As a young lady, Jessica Pin started googling around the internet about the clitoris, as a young lady does. During her search, labiaplasty ads began appearing advertising the “optimal” vulvar appearance, which made her concerned that perhaps she was unlike other girls. She sought out a surgeon, who was a renowned OBGYN in TX, and he agreed to perform her surgery. The surgeon amputated her labia minora, which was not what she had asked of him. The surgeon also took the liberty to remove some of her clitoral hood, unknowingly leaving her without clitoral innervation.

If this story is confronting, it should be. Why are women seeking labiaplasty? Who decides what the “ideal vulva” looks like? Should a surgeon operate in an area without understanding the region’s innervation? What happened to informed consent? All of this and more in this very wide-ranging conversation.

[00:00:54] What constitutes informed consent?

[00:10:24] Inadequate Medical Training

[00:24:28] The Road to Labia Shame

[00:34:22] Appreciating Diversity of the Labia

[00:49:43] Non-Surgical Options for Addressing Physical Complaints

[00:56:15] Lack of Informed Consent

[01:10:36] Synergy of Stimulation and Desire

[01:16:23] The Fight Against Self-Advocacy

Visit the show notes for resources, links mentioned, and more: BelovedHolistics.com/podcast/jessicapin

Made possible by:

Organifi - use our code BELOVED for 20% off their green and red juice for a natural boost to your energy and mood!

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Jessica: Instagram @jessica_ann_pin | TikTok @jessica_ann_pin | Twitter @MediClit | Blog: jessica86.medium.com

Find me: Instagram @nathanrileyobgyn | TikTok @nathanrileyobgyn | My Practice: BelovedHolistics.com

Medical Disclaimer: The Holistic OBGYN Podcast is an educational program. No information conveyed through this podcast should be construed as medical advice. These conversations are available to the public for educational and entertainment purposes only.

Music provided by EdvardGaresPremium / Pond5

Dr. Northrup is an OBGYN and the author of "The Wisdom of Menopause". In this episode, we talk about the changing landscape of women's health, as more women are seeking truly holistic care, particularly through menopause. Buckle up for a WILD ride through the world of unnecessary interventions in birth, the war on nature, fear of mortality, & the "Wisdom of Menopause".



Made possible by:

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BiOptimizers - 10% off Mag Breakthrough plus free gut health goodies!

Fit for Birth - 20% off pregnancy- and postpartum-specific exercise & nutrition coaching!

[-:08:00]

• Paving a new path for women's health


• Fetal heart monitoring has had no benefit but has increased c-section rates


• #80 - Jacqueline Wolf, PhD: On the Sordid History of C-Section in the U.S.


• Scalp electrodes and the crown chakra

[-:15:00]

• The spiritual side of birth


• If you don’t see it as sacred, you don’t belong in birth work

[-:21:00]

• Dr Northrup was radical early in her training


• The cult of doctors


• James Thorpe, MD, OBGYN, MFM


• American Holistic Healing Association


• Love, Medicine and Miracles, by Bernie Siegel, MD


• PMS is associated with family history of alcoholism

[-:28:30]

• Archetypes and the menstrual cycle


• The voice of the soul


• Christiane lost her professorial position when "The Wisdom of Menopause" was published

[-:33:00]

• Pregnancy and vaccines


• GOD is omnipotent in healing


• Power behind your eyes vs power in front of your eyes


• COVID and our war on nature

[-:42:00]

• Menopause, the Chiron return, and death of self


• Your power is found anywhere that society has told you to be afraid


• Comedians are the patron saints of truth

[-:52:00]

• The stories we tell ourself about menopause & desirability


• “The essence of God is birthing.”

[01:00:00]

• Christiane’s dating app for the non-vaxxed


• Her menopause relief & vaginal moisturizer

Christiane's: Website | "The Wisdom of Menopause" | IG



Find me: @nathanrileyobgyn | My Practice



Music by: Labrinth | Preservation Hall Jazz Band

I met Rachel through her partner, Ryan Sprague. She's into all things biohacking and is also linked in with the Chek Institute. She is a coach to many women, and her specialty is intuitive eating, meaning not eating what you are "told is good" but letting your soul guide you to what your body and mind are craving. This is a simple yet powerful practice that she adopted after developing dysfunctional eating from attending weight loss camps as a child. In this conversation, we talk about dieting, manifestation, and pursuing your "1 Love" above all. Heck...maybe you'll even be convinced to attend one of her women-only intuitive eating retreats!

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[00:56:00]

Connect with Rachel: Retreats | IG | Podcast

Emily Abbott is a former Crossfit athlete, but her coaches never incentivized leaning into her feelings, let alone programming workouts in alignment with the stages of her menstrual cycle. Now Emily studies acupuncture and body work, focusing on the female pelvis. In this conversation, we discuss the importance of nourishing both the feminine and masculine, which, despite what female athletes have been told, is possible through re-connecting with your intuition.



Made possible by:  

Fit for Birth - 20% off pregnancy- and postpartum-specific exercise & nutrition coaching

Immune Intel AHCC - 10% with code BELOVED10; clear your HPV with a functional food supplement (clinical trials don't lie!)

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BiOptimizers - 10% off Mag Breakthrough plus free gut health goodies!

[00:11:00]

• From powerhouse to “sensual athlete”

[00:15:30]

• Transmutating athletic intensity to play


• It’s possible for a woman to be a high-performing athlete AND simultaneously live in the feminine


• The wounded masculine lives in all of us

[00:22:00]

• The yoni as an alchemical container


• Emily was never taught to train differently throughout her cycles


• Feelings were never relevant in sports (pain teacher)

[00:40:00]

• Judeo-Christianity has shamed us from knowing and touching our bodies


• The Church Also drive the devaluing of women in society


• Episode #72 - A (Brief-ish) History of Western Medicine, Witches, and Women Healers


• Medicine is divorced from spirit/soul


• Magdalene Manuscript, by Judi Sion


• We are Gods in mini-meat suits


• Emily helps women re-member their power


• Sheela na gig

[00:51:00]

• It’s time we unite the masculine & feminine


• Squirting orgasms are way cooler than a 300-lb deadlift

[01:00:00]

• "Through intimacy with a partner, we are looking deeper into ourselves"


• Paradoxical breathing patterns & trauma


• The pelvic floor


• Yoni massage

[01:13:00]

• Healing the feminine would be healing for society


• Business of Birth Control film - BELOVED50 saves you 50% on price to screen

[01:21:30]

• The cervix becomes more sensitive with age


• Self-betrayal of our beauty


• Oysters & fertility/sexuality

Emily's website | IG | Hammer of the Goddess course ($222 discount for listeners!)



Find me: @nathanrileyobgyn & My Practice



Music by: Labrinth | Preservation Hall Jazz Band

Maddie is a board-certified integrative health practitioner and herbalist. She was on "the pill" for years and the road to recovery was long and hard, and now she helps women cater their diet and lifestyle patterns to the stages of their cycle. She and I met at the Austin screening of "The Business of Birth Control", and our friendship grew over the collective dissatisfaction that so many women find within the conventional medical model. This one is [insert fire emoji].

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Find Maddie: IG | podcast | website.

Stephen is a living legend. He is the author of one of my favorite books "Die Wise: A Manifesto for Sanity and Soul". He also recently co-authored a book with Kimberly Ann Johnson titled "Reckoning". Stephen started his career as a palliative care social worker in "the death trade", which, in short, is the over-medicalized, over-pathologized process of dying in the West. In this episode, we dive deep into birth and death, particularly when the two occur in the same breath. Death of children is confronting, and in our society, "kids aren't supposed to die". But what if they do die? Who has the language and courage to hold space for their grieving parents? This task has been vested to medical professionals, but we are just as incompetent in talking about death as anybody else. Instead, we resort to platitude and dangle carrots of hope that perhaps a dying child is merely an illusion. This conversation is powerful...and it was an honor to have Stephen on the show.



Made possible by:  

Fit for Birth - 20% off pregnancy- and postpartum-specific exercise and nutrition coaching (or courses to become a better coach yourself!)

Organifi - 20% the healthiest protein powder available, all plant-based, non-GMO, organic, glyphosate-free...you get it...

BiOptimizers - 10% off Mag Breakthrough plus free gut health goodies!



[00:14:00]

• euphemisms and death


• You don’t “pass away”. You “die”.


• Health care professionals at expected to be good at talking about mortality without having any training in the language


• Nobody is READY to talk about their own death; in some ways, you must force them to confront it

[00:25:00]

• The story of a birth and death coincident


• It’s our job to give a patient persmision to talk about death and dying


• The “Book of Supposed To” guides our confrontation with death


• “Kids aren’t supposed to die” appears in this book


• Not “living a long” or “full” life is inconceivable


• What happens to us as we grow up that we lose track of our mortality? Lose the notion of a truly full life?

[00:38:00]

• just because we can extend life, does this mean that we should?


• citizenShip malpractice


• COVID-19 was a God


• It provided an opportunity, and we missed out


• Because we all didn’t die, does that mean that we won?


• COVID required us to aim our middle sunward, but we instead aimed our missions outward

[00:54:00]

• humane versus human


• humans haven’t been a “part of nature” for a long time


• Stephen is often accused of being “anti-medicine”


• The cost of everything we do to avoid mortality is incalculable


• Gregory Hoskins Band (stay tuned to the very end of the episode to hear one of Stephen's songs...)

Catch Stephen on tour with Gregory Hoskins

Buy Stephen's books

Stephen's website



Find me on Instagram @nathanrileyobgyn and my practice at: www.BelovedHolistics.com



Music by: Labrinth and Preservation Hall Jazz Band

Kristin Lauria is likely the most highly skilled birth worker on the planet. She started in the U.S. as a traditional midwife, but, when her kids flew the coop, she joined Doctors Without Borders and has been attending to births in a variety of resource-poor settings, including Afghanistan and a refugee camp in South Sudan. Because surgery is hard to come-by in these locations, she has become highly skilled at facilitating vaginal birth - low-lying placenta, breech, TOLAC, etc. In this conversation, we talk about the de-skilling of obstetricians in the U.S. due to our low threshold for using our surgical steel. We also talk about her role as the caretaker of orphaned children resulting from maternal death in childbirth, hepatitis E, blood transfusions without a blood bank, and sitting with the death of a newborn. Kristine is a gift to the world of birthwork, and I am honored to call her my friend.



Made possible by:  

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[00:09:00]

• Kristine has attended more births than most people in the world


• From home birth to Doctors Without Borders


• 25 breech births per month in Afghanistan


• South Sudan refugee camps are in desperate need of healthcare


• C-sections were rare because surgeons had to be flown in


• OBGYNs in the U.S. have been de-skilled

[00:17:00]

• Kristine’s c-section rate has always been <5%, and almost never for arrest of dilation/descent


• Almost never for placenta previa (unless truly complete)


• Never for breech


• C-sections create more risk downstream


• What if OBGYNs practiced as if c-section was only used if absolutely necessary?

[00:23:00] 

• Maternal deaths and near misses


• Hemorrhage, infection, botched abortion


• Transfusion requires donation from family (malaria, malaria-free)


• Hepatitis E and a maternal death

[00:35:30]

• Kristine reads her poem: “Temporary Mother”


• Per WHO, a child is orphaned in this part of world if their mother dies in childbirth


• Birth and death are inseparable


• Mothering a dying baby

[00:55:00]

• Working with Breech Without Borders


• Truly informed consent is not taught to doctors (or many midwives)


• Speaking nicely isn’t enough to avoid trauma in birth


• Trauma-informed care


• Midwifery Wisdom Conference

Connect with Kristine on Instagram



Find me on Instagram @nathanrileyobgyn and my practice at: www.BelovedHolistics.com



Music by: Labrinth and Preservation Hall Jazz Band

Doreya Kareem's father, Ibrahim Kareem, developed Biogeometry. In this conversation, she deconstructs the "physics of quality", balancing the home environment, and optimizing the energetics of birth and death. And I know what you're thinking, "How wu-wu!" Maybe so, but there is a breadth of clinical research demonstrating the efficacy of Biogeometry in assisting with physical, mental, and emotional disturbances, particularly if you live near a cell phone tower. This conversation is FASCINATING!

Made possible by:  

Fit for Birth - 20% off pregnancy- and postpartum-specific exercise and nutrition coaching

BiOptimizers - 10% off Mag Breakthrough plus free gut health goodies!



[00:15:00] 

• Biogeometry is the study of the physics of quality


• Creating vibrational qualities in our home and person

[00:21:30]

• Sacred power spots


• Some locations have been considered sacred since early human history (temples, oracles, etc)


• Chakras: your personal power spots


• Complementary to western medicine (filing gaps)

[00:28:00]

• Biogeometry devices


• Archetypal grids


• Outcomes matter more than mechanism


• Jill Boyle Taylor's Ted Talk


• Pendulums and harmonics

[00:47:00] 

• Grid lines and building biology


• Change your relationship to your home


• Hamburg studies in bovine health w signatures pendant and shapes attached to a cell phone tower (citizens felt better too)


• Sampling of the studies on Biogeometry

[01:00:00]

• Deities as energy qualities


• When a woman becomes pregnant, she becomes a sacred power spot


• The divine feminine needs the divine masculine (and vice-versa)

[01:15:00] 

• The ankh is a symbol of protection


• What if birth is the end and death is the beginning?


• Resonant love

[01:25:00] 

• Living requires that we understand our divine nature


• To die properly, we must learn to live properly


• Biogeometry amplifies the sacred power spot for the developing fetus


• Language matters: a birthing woman is a warrior, not a sick person

[1:35:00]

• Death as a celebration


• Judgments and their effects on energy


• Death transcends dimensions


• Omar’s (Doreya's husband) on Spotify (amazing tracks!)

Listen to Ibrahim and Doreya on the Living 4D Podcast: Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3.



Take Biogeometry Foundations training at a discount! BELOVED75

Biogeometry gear is available at a discount HERE. 



www.belovedholistics.com | @nathanrileyobgyn



Music by: Labrinth and Preservation Hall Jazz...

Get full access to Born Free Method: The Podcast at nathanrileyobgyn.substack.com/subscribe

Jacqueline Wolf, PhD, is a history profess at Miami University. She has probably read more medical literature pertaining to the history and consequences of c-section in the United States. She is the author of an AMAZING book called "Cesarean Section: An American History of Risk, Technology, and Consequence". 30-40% of babies in the U.S. are born by c-section, and the rate doesn't seem to be in decline any time soon due to the universalization of continuous fetal heart monitoring. Litigation against doctors for things out their control in birth makes matters even worse. With the advent of FHR monitoring, we have seen an increase in c-section rate without any benefits to mom or baby. Womp. This episode is (insert fire emoji)!



Made possible by:  

Fit for Birth - 20% off pregnancy- and postpartum-specific exercise and nutrition coaching (or courses to become a better coach yourself!)

FullWell Fertility - code BELOVED10 (best prenatals and men's virility vitamins on the market)

BiOptimizers - 10% off Mag Breakthrough plus free gut health goodies!



[00:07:30]

• OBGYNs need to learn the history of c-section


• In some parts of U.S., >40% of babies are born by c-section


• OBGYNs are being de-skilled


• 70% of our training is in surgery


• C-sections are traumatizing

[00:14:00]

• Gynecology deals with pathology; obstetrics dealing with surveillance of a natural, physiologic process


• Joke: how do you hide something from an OBGYN? (Punchline is too good to include in show notes…)


• C-section used to be rare because it was so dangerous


• WW2 brought blood banking and antibiotics


• Mortality and morbidity initially went up when birth moved to the hospital

[00:30:30]

• The unforeseen downsides to high c-section rates (e.g. placenta accreta)


• A maternal death should be a worse case scenario


• Should there be firm indications for c-sections in the U.S.?

[00:36:00]

• Up until 1940, most births took place at home


• 25% of births in the US are induced


• ContInuous fetal heart monitoring has been the greatest reason for high c-section Rates


• It was initially designed to be used for high risk birth but it has become universal


• “Physicians began dropping the knife with every drop in fetal heart rate “


• Intermittent auscultation > continuous monitoring

[00:59:00]

• Malpractice concerns 


• Skilled birthworkers generally need to do very little at a birth


• Midwives should be attending most uncomplicated  vaginal births


• My c-section rarely goes above 5%

[01:16:00]

• Labor curves should be forgotten


• Preventing the First Cesarean Delivery, by Spong et al

Jacqueline's website (buy her books!)and her podcast



Find me on Instagram @nathanrileyobgyn and my practice at: www.BelovedHolistics.com



Music by: Labrinth and Preservation Hall

Get full access to Born Free Method: The Podcast at nathanrileyobgyn.substack.com/subscribe