Birth Kweens

Robin Kaplan, M.Ed., IBCLC is a lactation consultant in San Diego, CA. She launched the San Diego Breastfeeding Center in 2009 and has recently published her first book, Latch: A Handbook for Breastfeeding with Confidence at Every Stage. Robin was kind enough to sit down with the Birth Kweens to discuss breastfeeding. Here's an overview of what's covered in this episode:

• A bit about Robin's background and how she became a lactation consultant
• Info about Robin's non-profit, the San Diego Breastfeeding Center Foundation
• The Boob Group Podcast
• An overview of the benefits of breastfeeding
• Some of the most common challenges that arise with breastfeeding
• The importance of getting support early on in a breastfeeding journey, especially if you're having any challenges
• The role that partners/other family members can play in supporting the breastfeeding journey
• What the average breastfeeding journey looks like for the first couple of weeks
• The number of wet and dirty diapers you want to see and the number of feedings a baby should be doing in a 24 hour period
• The importance of honoring the forth trimester and how doing so supports breastfeeding
• If/when pacifiers and bottles should be introduced to a baby
• What the 'witching hour' is and why it happens
• How having flat or inverted nipples might impact breastfeeding and some tools that can be used to assist with breastfeeding in these situations
  • Supple Cups
  • Breast shells
  • Lansinoh Latch Assist
• Some info about drinking alcohol while breastfeeding. Click hereto read the article from KellyMom.com that Robin references.
• Robin's suggestions for helpful breastfeeding gear:
  • Coconut oil (to use as nipple cream)
  • Nursing pillow
    • My Breast Friend
    • Boppy
    • Ergo Nursing Pillow
    • Nesting Pilllow from Blessed Nest
  • Something to baby wear in (some popular options are wraps,ring slings, or structured carriers such as the Ergo 360)
  • An electric breast pump (a popular option is the Spectra)
  • A hand pump
• Click here to buy Robin's new book!

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Jessica Yahfoufi shares her two birth stories with us on this episode of Birth Kweens. Jessica lives in San Diego with her husband and their kids. She gave birth to their daughter Francesca in a hospital-based birth center in January 2015. Their son Leo was born in September 2017 in the backseat of the car after a fast and furious 2 hour labor. Jessica shares candidly about the intensity and beauty of natural birth, the challenges of transitioning into the role of a stay-at-home mom, and how her two birth experiences have shaped her. You can find the Super Sibling Activity Book that Jessica mentions on Amazon.

Support our sponsor!Order your own FemmyCycle menstrual cup today by going to www.FemmyCycle.com/BirthKweens and entering the code "kweens" at checkout. You get 10% off your order plus free shipping! YAS KWEEN!

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If you liked this episode of the Birth Kweens Podcast, tell your friends! And go to iTunes, Stitcher, GooglePlay, and Spotify to rate/review/subscribe to the show. For more from us, visit www.BirthKweens.com to sign up for our newsletter. Follow us on Instagram @BirthKweens, join our Facebook group the Birth Kweens Podcast Community, and email us at [email protected] with your questions, suggestions and feedback. Also, be sure to click here so that you can support the show while doing you're regular Amazon shopping!

This episode is all about being pregnancy and birth with multiples! Our guest Ashley Stetson is a Certified Birth Doula, San Diego HypnoBirthing Educator, and Doula Match Facilitator at the Birth Education Center of San Diego. She became a mother to spontaneous triplets in 2011. Their birth inspired her to join the childbirth community and help families achieve the birth experiences they deserve. She is a highly trained doula with much experience in high risk pregnancy, multiples pregnancies, cesarean births, and induction.Here's what we covered in our chat with Ashley:

• Ashley's experience getting pregnant with spontaneously conceived triplets, including what it was like to see THREE babies on the ultrasound at her first doctor's appointment
• What it means to have 'spontaneously conceived' multiples and why you should never ask someone whether their babies were conceived 'naturally'!
• What her triplet pregnancy was like and how her birth options changed significantly upon discovering she was pregnant with three babies
• The highlights of Ashley's birth story – the plan to have a vaginal birth, an induction at 37 weeks + 4 days (with 3 head-down babies!), an unexpected complication during labor followed by a cesarean birth, and a very short NICU stay for the babies
• A few words about how challenging it is for families who have babies in the NICU and what it was like for Ashley to go her entire pregnancy assuming/being told that she would almost certainly have preemies who'd need to spend time in the NICU
• The different types of multiples and how that's determined by the number of placentas and amniotic sacs in relation to the number of babies
• Some of the risk factors with multiples, including things like twin to twin transfusion syndrome
• An explanation of what determines whether twins are identical or fraternal
• Some tips from Ashley on how to go about preparing for delivery with multiples, including choosing a good care provider, getting education about your options, and hiring a doula
• The studies and resources that Ashley mentioned throughout the episode:
  • Twin Births: Vaginal Delivery Safer Than Cesarean
  • Triplets: Vaginal Birth is as Safe
  • The Birthing Multiples Naturally Facebook Group
  • Twiniversity
  • Multiples of America

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If you liked this episode of the Birth Kweens Podcast, tell your friends! And go to iTunes, Stitcher, GooglePlay, and Spotify to rate/review/subscribe to the show. For more from us, visit www.BirthKweens.com to sign up for our newsletter. Follow us on Instagram @BirthKweens, join our Facebook group the Birth Kweens Podcast Community, and email us at [email protected] with your questions, suggestions and feedback. Also, be sure to click here so that you can support the show while doing your regular Amazon shopping!

In this episode of Birth Kweens, Tema Mercado, LM, CPM talks to the Kweens about postpartum healing rituals. Tema is a Xicana mother of five children, wife, and licensed midwife. She has dedicated the past 18 years of her life to serving women in various capacities – Gang Intervention Specialist, Sexual Assault Counselor, Perinatal Health Educator, Teen Parent Advocate, Breastfeeding Peer Counselor and Birth Doula. After being a doula for some time, Tema came to a crossroads. Being a doula meant she could support many women within the hospital setting, but it also meant she must bear witness to some of the traumatic routine hospital practices. She knew as a Doula that her care in the hospital was limited to the care provider and that if she wanted her clients to receive more dignified care that she would have to become their care provider. Tema received full funding to Midwifery School and completed her three years of clinical practice at Birth Roots Maternity and Women's Health Center in Chula Vista, CA. She provides services on both sides of the border to families searching for a Parto Humanizado. She's board member of the California Association of Licensed Midwives and President of the Baja California State Board of the Mexican Association of Midwifery. She is well-versed in the practice of postpartum sealing rituals and was kind enough to share some of that info with the Birth Kweens. Here's an overview of what you'll hear in this podcast:

• Tema's entry into birth work and how her training as a sexual assault counselor prepared her to be a great doula
• Why Tema decided to make the shift from doula work to midwifery and how challenging and painful it is to bear witness to obstetric violence at the hands of another care provider
• The tenets of a nurturing and thorough postpartum care routine (and how many of the things involved are simple and intuitive practices)
• How hospital-based birth workers can incorporate some of the most important postpartum care rituals into hospital births
• The role that belly binding can play in postpartum healing – how to do it, when to do it, and how long to continue it for
• How one of the unfortunate side effects of advancements in medicine has been a lack of personal responsibility for one's own health and how this manifests in maternity care specifically
• Tema's thoughts about the role that cultural appropriation plays in sharing the postpartum healing rituals of indigenous cultures
• What Tema does during one of her postpartum sealing rituals
• The role that herbs/herbal remedies play in postpartum healing and how establishing a relationship with the plants you use is an essential part of this process
• The book Karly mentioned about herbs – Plant Spirit Medicine: A Journey Into the Healing Wisdom of Plants
• Click here to check out Tema's online store where she sells belly binding wraps, rebozos, fajas, and herbs

Support our sponsor!Order your own FemmyCycle menstrual cup today by going to www.FemmyCycle.com/BirthKweens and entering the code "kweens" at checkout. You get 10% off your order plus free shipping! YAS KWEEN!

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If you liked this episode of the Birth Kweens Podcast, tell your friends! And go to iTunes, Stitcher, GooglePlay, and Spotify to rate/review/subscribe to the show. For more from us, visit www.BirthKweens.com to sign up for our newsletter. Follow us on Instagram @BirthKweens, join our Facebook group the Birth Kweens Podcast Community, and email us at [email protected] with your questions, suggestions and feedback. Also, be sure to click here so that you can support the show while doing your regular Amazon shopping!

Keli Garza of Steamy Chick joins the Birth Kweens to discuss vaginal steaming! Keli has a master's degree in International Development. When she founded the company Steamy Chick--the largest distributor of vaginal steam supplies in the United States--she began to work with her customers to research their results with vaginal steaming. Having recorded over seven hundred case studies, Keli holds the only known research database on vaginal steaming. Learning from her customers' experiences, she developed unique vaginal steam treatment protocols for different conditions and has become a skillful practitioner able to treat a wide array of women's health concerns. Based on her practice, Garza is now founding a new field of women's medicine called Peristeam Hydrotherapy--the use of vaginal steaming for menstrual and reproductive health. She has certified over one hundred practitioners worldwide through her Peristeam Hydrotherapy Institute and is conducting clinical studies which will help to establish vaginal steaming as an evidence-based medical science.

Here's an overview of what Keli and the Birth Kweens discuss in this episode:

• What V-steaming entails and how it's done
• Whether men can take part in steaming (A-steam, anyone!?!?)
• The historical context of V steaming – which cultures and parts of the world this practice hails from
• The story of how Keli got into vaginal steaming and ultimately became the Steamy Chick
• What health issues that vaginal steaming can help with, including some success stories
• The online resources and e-courses that Keli offers through Steamy Chick
• Click here to order vaginal steam supplies from Steamy Chick
• Click here to read instructions for setting up and steaming with a vaginal steam sauna
• Click here to read instructions for how to do a V steam without a steam sauna
• Click here to follow Steamy Chick on Instagram

Support our sponsor!Order your own FemmyCycle menstrual cup today by going to www.FemmyCycle.com/BirthKweens and entering the code "kweens" at checkout. You get 10% off your order plus free shipping! YAS KWEEN!

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If you liked this episode of the Birth Kweens Podcast, tell your friends! And go to iTunes, Stitcher, GooglePlay, and Spotify to rate/review/subscribe to the show. For more from us, visit www.BirthKweens.com to sign up for our newsletter. Follow us on Instagram @BirthKweens, join our Facebook group the Birth Kweens Podcast Community, and email us at [email protected] with your questions, suggestions and feedback. Also, be sure to click here so that you can support the show while doing your regular Amazon shopping!

This episode of Birth Kweens features Lindsey Bliss of Carriage House Birth. Lindsey is a doula, mom of 7 (including TWO sets of twins!), co-director of Carriage House Birth, and author of the amazing new book The Doula's Guide to Empowering Your Birth. Here's what she and the Kweens talked about in this episode:

• A brief overview of Lindsey's first few births and how her experiences led her to become a birth worker
• How she manages being a mom to 7 and an active birth worker (spoiler alert: it's all about having a support network and embracing the mayhem!)
• How Lindsey's identity and sense of self shifted when she became a mom, especially since, for much of her life, she didn't think she'd have any children (much less 7 of them!)
• Why it's so important to Lindsey to be authentic and speak candidly about birth and parenthood
• What it's been like for Lindsey to navigate the physical and emotional changes brought about by pregnancy and birth
• Why reproductive justice and equal access to health care for marginalized groups are such important issues and what Lindsey's doing to shed light on these topics
• Click here to buy Lindsey's new book (and here to follow the amazing artist, Stepha Lawson, who illustrated the book)
• Click here to get more info about the Carriage House Birth doula trainings
• Follow Lindsey on Instagram at @doulabliss and follow Carriage House Birth at @carriagehousebirth.

Support our sponsor!Order your own FemmyCycle menstrual cup today by going to www.FemmyCycle.com/BirthKweens and entering the code "kweens" at checkout. You get 10% off your order plus free shipping! YAS KWEEN!

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If you liked this episode of the Birth Kweens Podcast, tell your friends! And go to iTunes, Stitcher, GooglePlay, and Spotify to rate/review/subscribe to the show. For more from us, visit www.BirthKweens.com to sign up for our newsletter. Follow us on Instagram @BirthKweens, join our Facebook group the Birth Kweens Podcast Community, and email us at [email protected] with your questions, suggestions and feedback. Also, be sure to click here so that you can support the show while doing your regular Amazon shopping!

In this episode of Birth Kweens, Care Messer shares about her journey to becoming a mom, a path that included struggles with infertility, adoption, having an unmedicated birth center birth, and eventually becoming a birth worker herself. Care is the founder of The Birth Education Center in San Diego, CA. When Care discovered HypnoBirthing for the birth of her daughter in 2008, it changed her life's path. Care believes that babies can experience a birth day that is magical, loving, and gentle. When families are educated to resolve fears, birth becomes a beautiful positive experience. Care continued on to become a DONA Doula under the instruction of Gerri Ryan and became a Certified HypnoBirthing Instructor. From there, Care started her own business, San Diego HypnoBirthing where she has been educating families since 2009. She is a NATH Hypnotherapist, a Certified Placenta Encapsulationist, an ICEA-trained Childbirth Educator, a CAPPA-trained Post-partum Doula, and an Innate Traditions-trained Post-partum Doula. Care is certified as a Professional Cuddler and Cuddle Facilitator through Cuddle Sanctuary in Los Angeles and through Cuddlist.com. Until recently Care served as the Director of Cap Wellness Center. She is a mentor and educator for doulas across San Diego County in Professional Doula Classes created for the Birth Education Center. She has also trained students nurses at SDSU and held nurse trainings in local hospitals. She is a Board member at The Nizhoni Institute for Midwifery and served as Vice President of San Diego Birth Network. Here's an overview of what Care shares about in this episode:

• A bit about her family background… what it was like to grow up in a big family with hopes of having the same and then be faced with infertility
• Her struggles with repeated miscarriages (6 in total) and the impact that they had on her physical, mental, and emotional health
• How Care's oldest daughter Angie came into their family at 5 years old via adoption
• Getting pregnant for the 7thtime and how that baby (a little girl that would be named Finley) became the first and only one that Care was able to carry to term
• The role that getting diagnosed with and treated for MTHFR had on Care's ability to carry Finley to term
• Care's struggle to connect with Finley while she was pregnant because of all the miscarriages and how that experience has informed her understanding of trauma
• How Care went from wanting a completely medicated birth "with ALL of the drugs" to being an avid student of Hypnobirthing who switched to a birth center and midwifery care.
• What Care's labor and birth with Finley was like – a waterbirth in a birth center followed by an unexpected postpartum hospital transfer for the baby
• Coming to learn, a few hours after she was born, that Finley was very sick and eventually being told that she wouldn't make it
• What it was like for Care to cope with Finley's terminal diagnosis, especially after already experiencing so much loss
• How Finley beat all the odds and survived despite her severe birth injury
• What life is like for Care and her family today, including how Finley is doing
• Care's current role as a birth worker and the impact that her own beautifully unique and challenging birth experience has had on how she supports other families in their childbearing years
• The importance of connection when it comes to birth and what it looks like to connect with your baby and your partner(s) throughout pregnancy and birth
• Some helpful tips on how to work through fears and past traumas related to/stemming from birth
• Some info about using birth story medicine and therapies like EMDR to work through birth trauma

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If you liked this episode of the Birth Kweens Podcast, tell your friends! And go to iTunes, Stitcher, GooglePlay, and Spotify to rate/review/subscribe to the show. For more from us, visit www.BirthKweens.com to sign up for our newsletter. Follow us on Instagram @BirthKweens, join our Facebook group the Birth Kweens Podcast Community, and email us at [email protected] with your questions, suggestions and feedback. Also, be sure to click here so that you can support the show while doing your regular Amazon shopping!

Karly and Ali talk with Dr. Jaime Goldman of Luna Physical Therapy about pelvic floor health before, during, and after pregnancy. Jaime is a licensed women's health physical therapist specializing in pregnancy, postpartum, and pelvic floor health. She has been practicing physical therapy for 10 years, as well as being a yoga instructor and birth doula. Healing her own birth-related injuries and returning to exercise following the births of her daughters is what led Dr. Goldman to pursue her path in pelvic floor health. Here's an overview of what you'll hear about in this episode:

• Jaime's background and how she ended up as a physical therapist who specializes in women's health and pelvic floor issues.
• The most common pelvic floors issues that arise during and after pregnancy
• Whether it's normal to experience incontinence while pregnant and after giving birth and what can be done to fix this issue
• What a treatment session with a pelvic floor physical therapist usually entails
• How breath works impacts the pelvic floor and why it's an essential part of healing after birth
• Some tools and techniques people at home might be able to use to address their own pelvic floor issues
• What a yoni egg/vaginal weight is and how and when it can be used to strengthen the pelvic floor
• Pelvic floor prolapse – what it means, the different types, and some basics about treatment
• An article about what a women's health physical therapist does
• A tool to help you locate a pelvic floor physical therapist (courtesy of the Women's Health – American Physical Therapy Association)

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If you liked this episode of the Birth Kweens Podcast, tell your friends! And go to iTunes, Stitcher, GooglePlay, and Spotify to rate/review/subscribe to the show. For more from us, visit www.BirthKweens.com to sign up for our newsletter. Follow us on Instagram @BirthKweens, join our Facebook group the Birth Kweens Podcast Community, and email us at [email protected] with your questions, suggestions and feedback. Also, be sure to click here so that you can support the show while doing your regular Amazon shopping!

In this episode of the Birth Kweens Podcast, Karly and Ali talk with Vienna Farlow (aka – The Cuntsultant) about general body literacy and the Justisse Method of fertility awareness. Vienna is a vagina enthusiast, advocate, and student. The Cuntsultant is the culmination of her lifelong pursuit to learn as much as possible about the vagina and the people who have them -- physically, emotionally, and spiritually. She strongly believes that all female bodied people should be empowered to know more about their bodies and the way they work. She is passionate about reproductive justice, LGBTQ+ inclusion, full spectrum care, abortion access and provocation in the name of education. She is currently a Justisse Holistic Reproductive Health Practitioner intern and a member of the Association of Fertility Awareness Professionals. Here's what the Kweens covered in their conversation with Vienna:

• Vienna's background and how she became The Cuntsultant
• Her path to discovering the fertility awareness method and what learning about it did for her sense of body literacy
• What the Justisse Method of fertility awareness is all about
• Vienna's experience with hormonal birth control
• Whether the fertility awareness method can be used in concert with hormonal birth control
• How Justisse is unique compared to other fertility awareness methods
• The practicalities and logistics of using the Justisse Method to track fertility – what tools and information you need and how to interpret the data that's collected to inform fertility decisions
• The role that a basal body thermometer plays in fertility tracking (and Vienna's current favorite, the Geratherm)
• Some common misconceptions about fertility tracking and why using an app to track your cycles is NOT a form of birth control!!
• The great books mentioned in this episode:
  • Cunt: A Declaration of Independence by Inga Muscio
  • Our Bodies, Ourselves by Boston Women's Health Book Collective
  • Taking Charge of Your Fertility by Toni Weschler

You can visit Vienna's website here and find her on Instagram @thecvntsultant.

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If you liked this episode of the Birth Kweens Podcast, tell your friends! And go to iTunes, Stitcher, GooglePlay, and Spotifyto rate/review/subscribe to the show. For more from us, visit www.BirthKweens.comto sign up for our newsletter. Follow us on Instagram @BirthKweens, join our Facebook group the Birth Kweens Podcast Community, and email us at [email protected]with your questions, suggestions and feedback. Also, be sure to click hereso that you can support the show while doing your regular Amazon shopping!

In this episode of Birth Kweens, Karly and Ali take a deep dive into the hot topic of VBACs (vaginal birth after cesarean). There's a lot of misinformation floating around about VBACs, but lucky for you the kweens are here to clear things up with lots of evidence-based information and practical insight! Here's an overview of what's covered in this episode:

• What it means to have a VBAC and why they're such a hot topic in the birth world
• The most recent data on the cesarean rate in the USA
• Evidence on the optimal cesarean rate (i.e. the amount of cesareans we should be doing to optimize maternal and infant health outcomes)
• The reasons someone might want to have a VBAC
• Who's a good candidate for a VBAC
  • According to ACOG and the NIH, VBAC is a "safe, reasonable, and appropriate option for most women with one prior cesarean and some women with two prior cesareans".
  • According to the NIH VBAC Consensus Statement, approx. 74% of women who plan a VBAC will have one, but success rates vary from 54-94% depending on various factors.
• Who isn't a great candidate for a VBAC
• What it means to have a "special scar" on your uterus and a great resource for those who do
• The risks of a cesarean for both mom and baby
• The benefits of an elective repeat cesarean
• Henci Goer's analysis on whether an elective repeat cesarean is truly safer than a planned VBAC
• The benefits of a VBAC/TOLAC
• The risks of a VBAC/TOLAC (including lots of info about the big one – UTERINE RUPTURE!)
• Specific resources and studies regarding uterine rupture…
  • What it means to experience a uterine rupture and why the risk is higher with a VBAC than with a planned repeat cesarean
  • The difference between a uterine rupture and a dehiscence (source: https://reference.medscape.com/article/275854-overview)
  • The odds of experiencing a uterine rupture during a TOLAC/VBAC range from 0.21-0.9% depending on various factors (sources: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15598960, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22427745?dopt=Citation)
  • To further put the risk of uterine rupture into perspective, the authors of this well-respected book on obstetrical practice guidelines comment, "To put these rates into perspective, the probability of requiring an emergency cesarean section for acute other conditions (fetal distress, cord prolapse, or antepartum hemorrhage) in any woman giving birth, is approximately 2.7%, or up to 30 times as high as the risk of uterine rupture with a planned vaginal birth after cesarean." (source: http://www.homebirth.org.uk/vbacur.htm)
  • And for even more perspective on the relative risk of uterine rupture with a TOLAC/VBAC, refer back to Henci Goer's thorough analysis on the topic
  • January Harshe's analysis on the safety of VBACs
  • The signs and symptoms of uterine rupture
  • The factors that impact the rate of uterine rupture, including the thickness of the uterine scar at the end of pregnancy
• How to decide if a TOLAC/VBAC is right for you
  • The calculator to predict VBAC success
  • A great article that maps out the pros and cons of a VBAC vs. planned repeat cesarean
• The factors that influence the success of a TOLAC/VBA
• The pros and cons of planning a TOLAC/VBAC at a hospital vs. a birth center vs. home birt
• VBAC resources:
  • VBAC Facts
  • ICAN (Find a local chapter!)
  • VBAC.com
  • Check for VBAC support groups online (especially on FB)
• Books on VBACs:
  • Give Birth A Chance: How to Prepare for an Empowered VBAC by Ilia Blandina
  • The VBAC Companion by Diana Korte
  • Birthing Normally After a Cesarean or Two by Helene Vadeboncouer
  • Cut, Stapled & Mended by Roanna Rosewood
  • Ina May's Guide to Childbirth by Ina May Gaskin
  • Birthing From Within by Pam England & Rob Horowitz

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If you liked this episode of the Birth Kweens Podcast, tell your friends! And go to iTunes, Stitcher, GooglePlay, and Spotify to rate/review/subscribe to the show. For more from us, visit www.BirthKweens.com to sign up for our newsletter. Follow us on Instagram @BirthKweens, join our Facebook group the Birth Kweens Podcast Community, and email us at [email protected]with your questions, suggestions and feedback. Also, be sure to click here so that you can support the show while doing your regular Amazon shopping!