Today Simone Toomer joins us again to share her second baby’s birth story. Simone is a Black perinatal professional who serves birthing folks and families in a number of capacities, but at this point in time is mostly focusing on supporting nursing parents. In today’s story she shares how she again chose a Black support team and how her decision to give birth at home was a very logical choice following attending many births as a doula in various birth settings after her first baby’s birth. Simone had a quick first birth, and this one is even shorter, lasting only a couple of hours from her noticing the first labor contraction to meeting her son. She then shares being surprised by some of the breastfeeding challenges she experienced with her 2nd, since her first experience had been much easier. She explains how taking her son for bodywork and then getting his tongue tie released made all the difference. Simone also details some of how the challenges she experienced inform the professional lactation support she provides now, and talks again about the nursing support groups she’s doing for nursing parents who identify as Black through Chocolate Milk Cafe as well as for all nursing parents with La Leche League.

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What happens when you’ve planned a peaceful, undisturbed birthing center birth but are diagnosed at 37 weeks with a rare form of preeclampsia called HELLP Syndrome? Jennifer shares how this unexpected news threw her for a loop but how she calmly drove herself to the hospital to check in for an induction in which she had the pressure of needing to give birth within a few limited hours or else a cesarean would be necessary. Tune in to hear how uncharacteristically efficient Jennifer’s labor was and how ready for giving birth her body and baby were. She also shares the number of ways she prepared for giving birth in light of her background as a clinical nutritionist, postpartum chef and yoga teacher with training as a doula.

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 In this last episode in our fertility journey series, we share a fertility journey story (2, actually), that may be particularly useful for folks who identify as queer and who are on the TTC path. Trigger alert: pregnancy loss is mentioned in this episode.

Ashley tells her and her wife’s story of overlapping pregnancies via IVF using 1 anonymous sperm donor for both of them so their children could be genetically half-siblings. Ashley’s pregnancy followed enduring 6 failed IUI’s, a 7th IUI that resulted in an ectopic pregnancy as well as one IVF transfer that resulted in an early miscarriage at 5 weeks. Her wife conceived via IVF on the first try following 6 failed IUIs and in Ashley’s 3rd trimester of pregnancy. Ashley details some the research she needed to do in order to advocate for herself, the benefits of acupuncture, and the valuable community she discovered as well as family support she and her wife had. She also reflects on aspects of the emotional journey & mindset shifts she needed to make for this journey to meet their daughter, Ava, to feel like a successful and positive one. 

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In today’s episode, fertility coach Lisa Hendrickson-Jack joins us to explain how the fertility awareness method can be used for the TTC fertility journey as well as for postpartum and lifelong bodily awareness. Lisa is a certified Fertility Awareness Educator and Holistic Reproductive Health Practitioner who teaches women to chart their menstrual cycles for natural birth control, conception, and monitoring overall health. In her book The Fifth Vital Sign, Lisa debunks the myth that regular ovulation is only important when you want children by recognizing the menstrual cycle as a vital sign. Drawing heavily from the current scientific literature, Lisa presents an evidence-based approach to fertility awareness and menstrual cycle optimization. She hosts the Fertility Friday Podcast, a weekly radio show devoted to helping women connect to their fifth vital sign by uncovering the connection between menstrual cycle health, fertility, and overall health.

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We’re nearing the end of our fertility journey series before we return to birth stories; this week we have a bit of both. 

In the last couple of weeks of Jenn’s pregnancy and with the deadline set to induce labor, Jenn’s desperate to avoid induction and pulls out all the stops trying everything from bouncing on a yoga ball to red raspberry leaf tea because she had hoped for an unmedicated birth. Finally, sex seems to do the trick and her water breaks. When they show up to the hospital thinking they’d get to go home but instead get checked in, things play out in such a way that induction, epidural, and ultimately the assistance of a vacuum are needed for the over 24-hour labor. 

Also unexpected (and disappointing) twists were getting a different OB and different doula than planned. Jenn & Zach also share details about their fertility journey and about their son’s bris with a mohel. 

Heads up: this story is one of the more challenging stories shared on this podcast, but it’s one that’s educational in ways that haven’t been shared thus far. Please always check out the description here at the beginning of each episode or in the show notes over at birthmattersshow.com and decide for yourself which episodes you think will help you feel more confident and relaxed in the journey toward parenthood and leave the rest. Everyone’s preferences are different on this, so that’s why we're providing a fairly broad range of educational stories on this podcast.

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Today you’ll hear the story of fertility warrior Jasmine Katatikarn, who struggled to have a child for six years. After multiple IUIs and her 2nd IVF, she was told that she had a less than 1% chance of having a baby and to stop trying. However, Jasmine didn’t give up.

Using her background as an artist, she applied an artist’s mindset to overcome her roadblocks and design a life that gave control of her fertility journey and life moving forward.  Using her designer point of view and tools, Jasmine shows you how to take control of your own fertility journey as well. 

As a result, she became pregnant within months of being told she had less than a 1% chance. Jasmine now has two kids, both through IVF. Today, you’ll hear details about her fertility journey, what led her into encouraging others along similar paths, and she’ll share a bit about the work she does to support parents who are on the TTC journey. 

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***Trigger alert: pregnancy loss is mentioned/described in this episode.***

Early in the podcast’s first season, in episode 5, Julie shared her baby’s birth story. She returns today to share her fertility journey whereby it took several years of perseverance to successfully conceive and give birth to her healthy baby boy. 

The path to conceiving her son via IVF included unsuccessful IUIs, a chemical pregnancy, early loss of twins, and switching care providers and hospitals along the way. She explains how her Christian faith created a bit of conflict within her at first about this pursuit, and she also describes some different opinions her family had about trying to conceive in alternative ways. Julie also goes into other emotional and relational aspects of the journey and for her, how valuable it was when she was able to shift toward feeling at peace with whatever the outcome. She wanted to share her journey in hopes that it can encourage others on a similar path.

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Today we continue our fertility journey series and share the second part of fertility doula Alison Wehr’s 2 IVF and birth stories. Alison’s second path to conception was a smoother one; today she shares how quickly IVF worked this time around, how she wasn’t nearly as anxious this time, and will detail her second born’s birth story that started with her water breaking a few days before her estimated due date. After she shares her son’s birth story, she discusses how she got into fertility doula as well as birth and postpartum work. 

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Today, we continue our fertility journey series. In this and next week's episode, birth and fertility doula Alison Wehr shares the story of her two babies’ IVF conception and birth stories. Just need to give another trigger alert that this first story includes some stories of loss in the process of trying to conceive. If you listened to Episode 47, you heard a birth story that happened on the heels of Hurricane Sandy. Alison’s first baby’s birth that she’ll share today occurred immediately before the same hurricane hit. Alison’s first birth story is one of an efficient first labor and unmedicated vaginal birth in a hospital setting. The labor was seemingly caused by her OB sweeping her membranes around 38 weeks and begins the day she and her husband had tickets to attend the Broadway play Glengarry, Glen Ross starring Al Pacino. She also shares how Hurricane Sandy hit the day after they came home and how the blackout the hurricane caused created some interesting memories. 

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Today, Marise Angibeau-Gray, a Black mother and full-spectrum doula, shares the story of 3 pregnancy losses -- one in each trimester -- that led up to her 4th baby’s birth story. (Please note that this episode may be triggering for anyone who has experienced pregnancy loss or trauma.) Marise shares aspects of the emotional journey as well as how she selected each of her care providers and eventually found an optimal fit who would give her customized care. She also shares insights on a couple of things that are NOT helpful to say to someone who has experienced pregnancy loss and the ways in which she planned ahead for support for the postpartum period, knowing that this time could be particularly risky with all the grief she had already endured. Finally, Marise shares about the important work she and a fellow NYC doula are doing to better support Black birthing folx who might experience loss in their journey into parenthood.

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