Birth Matters

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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Today is part 2 of the birth story that we started last week with Adriane Stare, so if you didn’t listen last week, be sure to listen to that first. To review, this is Adriane’s 2nd IVF and birth story to share. The first story was shared back at the top of Season 2 in episode 40 and was a birth at home. This birth story didn’t go quite the same way due to the fact that her baby was in an awkward position, and we left off last week just before Adriane’s midwife advises them to transfer to the hospital. Today she shares how she was still able to have a vaginal birth, but also shares some of the challenges she faced in the hospital environment, particularly after the birth. 

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In today’s episode, we kick off our fertility journey series as postpartum doula and babywearing educator Adriane Stare, who shared her first baby’s conception and birth story in Episode 40, returns to share her 2nd baby’s Christmas Day birth story. This is a story of a frozen embryo IVF conception and then a planned home birth that needed to transfer to the hospital in the pushing stage that results in a vaginal birth. In contrast to her first birth at home, Adriane shares some challenging aspects of her hospital stay including feeling unsupported, feeling unnecessarily shamed for attempting a homebirth, not getting the pain meds she needed for her very strong afterpains, struggling to get discharged early, and more. This episode drives home both the need for support in postpartum as well as the need for improvement in homebirth transfer relationships and education for hospital personnel on the safety of homebirth.

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When Erin shows up for her weekly prenatal appointment around 37 weeks without her partner due to Covid restrictions, she is caught by surprise when she’s told an immediate induction is necessary because they don’t detect enough fetal movement. They’re not even packed at this point, so Mike goes home to grab a few things. Birth intentions out the window, Erin finds new perspective and resolve to give birth with confidence when a couple of things happen to help her re-center and adjust. This is a birth story of a smooth induction with a necessary epidural in which baby needs to go to the NICU for a bit due to low birth weight. Mike joins and shares a partner’s perspectives on support, bonding, and being surprised by the way he felt when their son was born.

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