Wanna hear a story about a sassy doula having a healing HBAC? Today we’re chatting with Rachel Cunningham, a small business owner, doula, wife to her husband Bernard and mama to her three girls: Greta, Beatrice and Agnes. Rachel shares with us, in such funny, vulnerable and real fashion, her journey in the birth world. From an emergency c-birth with her first daughter, to a successful yet interesting VBAC in a hospital, and finally to her most recent birth at home.

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Today we’re sharing a few listener emails, talking about their birth planning and experiences.

It’s such a testament to this community and the space of the DIAH platform. So many mothers that we interview on the show share how excited they are to tell their stories, mostly because they feel this beautiful opportunity to “pay it forward” to other mamas. They’ve been so inspired by the stories they’ve heard and want to be a part of the collective energy of empowered birth.

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Did you have any stressful circumstances pop up during your pregnancy?

Today’s episode is Lindsay Robinson’s birth story. In it we talk about some of the challenging and hectic situations that she and her husband Chris experienced while preparing for the birth of their son Elric. This is such an inspiring story and one that we know you’ll enjoy!

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How do you process being pregnant and planning for a birth that you thought you could never have?

Our DIAH mama in today’s episode, Raimee Botner, shares her experience of finding out she was pregnant after believing she couldn’t have children. Then healing through an intense miscarriage. Finally to find out she was pregnant again, this time with a pregnancy that would come full term and give her her son Otis.

We talk about Raimee’s process of doing a lot of self-work and self-love practice. For her, birth was easy in comparison to everything that led up to it. 

We also touch on the legality of home birth in her state of Kentucky, the details of her doula and midwife traveling over an hour to get to her birth, and her realization of what love truly is.

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Are you the type to research and look for evidence and information to support your decisions when it comes to your birth?

In today’s episode, we’re chatting with Isis Rose, a PhD student, doula and mama to baby Xena. Isis shares her journey to home birth, which first entered her awareness during a doula training. She’s a PhD student studying birth and reproductive justice. Her husband Chris, a fellow academic, is a visiting professor at UIUC. So it makes sense that Isis took a very analytical approach to planning her birth. She searched for truth and wanted to make sure she was as informed as possible when it came to her options.

We hear about her transition into home birth planning, finding midwives and working through the legality and costs associated with direct-entry midwifery being illegal in her state of Illinois.

An African-American woman and survivor of emotional abuse, it was important for Isis to have the support she needed and to do things her way - like by keeping their plans to home birth private from friends and family.

And there’s a twist in the immediate postpartum hours that gave Isis the opportunity to feel in control and release any unnecessary fear.

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Today we're bringing you a rebroadcast of the second ever episode we published on the podcast! Hope you all enjoy this throwback : ) --- When we began our pregnancy adventure, home birth was pretty far from our mind. We kicked things off the traditional way: going to see an OBGYN at a great hospital. But three months later we parted ways with our OBGYN, partnered up with a midwife group working out of their home, and began our home birth journey.

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Where did your journey to birth begin?

For today’s guest Jenn Irizarry, her story links back to a life-threatening accident she had when she was 17 that tore her cervix. She had emergency surgery as a result of the internal bleeding and shock. 44 staples in her abdomen down to her pelvis later, Jenn was just happy to be alive. She wasn’t too caught up in the conversation that doctors brought up of the likelihood of her ability to have children.

But fast forward to when she and her husband Mike were trying to conceive, fertility became a popular topic. They went through rounds of unsuccessful IUIs and began the discussion of saving for IVF. In the process, she started seeing a Chinese Medicine doctor for acupuncture and a variety of herbs.

Spoiler alert - Jenn gets pregnant naturally and she made the switch from an OB to a midwife and home birth plan around 20 weeks.

We get to hear the whole birth story and what this meant to Jenn after such an emotional journey.

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Have you seen “These Are My Hours” yet? Well if you haven’t, this is your official suggestion and reminder. If you caught our last episode (number 156) - you’ll remember Matthew’s conversation with Scott Kirschenbaum, the creator of the documentary film that shows the process of birth completely through one woman’s perspective. And in today’s episode, I get to speak with this powerful woman and mother, Emily Graham.

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What if men were just as excited about birth as mothers were? Today is a very special episode. Matthew gets to chat with Scott Kirschenbaum, the director and producer of the new birth documentary film “These Are My Hours,” an intimate immersion into one woman’s experience of giving birth. The film is told and viewed completely through the perspective of the birthing mother Emily (whom we are interviewing in our next episode so stay tuned!).

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When is the best time to wean? And how do you know when to begin? And if I do it too early will it mess up my baby forever? And why am I feeling so conflicted about it?? Chances are if you’ve weaned your kid, most or all of these questions went through your head. After 21 months of breastfeeding we’re beginning the weaning process with baby Maya, and it’s been an interesting journey to say the least. In today’s episode we talk all about our weaning journey and what it’s been like for both

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