Desirae and Taylor have a raw conversation about the challenges of attending as a birth worker in the childbearing years. Whether it be an impact on you, others, or your loved ones, attending while you have little people at home DOES come with its own hardships that is exclusive to those of us in the Motherhood era of our lives. After visiting the hardships, however, we talk about the beautiful parts of attending in the midst of the childbearing and motherhood years. We would so love your thoughts on this one! What resonates?

Nae has so many creative perspectives to offer! Firstly starting out with her wonderful same sex relationship, she walks us through their intentional pregnancies, conception journey and their initial plans with their births! Both ladies experienced a transfer in their first birth experience and discusses how that looked, what went differently for each of them and how they feel about it. Nae goes on to conceive their third baby, and has a beautiful freebirth, supported by her wife, and recorded by her oldest son. This episode had us heavily emotionally invested! See our Facebook page for the video clips!

In a powerful and insightful testimony, Brittany shared her stories, ranging from a medicated hospital birth with an OB all the way to a completely unassisted birth! We navigate conversations here on birth trauma, what it’s like to experience all levels of different providers, positive hospital birth, compromising with your spouse, the differences in postpartums after different birth experiences, and even what it was like to be a flight attendant during pregnancy! There is a spot everyone can relate to on this podcast!

Have you ever heard someone say, or maybe even said yourself, “I had to have X intervention done because…” This may have been due to misleading care solutions, and ignorance on your care providers part to give you true informed consent. This happens to so many women and it creates chaos and trauma in their lives. Let’s start being accountable as midwives especially, and stop misleading people, intentionally or unintentionally!

Alina had 3 wonderful pregnancy and birth experiences, starting her motherhood journey out with a water birth with a licensed midwife for her first. All was well and fine, but ultimately there was so much more power to come for Alina. She found it, birth by birth, as she experienced an accidental unassisted, then went on to have an intentional, surprise baby girl at home after a wild pregnancy and unassisted birth. Alina also shares her experience as a prenatal yoga teacher, and Reiki Master and some different tools and suggestions for those interested in enhancing their mindset, and prepping their mind, body and spirit for birth.

On this episode, Desirae & Taylor discuss what it means to be dedicated and have initiative as a traditional birth attendant. These are just two of the most important qualities a good birth worker must hold to adequately serve the families they work with. For more discussion and training on how to be a badass traditional birth worker, check out our Traditional Midwifery Cohort at herbal.teachable.com

The term “evidence based” is really hyped up in the birth world and honestly, now that the mainstream has taken grasp of it, it’s obnoxious. Tune into this short little episode where we talk about how being “evidence based” can actually do harm! Autonomy > everything, always.

Kristen, now a birth photographer and doula from Ohio, comes to share with us her four birth stories, starting with her first two in the hospital, the second being a traumatic cesarean. For her third and fourth births she took her power back into her own hands and had two very different freebirth experiences! Come listen in to her insightful perspectives, and stay tuned for announcement of her very own podcast as well!

A controversial discussion between Desirae and Taylor discussing the types of births and situations that licensed and/or regulated midwives are actually able to sit at vs. a traditional/unregulated midwife. It’s so often that regulated/licensed providers are seen as the most competent, highly trained and skilled providers. When you really sit with it and look at how limiting their schooling and regulations are, you come to find that they truly are not allowed to experience variations of normal or witness them play out at home. Many emergencies, complications, and variations of normal that traditional midwives handle at home, they aren’t legally allowed to in most states due to legislation and regulations. They aren’t able to experience much, frankly. Nor are they usually trained on the many variations traditional midwives witness and experience at the foot of birth. It begs us to ask the question, how experienced are regulated midwives, actually?

Do you have a birth worker in your community that is traditional, unlicensed and yet actively attending births? What is our obligation as fellow birth workers when there is someone in our community that practices differently than us? Join Desirae and Taylor as we discuss this important subject of dangerous attendants, why traditional midwifery is viewed as reckless and what we can do to better serve our community.