In this episode, Rachel, a mother of three boys, a doula, and a passionate advocate for maternal health shares her transformative journey through her three pregnancies and births. She details the challenges of her first traumatic C-section, the struggle and acceptance of her second scheduled C-section, and then her victorious vaginal birth after 2 cesareans with her third baby. We discuss the systemic biases and disparities in healthcare, particularly for Black birthing people, and the importance of trusting one's intuition and seeking supportive providers. Rachel's experience led her to become a doula and an advocate, where she continues to support and educate families. This episode is a testament to resilience, empowerment, and the critical need for improved maternal health practices.

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Today Bea shares her perinatal journey from dealing with unexpected infertility and IVF to the whirlwind experience of a fast labor and delivery. She discusses the realities of fertility treatments and the specific challenges surrounding her fear of needles, the surprise of her water breaking dramatically while she was asleep, and a bit about the great support she got in early breastfeeding, sleep challenges, and an early thyroid imbalance her son had that required medication.

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Today's episode is a combination of 3 birth stories and then a chat with a fellow birth worker named Meagan Heaton, co-founder of The VBAC Link. She's going to share a little bit about her three births, which include two cesareans and one vaginal birth after two cesareans. Then we have a chat about vaginal birth after cesarean. This episode should be interesting and educational even if you are expecting your first baby and haven’t ever had a cesarean. The strategies and information you'll hear us chat about could help you ensure you’re hiring a medical care provider who is only going to intervene and do a cesarean if absolutely necessary. It’ll also help you think about questions you might want to ask as you’re hiring a care provider whether it’s your first time or you’ve had a cesarean and would like to VBAC. A lot of expectant or new parents have told me after having a cesarean they thought it’s “once a cesarean always a cesarean” for any subsequent births. But if someone has a cesarean, it’s evidence-based in the majority of cases to give that person a chance to give birth vaginally if they’d like to. So we’ll do some mythbusting on this today. We’ll also discuss some of the reasons why we don’t believe 39-week inductions that’ve been all the rage since 2018 due to the ARRIVE Trial are leading to fewer cesareans. 

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Seanna had a traumatic first birth in 2020. It was an emergency cesarean in 2020 in which she felt completely unempowered. In her 2nd pregnancy, she makes many different decisions in hopes to have a radically different, more empowering birth. She goes to therapy to process and heal from the birth trauma with the help of EMDR. Seanna takes birth class and learns how to advocate for herself and her baby, hires doulas, chooses a truly VBAC-supportive OB at a different hospital, and seeks bodywork from a chiropractor and acupuncturist. This story will hopefully be of encouragement to anyone who’s had a traumatic first birth that a second birth can be healing – but often not without some thoughtful, strategic choices. And for listeners expecting their first baby, this story will drive home how valuable your birth setting, support team, and education can be to protect your experience and your baby’s birth to be as healthy and safe as it can be.

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Today NYC obstetricians Drs. Worth & Mussalli chat with Lisa to discuss all the ins and outs of gentle cesarean as well as the different medical indications for a c-section. They also compare and contrast planned cesareans to emergency cesareans to non-emergent cesareans. You’ll also hear them detail a new collaborative care model pathway in which pregnant folks in NYC can get prenatal care with them and then transfer their care for the big day to midwives at a local hospital. Grab a pen/device and take some notes to develop your belly birth plan, whether it’s being planned or just in case!

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Upper West Sider Diana wanted an unmedicated birth and prepared by hiring doulas and switching from a large OB practice to a hospital midwife in an OB practice that she felt much more comfortable with. As she approaches her due time and her provider starts bringing up scheduling an induction at 40 weeks, she does all the things to try to go into labor. At 39 weeks, her water ruptures spontaneously (and loudly) while sleeping and she has an extremely fast labor, giving birth in only about 4 hours. Josh joins Diana for their baby’s birth story and shares how glad he was they had doulas to help them know they needed to go to the hospital far sooner than they had expected.

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Today we welcome new mom, Chantal. Previously diagnosed with polycystic ovarian syndrome, Chantal expected getting pregnant to take a while, so getting pregnant on the first try came as a surprise. On the heels of completing birth class and having a marathon of 3 baby showers, another surprise happens when Chantal’s water breaks prematurely at 35 weeks. When she arrives at the hospital, she learns her hospital has a free doula program, and she gets great support from her assigned doula, alongside her husband. After giving birth prematurely, she faces the emotional rollercoaster of a brief NICU stay for their son. Listen as Chantal navigates the intricacies of early postpartum, breastfeeding challenges, and the invaluable support from her community and medical team. Her story embodies resilience, community, and immense love for her newborn son.

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Today you’ll hear from one of the two homebirth midwives that was highlighted and praised in the last episode. Our guest today is Sorayya Kassamali Rickicki, a New York City-based home birth midwife whose practice is called Taarab Midwifery. Sorayya shares her journey from being a birth doula to becoming a midwife, inspired by her own physiologic, unmedicated births. The conversation emphasizes the importance of respectful care, the role of midwives in providing individualized and consent-based care, and debunks common misconceptions about the safety and financial accessibility of home births. Sorayya also highlights the differences between home and hospital births, particularly focusing on maternal and neonatal safety, and the benefits of having midwife-led postpartum care. Finally, she touches upon her plans to contribute to maternal health in Tanzania through volunteering at a health clinic.

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In this episode, Sheyda and her partner Corentin (who goes by Coco) share their experience of having a home birth for their son, Hugo. They discuss their prenatal journey in choosing to give birth at home with a midwife team and doula team and how ideal their birth team was for them because they prioritized consent-based, connected care. They share how, while the labor and birth went pretty smoothly, Sheyda chose to transfer to the hospital due to heavy bleeding afterwards in order to recover more quickly. Coco reflects on the hours he had alone as a new dad with their newborn while Sheyda was in the hospital for just shy of a day. You’ll hear Sheyda & Coco emphasize the value of postpartum support from both friends and professionals such as a postpartum doula and pelvic floor therapist. Sheyda shares how these experiences inspired her to become a postpartum doula, stressing the significance of emotional and practical support for new parents.

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Tracy’s second pregnancy surprises her by being much more challenging than the first. Toward the end of pregnancy, baby #2 is persistently transverse (or sideways) and her OB recommends manually turning the baby. Tracy isn’t fond of that idea, so she does some research and goes to a chiropractor who specializes in helping with this using the Webster technique. Baby successfully flips and Tracy’s able to have the vaginal birth she wanted. However, she needs to put the self-advocacy skills she learned in birth class to good use when the hospital staff starts pressuring her for interventions she didn’t want due to holiday overcrowding and not due to medical necessity.

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