In this episode we chat with mom-to-be Katie about her journey to home birth, and the days ahead. At 39 weeks pregnant, she’s prepped and ready for birth day!

And this episode has a surprise special guest - Katie’s husband Chris! He joins us for the call, a first for the show. We were super excited to hear from him and get his perspective on the whole process.

Both were heavily influenced by The Business of Being Born, and knew they wanted to have labor and birth be on their own terms.

A self-described “birth nerd,” Katie loves to dive into researcher mode. Their pregnancy was no exception. They searched their options for a local midwife and never looked back.

Katie and Chris feel like old friends to us. The conversation was effortless, fun, light and empowering. They set a great example for doing what feels best to them and creating a loving, welcoming space for baby to enter into. We can’t wait to chat with them once baby is earthside!

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In this episode we're talking with Megan Kibling as she shares her empowering home birth story with us.

Megan is mom to 6-year-old Aurelia and 19-month-old Leonardo Iztali from Denver, Colorado. We connected with Megan via another DIAH mom, Marissa (whom we interviewed a few weeks before). Megan had sent a banner to Marissa to decorate her home in preparation for home birth. The same banner has made its way to other mamas since then, and Megan plans to continue to send it to friends as they want it.

Besides supporting other women in their home birth journeys, Megan has an amazing story of her own. After having a great experience with her first birth in a birthing center, she felt inspired to move into home birth for the next time around. She says she felt empowered and knew a home birth was the next step.

In between Aurelia and Leonardo, Megan experienced a miscarriage at 10 weeks. Megan shares openly on the fear and guilt that crept in during that time, and how she embarked on a journey of forgiveness, back to grace, comfort and love.

By the time she was pregnant with Leonardo, Megan felt in full trust of her body, her baby and herself. She listened to the flow and went the whole pregnancy and birth almost completely unassisted. She did yoga, meditated, read, watched home births, created affirmations and playlists -- all to create the sacred space for her birth.

Megan is a total inspiration. This episode has a lot of great quotes and mantras to pull from. My favorite? “PURE MAGIC!”

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In this episode we're talking with Christina Benton - birth photographer, birth and postpartum doula, mom and wife. Christina shares her beautiful home birth and hospital birth stories, from behind the lens, and she shares why moms and families should highly consider hiring a photographer for their homebirth. 

This is a first for the Doing It At Home Podcast: an interview with a birth photographer! We were very excited to chat with Christina Benton, a doula and birth photographer. For starters, we didn’t have a formal birth photographer. If you’ve listened to our birth story you know that most of our birth team came equipped with their camera phones, which we are extremely grateful for, however it meant a bunch of lights and phones up in my business at different points in time, and the pictures themselves are scattered in their composition and quality. We weren’t really aware of birth photography and its value until after the experience.

So chatting with Christina was as much for us and it is for our listeners, quite frankly. Because we were taking our own notes for the future!

Christina is a birth and postpartum doula and over the last 8 months she has extended her birth work into the realm of photography.

The first thing that struck us about Christina’s images is just how real and raw they are. They capture the sacredness and beauty of the births in such an authentic way.

Christina shares with us her journey into birth work, some stories of some memorable births that she has photographed and advice for how to research and select your birth photographer.

We asked Christina why someone should hire a birth photographer, what’s the value in it?

Her response, “Because every woman deserves to see herself like that - the moment you meet your baby for the first time.”

If you’re unsure or considering hiring a birth photographer, this is an episode to bookmark.

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In this episode we're commenting on a blog article that Matthew found in Romper, called ”7 Things That Happen After You Give Birth At Home.” The article covers everything from what happens with the mess, to baby's first checkup, to bonding with your new baby.

This was such a great article, simple and informative, that it inspired us to do this episode! So Angela Johnson, if you’re out there and see this, thank you for writing the article and spreading the awareness. (We’d love to have you on the show by the way!)

A lot of times when we’re planning for a big event, like say...birth, we’re not always focused on what happens afterwards. And it makes sense because birth can have a lot of moving parts to it. Especially with home birth, there’s a lot of planning and preparation that comes into play.

So this episode goes through a lot of the likely scenarios and traits of home birth that you can expect to experience once the main festivities (launching a baby out of your body and into the world) have concluded.

Some things you might be wondering: What about clean up? Can I eat? What happens to baby? What about the birth certificate?

Well wonder no more, because we cover it!

This is a great episode to help you get on the same page with your partner, midwife and/or doula and any birth team members. All of this information is designed to help you feel more relaxed once baby comes, so that all you have to do is soak up all the delicious new baby smells and snuggles!

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In this episode we're talking with Tammy Williams. Tammy is a 38 year old first time mom who chose to have her baby at home. She is an amazing momma who approached her home birth without fear, and had a magic experience.

If Tammy could, she would shout from every rooftop about how awesome her home birth experience was and how every woman can give birth without fear. Since finding every rooftop would take some time, having her on our “podcast rooftop” will suffice for now.

Unsure of whether or not she’d be able to get pregnant, Tammy had a surprise first pregnancy at 38. In a circumstance where many women might find themselves fearful and worried about the risks, Tammy powered up and she and her partner David decided on home birth after a close friend who was also pregnant at the same time shared her intentions of having a home birth.

Overwhelmed with emotion in an amazing way, Tammy sought out empowering information and resources with the support of her midwives that she selected from a nearby birthing center.

Tammy is a powerful example of knowing her body and trusting the inner voice. To her, home birth is such an important opportunity to strengthen all aspect of your life from your relationship to your partner to how you raise your children.

And through the course of her journey, she has actually inspired, influenced and encouraged other women and families in their home birth experiences as a resource and friend.

“I truly believe that by sharing these stories we can educate women about the importance of birthing without fear and helping to change the stigma around home birth,” says Tammy.

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In today's episode we're talking with Danielle Turk-Bly, two time mom with a third on the way.

Danielle is a self described "crunchy mom" (#represent) and we have an amazing conversation on this episode. We talk about all kinds of things from the birth planning to cloth diapering and homeschooling, running while pregnant, facing your fear demons around birth, placenta previa and how that has been impacting her current pregnancy, having a community of like-minded people to support you, cultivating your voice for what you want, and intimacy with your partner during pregnancy.

Danielle's first birth was in a birthing center. When it came time to plan for the second pregnancy, she and her husband Ryan made the shift to home birth. Despite Ryan being a little bit more conservative than Danielle, he was fully on board and in support of the decision.

Danielle doesn’t revel in “going against the grain” or defying anyone else’s way of going about things. She just simply does what resonates most with her. I really appreciate that perspective, because often times you think that home birth is the choice as a result of a defiance or rebellion against something. Danielle’s example is a powerful one in just being proactive and true to yourself.

And heads up - Danielle has thought about doing a podcast of her own. This is something we totally support and will definitely update you on when she decides to jump into that venture!

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In this bite-sized episode, I share some realness with you. This week has been tough for me. At any point, I’ve felt frustrated, tired, stressed, over-extended, low, and a bunch of other adjectives you use when everything feels difficult.

I didn’t take time for myself and had myself convinced that I wasn’t doing enough - that I wasn’t feeling productive enough.

Bottom line: this was my ego playing some huge mind tricks.

So for any mama out there, future and present, who has felt this way. This is for you.

I talk about how I got into the dark place and what I did to get out of it.

Take advantage of the opportunities to remind yourself how awesome you are - especially for pregnancy and birth planning. Experience your joy!

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In this episode we're talking to Sara-Beth Reuter about her inspiring journey to home birth. 

Sara-Beth is a great example of courage and determination. After her doctor told her that she would not be able to deliver naturally and would need a c-section because of the size of her baby, she and her husband Matthew decided to get another opinion on the matter.

They reached out to Matthew’s grandmother, an experienced midwife, and explored their options. Already not too keen on hospitals and clear that she wanted a natural birth, at 19 years old and 31 weeks pregnant, Sara-Beth switched over to the midwifery model of care and planned for a home birth with the help of Matthew’s grandmother.

Sara-Beth has a solid sense of confidence in her body’s ability to do what it’s meant to do, and it comes across when she talks about the rest of her pregnancy and her birth.

Sarah-Beth believes that “labor is not a sickness,” and is all about putting empowering information out there to support women in having a home birth if that’s what they want for themselves and their families. We’re so grateful to her for sharing her time with us, especially with 2-month old baby Silas in the picture. We understand how valuable time is for a new mama!

Links From The Episode:

• Miami Maternity Center

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In this episode we're talking all about having sex after baby. Yes, this is the much anticipated followup to our episode about sex while pregnant (link below). Postpartum sex can be tricky, and for us it involved patience, compassion and creativity. But now, both Matthew and I can say without a doubt, that we're having the BEST SEX OF OUR RELATIONSHIP, and that's after pushing out a kid!

If you’ve listened to the Doing It At Home podcast for a while, you’ve probably gathered that Matthew and I value transparency a whole lot. It’s important for us to be as candid, raw and real as possible - because the greatest breakthroughs we’ve had as a couple and as individuals have been made possible by others showing the example of bold and authentic living.

It’s for this reason that we share parts of our experience of home birth and beyond - because if it helps and empowers anyone like others did for us, then we feel in our purpose and mission.

So that’s why we include talking about our sex life in the show’s topics. We covered sex while pregnant in episode 6. And now that we’re on the other side, we figured it was worth taking time to talk about postpartum sex.

Sex after giving birth is a whole other dimension of a sexual relationship - or at least it has been for us. It has brought its own set of unique opportunities and challenges.

For one thing, after some minor tearing during Maya’s home birth, I had some fears around how my vagina would heal and whether or not I’d ever be able to make love the way we used to (forget the possibility of expanding our repertoire or level of intimacy). I judged myself when I thought about the timeframe of when we’d return to having sex. When I asked other women how long they waited, I catalogued the responses and started comparing myself.

And when we did have sex for the first time after giving birth, I was a little disheartened and frustrated. It was pretty painful. So here I was back to the time I lost my virginity and thought, “Why would anyone ever want to have sex?! This is the worst thing ever. I can’t believe people do this and like it!” I saw what I thought would be a long road of recovery up ahead. Not to mention I was getting used to my new body - everything leaking and in a different position from where it was a year ago.

I am blessed to have an amazingly patient partner in Matthew. Over the course of postpartum recovery we worked together to communicate clearly and connect intimately. It’s been a process of opening up, drawing upon the trust and surrender process of giving birth, and allowing that to carry over into our sexual relationship.

It’s taken time, conversations, and some deep breathing...but now we’re at a place where the sex is juicier than it ever was! How is that possible? Listen to this episode and find out!

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This episode is part two of our conversation with Christie Andersen, our first-time mom planning her home birth while her husband Ryan had been stationed in Korea throughout the whole pregnancy. And a lot has changed since our last conversation!

For one, we had a baby! Little Charlotte has since stepped on the scene, and we get to hear all about her grand entrance.

Christie shares Ryan’s homecoming, anxiety around whether or not she’d actually go into labor while he was home, and how she dealt with the pressure of all the calls and texts inquiring as to baby’s arrival.

We get to hear the whole process, as it’s still fresh in her mind (Charlotte is just 2 weeks old now! They welcomed their baby girl into the world from the comfort of their home along with Christie’s mother, a close friend, a midwife, a doula and 2 midwife assistants (quite the full house, which we can relate to!).

One of my favorite takeaways from Christie’s story is “be open, go with the flow.” It sounds simple, but it’s incredibly profound and relevant when it comes to birthing babies.

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