Hallie and Eric had a long 3-year journey to conceive their son. Along the way, previously undiagnosed conditions PCOS and Hashimoto’s are identified. Hallie eventually decides to seek out complementary therapies in her pursuit to conceive such as acupuncture, which seems to make a big difference. She conceives on the first IVF transfer and immediately seeks out doula support and an OB who specializes in endocrinology. She also dives into research to develop her preferences. Though she desired an undisturbed, low-intervention birth, she ends up needing an immediate induction at 38 weeks due to preeclampsia. Despite this not being the preferred path, she still has a positive experience because of the birth team she so carefully chose. Hallie also shares about working with an infant care & feeding specialist as well as a mohel for their son’s bris ceremony. 

Full show notes at: birthmattersnyc.com/blog/ep93

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Whenever Hannah tried to reconcile her background as a professional dancer with the idea of pregnancy and birth, it felt like the two were incompatible. Yet when she does get pregnant, she finds ways to beautifully integrate the two. While pregnant, Hannah obtains a grant to both create and perform a dance work that tells the story of her journey into parenthood and to hold dance & journaling classes to create a community of support for fellow pregnant people. Ultimately, she chooses to give birth at home. Today’s birth story shares all the details of how Hannah hires a great midwife and doula birth team to support her and her husband in their Upper West Side home birth.

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Kelly eagerly educated herself and prepared for giving birth in all the ways – prenatal yoga, hiring doulas and a midwife, taking birth class, strategic nutrition, acupuncture, seeing a pelvic floor therapist. Because she’s a self-professed “jaded” professional working in the medical field, she made very intentional choices surrounding her care provider and support team. Kelly’s surprised when, just before her due date, her water breaks during a prenatal visit with her midwife. From there, listen to hear how quickly Kelly’s labor progresses after her midwife sends her home, how instinctively she labors, and how showing up just in time to push contributed to an easier-than-she-expected birthing process. Kelly also shares a bit about her early breastfeeding experience and how getting her daughter’s tongue-tie oral restrictions released helped lead to gradual improvements.

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Kaley did everything she could to maintain a healthy, active lifestyle throughout her pregnancy. She continued her running habit, then around 20 weeks she needed to shift to swimming and also did prenatal yoga. 

Toward the end of her healthy pregnancy, she’s told that her cervix is already 4 centimeters dilated and 90% effaced, yet her labor wouldn't start for another 3 weeks.

When she experiences some bleeding at nearly 40 weeks, she checks into the hospital to get checked out. They tell her they’d like to induce, but before they can start the induction, her water breaks with a big gush. She buys a bit of time, and is grateful that her contractions started on their own about an hour later. 

Kaley shares all of the details about how both fast and positive her labor was, but what very scary complications she experiences after the birth. She also explains how it has helped her to separate the birth from the 3rd stage into distinct events in order to protect the memory of her baby’s birth as a positive one.

She then shares a bit about the experience of being a bit disoriented in her postpartum physical body, as well as some of the breastfeeding challenges she faced due to low milk supply caused by having lost so much blood.

Full show notes at: birthmattersshow.com

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Mara & Dylan did lots of great prep for birth in pregnancy – acupuncture, massage, birth class, hiring a doula, yoga, and more. Having heard her stepmom share how beautiful her own home birth was, this planted a seed of trust in the birthing process. When the time comes for her own baby’s birth, she feels most in her element laboring at home, using the shower for hydrotherapy almost nonstop. In fact, she was so in her element that she labored at home almost too long, and their doula diverts them to a different hospital when Mara starts getting the urge to push in the car. Listen to today’s story to hear how things play out from there. This story carries some striking similarities to a story shared earlier this season in Episode 83 by Nadia. So while we have two last-minute detours in this season, please don’t get it into your head that this is common because it’s not common at all – it’s quite an uncommon coincidence. She also shares a bit about some initial challenges she had with breastfeeding.

Show notes (links to resources, transcript, photos, etc.): birthmattersshow.com

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Lauren’s first time giving birth was pre-pandemic in Australia in a very different healthcare system. So when she and her husband Shaun relocated to the NYC area to suburban New Jersey and wanted to conceive again, she began listening to this podcast as a way to get to know the local birth environment. Today she shares her experience of having an unmedicated birth for a second time but in a New Jersey hospital. Lauren tells us she gleaned wisdom from listening to some of the birth stories shared on this podcast that helped her to more confidently advocate for herself to have the unmedicated birth she hoped for when a nurse was pushing to start pitocin. Then you’ll hear her compare and contrast the Australian birthing environment to that of the NYC area – particularly along the lines of lactation support.

Show notes at birthmattersshow.com

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Jewish doula and mental health therapist Chana decides to get off medications for depression and anxiety during her pregnancy. This results in a recurrence of both, including pretty severe insomnia and her family strongly encourages her to get back on medications. She gets back to feeling more well for the rest of her pregnancy, but then her beloved grandmother dies when Chana’s 38 weeks pregnant, closely followed by Passover. Chana goes into labor at a large Seder family gathering and goes on to have a waterbirth at a Long Island hospital attended by a doula and Jewish midwife. Then she identifies her daughter’s gender at birth and names  her after her grandmother.

Show notes at birthmattersshow.com

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Michelle knew all of her life that she experiences medical anxiety and convulsive syncope. So, when she started thinking about her deep desire to grow a family, she started educating herself and preparing strategically. Knowing herself and her anxiety challenges, she started planning for an unmedicated birth. Along the way, her strategies included eventually changing OBs who would be more supportive of her preferences and needs, hiring a doula, doing lots of research and taking birth class. This is a story of how this preparation contributed to her well-supported, uncomplicated, unmedicated hospital birth.

Show notes at birthmattersshow.com

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When Brooklynites Megan & Ted decide to try to get pregnant around the beginning of the pandemic, they’re surprised to conceive immediately. After seeing an OB and desiring less rushed time and more holistic care, they eventually land on giving birth at Brooklyn Birthing Center with midwives and a doula. Megan’s taken aback and challenged when she experiences 3 days of prodromal early labor with very little sleep. Eventually, labor kicks into gear once her water breaks. After pushing for 3+ hours and being told she may need to transfer to the hospital, their doula smartly encourages Megan to try an asymmetrical position that helps the baby get past the pelvic brim and finally be born. Megan & Ted also share about how well-supported they were not only in labor but after birth, too, and how important that was when Megan experienced some baby blues, surfacing in temporary anxiety and uncharacteristic irritability.

Show notes at birthmattersshow.com

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When Becky and her transgender husband decide to grow their family, it’s a long, winding road to meeting their baby. First step: make very careful adjustments to her depression & anxiety meds in order to conceive as safely as possible. Next step: the tedious process of seeking out a sperm donor. Then they had to go through 7 emotional rounds of IUI and finally IVF before they could even start a viable pregnancy. Today Becky shares all of those details plus her baby’s birth story, which starts with contractions in the middle of the night, being told she’s not actually in labor when she clearly was, augmenting with pitocin, Becky advocating to have her preferences be honored, and an otherwise fairly uncomplicated birth. She also shares a bit about her breastfeeding journey and how postpartum anxiety started around 3 months out from birth when baby went on a nursing strike.

Please always curate for yourself which episodes you feel will build your confidence and not your anxiety. This is one of the more challenging stories in that Becky was the unfortunate recipient of patient gaslighting, which could be upsetting or triggering for some listeners. However, you’ll hear how smartly Becky advocates for her voice to be heard and her preferences to be respected, so this is one reason we feel this story could be very useful for expectant parents to hear.

If you do choose to skip the story, I highly recommend tuning in to the teaching portion at the end because I’ll go over some simple but powerful self-advocacy strategies that are a glimpse of what you’ll also learn if you come to birth class.

Show notes at birthmattersshow.com

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