascade of medical interventions that left her feeling powerless. Pressured into an induction, given Pitocin against her wishes, and ultimately subjected to a vacuum-assisted delivery and episiotomy, she welcomed her healthy baby girl into the world in a state of shock and disconnection. In the aftermath, she struggled with anger and grief over the way her daughter had been born. But as she poured herself into nurturing their bond, through skin-to-skin contact, closeness, and making her daughter feel safe and loved, something beautiful began to unfold. The very relationship she was so determined to nurture became the source of her own healing. Not every woman will have the opportunity to experience a redemptive birth. But as this story so beautifully illustrates, healing doesn't always require another birth. Sometimes, it unfolds through the very child whose arrival left us feeling wounded. If you love the show, I would greatly appreciate a review on  Spotify or Apple Podcasts!  Follow me on Instagram @healingbirth Do you have a birth story you'd like to share on the podcast, or would like to otherwise connect? I love to hear from you! Send me a note at [email protected] Intro / Outro music: Dreams by Markvard Podcast cover photo by Karina Jensen @karinajensenphoto

What happens when your body doesn't feel safe enough to give birth? When Lexi went into labor with her first baby, she experienced something remarkable. Each time she left the safety of her home to travel to the birth center, her labor would completely stop. As soon as she returned home, her contractions would begin again. Even the arrival of her own mother seemed to bring her labor to a halt. After a long and challenging labor, Lexi finally welcomed her baby at the birth center, but the experience left her with questions. Why had her body responded this way? In the months that followed, Lexi began exploring the profound connection between childhood trauma, the nervous system, and the physiological process of birth. What she discovered set her on a path of deep healing and ultimately transformed the way she approached her second pregnancy. This time, Lexi reclaimed her authority, trusted her body's wisdom, and finally experienced the peaceful homebirth she had always envisioned. Her story is a powerful reminder that birth is not simply a physical event. Our emotions, experiences, and sense of safety are deeply intertwined with the way we bring our babies into the world. If you love the show, I would greatly appreciate a review on  Spotify or Apple Podcasts!  Follow me on Instagram @healingbirth Do you have a birth story you'd like to share on the podcast, or would like to otherwise connect? I love to hear from you! Send me a note at [email protected] Intro / Outro music: Dreams by Markvard Podcast cover photo by Karina Jensen @karinajensenphoto

Hailee grew up with a mother who had six cesarean births, so when she became pregnant with her first baby, she simply hoped to experience a vaginal delivery. Unfortunately, her hospital birth left her with a very different experience than she'd imagined, followed by a difficult postpartum recovery. When she became pregnant with her second baby, Hailee felt called to take a different path. Now working alongside a local midwife, she chose to plan a homebirth. But after three days of exhausting, stop-and-start labor, Hailee found herself at a breaking point, slowly losing faith in her body's ability to give birth. Then something extraordinary happened. Her grandmother, who had always been a motherly figure in her life, unexpectedly arrived. Her loving presence changed everything. In this deeply moving story of intergenerational healing, faith, and the transformative power of support during childbirth, Hailee shares how she went from doubting her body to bringing her baby into the world with her own hands. If you love the show, I would greatly appreciate a review on  Spotify or Apple Podcasts!  Follow me on Instagram @healingbirth Do you have a birth story you'd like to share on the podcast, or would like to otherwise connect? I love to hear from you! Send me a note at [email protected] Intro / Outro music: Dreams by Markvard Podcast cover photo by Karina Jensen @karinajensenphoto

When today's guest became pregnant with her long-awaited first baby, she placed her trust in a physician who came highly recommended and was well respected in her community. Throughout her pregnancy, she had no reason to question that trust. But when she made a decision at the end of pregnancy about where she wanted to give birth that her doctor disagreed with, everything changed. What followed during the birth of her baby was a profound violation of her bodily autonomy, leaving her feeling betrayed, powerless, and traumatized by the very person she had trusted to care for her. This is a difficult story to hear, but an important one to tell. Today's guest has chosen to share her story anonymously, both to protect her privacy and to speak openly about an experience that left her feeling profoundly violated and betrayed. Despite her efforts to seek accountability, justice has remained out of reach. As she shared with me, telling her story publicly may be the closest thing to justice she will ever receive. And so, today, we make space for her voice. Content Note: This episode contains a firsthand account of a serious violation of bodily autonomy during childbirth. Please listen with care and discretion, particularly if you are currently pregnant or preparing for birth. Below are a couple of my personal favorite resources for victims of obstetric violence: Birth Monopoly How to Heal A Bad Birth If you love the show, I would greatly appreciate a review on  Spotify or Apple Podcasts!  Follow me on Instagram @healingbirth Do you have a birth story you'd like to share on the podcast, or would like to otherwise connect? I love to hear from you! Send me a note at [email protected] Intro / Outro music: Dreams by Markvard Podcast cover photo by Karina Jensen @karinajensenphoto

Growing up in Brazil, where cesarean birth is extraordinarily common, Sofia is encouraged by a growing movement of women seeking to reclaim their birth experiences and rediscover the beauty of physiological birth. After a difficult first birth that included two days of labor, an episiotomy, and a NICU stay for her baby, Sofia leaned on the wisdom of her sister, a nurse midwife living in Brazil, to help her process and heal from the experience. During her second pregnancy, Sofia became intentional about the thoughts and beliefs she was bringing into birth. Through a daily practice of gratitude, positive birth affirmations, and scripture, she began replacing fear with confidence, reminding herself, "I can do hard things. I am strong. God will be there with me." When her sister flew in from Brazil just two weeks before her due date, Sofia hoped more than anything that her baby would arrive while she was there. And as fate would have it, labor began with just enough time for her sister to create the peaceful, intimate birth environment Sofia had been envisioning. What was meant to be another hospital birth unfolded into an unexpectedly beautiful homebirth, with Sofia welcoming her baby in the shower, supported by the very woman who had helped her rediscover her trust in birth. This is a powerful story about the words we speak over ourselves, the influence of our beliefs, and just how transformative a positive birth experience can be. If you love the show, I would greatly appreciate a review on  Spotify or Apple Podcasts!  Follow me on Instagram @healingbirth Do you have a birth story you'd like to share on the podcast, or would like to otherwise connect? I love to hear from you! Send me a note at [email protected] Intro / Outro music: Dreams by Markvard Podcast cover photo by Karina Jensen @karinajensenphoto

This week's guest shares the remarkable evolution of her six birth stories, from fighting to have her wishes respected in the hospital, to discovering just how beautiful and transformative birth could be at home. After advocating fiercely for herself throughout her first hospital birth, she was left deeply affected by the way she was treated. Her second birth brought an unwanted induction and an experience so difficult that the postpartum depression that followed clouded much of her memory of her son's infancy. By her third pregnancy, she knew she needed something different. She chose the care of a midwife, first in the hospital, and eventually made the leap to homebirth with her fourth baby. That experience changed everything. For the first time, birth wasn't something to endure or recover from. It was beautiful, empowering, and transformative, not only for her, but for her husband as well. She went on to welcome two more babies at home, and after the birth of her sixth, her midwife encouraged her to consider becoming a birthworker herself. Today, she has the privilege of attending other women as they give birth, a calling born from her own journey of discovering just how profoundly different birth can be when a woman feels safe, supported, and respected. If you love the show, I would greatly appreciate a review on  Spotify or Apple Podcasts!  Follow me on Instagram @healingbirth Do you have a birth story you'd like to share on the podcast, or would like to otherwise connect? I love to hear from you! Send me a note at [email protected] Intro / Outro music: Dreams by Markvard Podcast cover photo by Karina Jensen @karinajensenphoto

In Part One of Alayna's story, we left off as she made the difficult decision to go to the hospital after developing clear signs of preeclampsia at the end of her pregnancy. As she had been planning to freebirth, she arrived with no record of prenatal care and ultimately experienced a failed induction followed by a cesarean, the last way she had imagined welcoming her baby. But Alayna's story is about so much more than the way her baby was born. In Part Two, she shares with incredible vulnerability about the many layers of grief that followed: being the last person to hold her baby, never seeing her placenta, and coming home to the untouched birth pool, and birth affirmations that had been waiting for a completely different birth. She also speaks honestly about the loneliness and disconnection she experienced afterward, including the painful thought, "I know she's mine, but I don't feel it yet," and why she couldn't bring herself to share her birth story for two months. Alayna is still healing. At the  time of our recording, she only recently has she begun to feel that she holds the whole story of her birth, rather than scattered pieces of an experience she was still trying to understand. Together, we talk about grief, PTSD, the small mercies she held onto along the way, and how this experience is shaping, but not yet defining, the choices she may make in a future pregnancy. If you love the show, I would greatly appreciate a review on  Spotify or Apple Podcasts!  Follow me on Instagram @healingbirth Do you have a birth story you'd like to share on the podcast, or would like to otherwise connect? I love to hear from you! Send me a note at [email protected] Intro / Outro music: Dreams by Markvard Podcast cover photo by Karina Jensen @karinajensenphoto

Alayna's journey to motherhood began with two years of trying to conceive, a season filled with hope, disappointment, and the emotional rollercoaster of waiting for the pregnancy she wanted so deeply. When she finally became pregnant, she thrived in those early months and began preparing for the freebirth she envisioned. But halfway through her pregnancy, life changed dramatically. Her husband was seriously injured in a car accident, leaving him unable to work and Alayna carrying the financial weight of their family while running her own chiropractic practice. As the stress mounted, so did changes in her body. Swelling increased, sleep became nearly impossible, and her blood pressure began to rise. By 38 weeks, symptoms of preeclampsia had become too significant to ignore. In Part One of Alayna's story, we talk about the long road to becoming pregnant, the pregnancy she had hoped for, and the particular kind of heartbreak that comes when you feel your carefully considered birth plans slipping away. For Alayna, it meant confronting the realization that she may have to go to the one place she desperately did not want to give birth: the hospital. If you love the show, I would greatly appreciate a review on  Spotify or Apple Podcasts!  Follow me on Instagram @healingbirth Do you have a birth story you'd like to share on the podcast, or would like to otherwise connect? I love to hear from you! Send me a note at [email protected] Intro / Outro music: Dreams by Markvard Podcast cover photo by Karina Jensen @karinajensenphoto

After going into labor unexpectedly at just 35 weeks with her first baby, Hannah's plans for a midwife-assisted homebirth quickly turned into a hospital transfer and a traumatic experience that left her feeling deeply let down by the very system of support she had trusted. She went on to freebirth her next two babies at home, experiences she remains incredibly grateful for. But looking back, Hannah can also see how her choice to birth without professional support was shaped, at least in part, by what she had experienced the first time around. By her fourth pregnancy, something had shifted. She no longer felt like she needed to do it all on her own. She wanted support, and for the first time since her first birth, she felt ready to invite a midwife back into her birth space. She experienced weeks of exhausting, mind-bending prodromal labor before Hannah finally welcomed her fourth baby peacefully at home, surrounded by her midwife and supportive friends. This is a story about much more than one homebirth. It's about the ways our previous birth experiences shape the choices we make, the difference between choosing independence and feeling like we have no other choice, and Hannah's journey toward healing her relationship with midwifery and allowing herself to be supported again. You can listen to both of Hannah's powerful, previous birth stories here: Trusing Birth at 35 Weeks A (Surprise!) Breech Freebirth  If you love the show, I would greatly appreciate a review on  Spotify or Apple Podcasts! Follow me on Instagram @healingbirth Do you have a birth story you'd like to share on the podcast, or would like to otherwise connect? I love to hear from you! Send me a note at [email protected] Intro / Outro music: Dreams by Markvard Podcast cover photo by Karina Jensen @karinajensenphoto