Evidence Based Birth®

In this episode, we are finishing up our series on protecting the perineum by talking about the evidence on birthing positions and how upright positions help prevent tears! We'll also discuss tried-and-true protective practices that midwives have passed down through countless generations (hint: it's simpler/easier than you think!) Head's up... if you haven't listened to EBB Episode 206 yet, I recommend listening to that episode first, since it covers introductory information about perineal tears. You can also go back to Episodes 210, 216, and 218 for more info about other proposed methods of protecting the perineum.

Content warning: we mention tears of the vagina, severe tears from the vagina to the rectum, obstetric violence related to episiotomies, and being forced to give birth on your back.

RESOURCES:

• Support the work of Mercy In Action in the Philippines (and check out their U.S.-based midwifery college) here https://www.mercyinaction.com/
• For a full list of scientific references, see the blog post that goes along with this episode
• Check out Episode 206 of the EBB Podcast to learn about perineal tears and avoiding an episiotomy, Episode 210 to learn about warm compresses and hands-on vs. hands-off techniques, Episode 216 to learn about perineal massage during pregnancy, and Episode 218 to learn about perineal massage during labor.
• Go to our YouTube channel to see video versions of all our podcasts! (including PowerPoint presentations when used)
• Visit https://evidencebasedbirth.com/childbirth-class/ to learn more about the Evidence Based Birth® Childbirth Class
• Take a continuing education class on this topic (and earn a contact hour) by joining the EBB Professional Membership here: https://evidencebasedbirth.com/become-pro-member/

For more information and news about Evidence Based Birth®, visit www.ebbirth.com. Find us on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/EvidenceBasedBirth/ ), Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/ebbirth/), and Pinterest (https://www.pinterest.com/ebbirth/). Ready to get involved? Check out our Professional membership (including scholarship options) (https://evidencebasedbirth.com/become-pro-member/). Find an EBB Instructor here (https://evidencebasedbirth.com/find-an-instructor-parents/), and click here (https://evidencebasedbirth.com/childbirth-class/) to learn more about the Evidence Based Birth® Childbirth Class.

On today's podcast, we're going to talk with Irth® App founder, Kimberly Seals Allers, to update us on Irth® App's mission to fight against racism and bias in perinatal and infant care.

Kimberly Seals Allers (she/her) is an award-winning journalist, five-time author, international speaker strategist, and an advocate for perinatal and infant health. A former senior editor at Essence, and writer at Fortune Magazine, Kimberly is a leading voice on the racial and socio-cultural complexities of birth, lactation, and parenthood. Kimberly is the founder of Irth®, a new Yelp-like app for Black and Brown parents to address bias and racism in perinatal and infant care. Kimberly also created Birthright, a podcast about joy and healing in Black birth that centers positive Black birth stories as a tool in the fight for birth justice, and to reverse the narrative of negative statistics that is common in mainstream media coverage of Black perinatal health.

We talk about the updated research from Irth®'s movement to eradicate racism and bias in perinatal and infant care. We also talk about the importance of actively implementing strategies for safer birthing spaces for Black and Brown birthing people.

Content warning: We mention racism, bias, Black perinatal death, and trauma.

RESOURCES:

Learn more about Kimberly Seals Allers here and the Irth® App here. Follow Kimberley on Instagram. Follow the Irth® App on Facebook and Instagram. Listen to the Birthright Podcast here.

Listen to EBB 161 here.

Learn more about Dr. Carla Williams here and her feature on the Birthright Podcast here.

Learn more about March of Dimes here.

Learn more about the White House Maternal Day of Action press release here.

For more information and news about Evidence Based Birth®, visit www.ebbirth.com. Find us on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/EvidenceBasedBirth/ ), Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/ebbirth/), and Pinterest (https://www.pinterest.com/ebbirth/). Ready to get involved? Check out our Professional membership (including scholarship options) (https://evidencebasedbirth.com/become-pro-member/). Find an EBB Instructor here (https://evidencebasedbirth.com/find-an-instructor-parents/), and click here (https://evidencebasedbirth.com/childbirth-class/) to learn more about the Evidence Based Birth® Childbirth Class.

On today's podcast, we're going to talk with student midwife and Evidence Based Birth®'s new Program Team Manager, Chanté Perryman about life as a student midwife. Chanté Perryman (she/her) is a midwifery student studying to become a certified professional midwife in Central Kentucky. She owns Baby Dreams Maternity Concierge and has a goal of opening a freestanding birth center to continue to provide community support, education, and advocacy for birthing families. Chanté is the new Program Team Manager here at Evidence Based Birth®. She is also a professionally certified birth and postpartum doula, a certified childbirth educator, an Evidence Based Birth® Instructor, and a Spinning Babies® Certified Parent Educator. Chanté also volunteers with the Kentucky Birth Coalition helping to advance legislation for midwives and families. In her spare time, she loves reading, lettering, drinking hot tea, and traveling with her family to explore local museums and restaurants.

We talk about Chanté's passion to become a future midwife and what motivated her to start her journey as a student midwife. We also talk about Chanté's dream goal of owning a freestanding birth center and the barriers she has faced as a Black student midwife.

Content warning: We mention racism and trauma.

Learn more about Chanté Perryman here. Follow Chanté on Facebook and Instagram.

Listen to Episode 79 here.

Listen to Episode 136 here.

Listen to Episode 145 here.

Listen to Episode 183 here.

Learn more about Indiana Black midwife, Amanda Chandler, here.

Learn more about Karie Stewart and Melanated Midwives here.

For more information and news about Evidence Based Birth®, visit www.ebbirth.com. Find us on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/EvidenceBasedBirth/), Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/ebbirth/), and Pinterest (https://www.pinterest.com/ebbirth/). Ready to get involved? Check out our Professional membership (including scholarship options) (https://evidencebasedbirth.com/become-pro-member/). Find an EBB Instructor here (https://evidencebasedbirth.com/find-an-instructor-parents/), and click here (https://evidencebasedbirth.com/childbirth-class/) to learn more about the Evidence Based Birth® Childbirth Class.

In this episode, we are continuing our series on protecting the perineum by talking about the evidence on whether prenatal perineal massage during labor (more specifically, during the pushing phase) is effective at preventing severe perineal tears. We'll also discuss the importance of critically analyzing research, and poor quality meta-analyses can have a negative impact by spreading inaccurate information! Head's up... if you haven't listened to EBB Episode 206 yet, I recommend listening to that episode first, since it covers introductory information about perineal tears.

Content warning: Discussion of perineal tears during childbirth, severe tears, obstetric violence, and episiotomy.

Resources:

• For a full list of scientific references, see the blog post that goes along with this episode
• Check out Episode 206 of the EBB Podcast to learn about perineal tears and avoiding an episiotomy, Episode 210 to learn about warm compresses and hands-on vs. hands-off techniques, and Episode 2016 to learn about perineal massage during pregnancy.
• Go to our YouTube channel to see video versions of all our podcasts! (including PowerPoint presentations when used)
• Visit https://evidencebasedbirth.com/childbirth-class/ to learn more about the Evidence Based Birth® Childbirth Class
• Take a continuing education class on this topic (and earn a contact hour) by joining the EBB Professional Membership here: https://evidencebasedbirth.com/become-pro-member/

For more information and news about Evidence Based Birth®, visit www.ebbirth.com. Find us on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/EvidenceBasedBirth/ ), Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/ebbirth/ ), and Pinterest (https://www.pinterest.com/ebbirth/ ). Ready to get involved? Check out our Professional membership (including scholarship options) (https://evidencebasedbirth.com/become-pro-member/ ). Find an EBB Instructor here (https://evidencebasedbirth.com/find-an-instructor-parents/ ), and click here (https://evidencebasedbirth.com/childbirth-class/ ) to learn more about the Evidence Based Birth® Childbirth Class.

On today's podcast, we're going to talk with Stefanie Lyn Kaufman-Mthimkhulu about disability justice in birth and parenting. Stefanie Lyn Kaufman-Mthimkhulu, (they/she) is a white, queer, and non-binary disabled, neuro-divergent, a survivor of sexual violence in the psychiatric system. They show up for their communities as a disability justice educator and organizer, parent, somatic and non-clinical healer, writer, transformative justice practitioner, and, as the founding director of Project LETS, which you can check out their website at projectlets.com.

Stefanie's work specializes in building non-carceral peer-led mental health care systems that exist outside of the state and re-imagining everything we've come to learn about madness. Stefanie is the editor of Abolition Must Include Psychiatry and the author of We Don't Need Cops to Become Social Workers. Stefanie is an experienced facilitator, mediator, curriculum, developer, and strategist for Anti-ableist Leadership, Mental Health and Disability Policy, and Access Centered Practices. They're located on unceded Narragansett in Wampanoag land in so-called Providence, Rhode Island.

We talk about Stefanie's personal experience with trauma and ableism, along with their work as a disability justice educator. We also talk about what is disability justice and its importance in birth work.

Content warning: We mention self-injury, disability, neuro-divergent, eugenics, reproductive trauma, ableism, epilepsy, seizures, trauma, sexual violence, medical violence, and history of sterilization.

Learn more about Stefanie Lyn Kaufman here. Follow Stefanie on Facebook and Instagram.

Learn more about Becoming Disabled Again for BADT.

Learn more about Birth and Disability Course with Birthing Advocacy Doula Trainings.

Learn more about Crisis Response for Birthworkers.

Learn more about Disability in the Family: A Course for Parents + Caregivers here.

For more information and news about Evidence Based Birth®, visit www.ebbirth.com. Find us on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/EvidenceBasedBirth/), Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/ebbirth/), and Pinterest (https://www.pinterest.com/ebbirth/). Ready to get involved? Check out our Professional membership (including scholarship options) (https://evidencebasedbirth.com/become-pro-member/). Find an EBB Instructor here (https://evidencebasedbirth.com/find-an-instructor-parents/), and click here (https://evidencebasedbirth.com/childbirth-class/) to learn more about the Evidence Based Birth® Childbirth Class.

In this episode, we are continuing our series on protecting the perineum by talking about the evidence on whether prenatal perineal massage is effective at preventing perineal tears during childbirth. We'll also discuss the importance of critically analyzing research, and what "predatory open access publishing" has to do with some of the research on perineal massage! Head's up... if you haven't listened to EBB Episode 206 yet, I recommend listening to that episode first, since it covers introductory information about perineal tears. Content warning: Discussion of perineal tears during childbirth, severe tears, obstetric violence, and episiotomy. Resources:

• For a full list of scientific references, see the blog post that goes along with this episode
• Check out Episode 206 of the EBB Podcast to learn about Perineal Tears and Avoiding Episiotomy and Episode 210 to learn about warm compresses and hands-on vs. hands-off techniques
• Go to our YouTube channel to see video versions of all our podcasts!
• Visit https://evidencebasedbirth.com/childbirth-class/ to learn more about the Evidence Based Birth® Childbirth Class
• Take a continuing education class on this topic (and earn a contact hour) by joining the EBB Professional Membership here: https://evidencebasedbirth.com/become-pro-member/
• Check open access journals to see if they are on beallslist.net (https://beallslist.net/standalone-journals/) as a potential predatory journal.
• Resource for authors to determine whether they should submit to an open access journal: https://thinkchecksubmit.org/

For more information and news about Evidence Based Birth®, visit www.ebbirth.com . Find us on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/EvidenceBasedBirth/ ), Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/ebbirth/ ), and Pinterest (https://www.pinterest.com/ebbirth/ ). Ready to get involved? Check out our Professional membership (including scholarship options) (https://evidencebasedbirth.com/become-pro-member/ ). Find an EBB Instructor here (https://evidencebasedbirth.com/find-an-instructor-parents/ ), and click here (https://evidencebasedbirth.com/childbirth-class/ ) to learn more about the Evidence Based Birth® Childbirth Class.

On today's podcast, we will be talking with board-certified OB-GYN, Dr. Jennifer Lincoln, about evidence-based information on reproductive health.

Dr. Jennifer Lincoln (she/her) is a board-certified OB-GYN who currently practices as an OB hospitalist and International Board Certified Lactation Consultant (IBCLC) in Portland, Oregon. Dr. Lincoln loves using social media to provide evidence-based, easy-to-digest information while busting the many myths surrounding vaginal and reproductive health.

Dr. Lincoln is the author of, Let's Talk About Down There: An OB-GYN Answers to All of Your Burning Questions Without Making You Feel Embarrassed for Even Asking. Dr. Lincoln is also a bonafide star on TikTok with more than 2.4 million followers about sex and reproductive health. Dr. Lincoln is married to a pediatrician and together they have two young boys.

We talk about her journey to becoming an OB hospitalist to address the needs in sexual and reproductive health. We also talk about the importance of debunking reproductive myths and dismantling the shame in talking about sexual and reproductive health.

Content warning: We mention sexual health, reproduction, and prevention of birth trauma.

For more information and news about Evidence Based Birth®, visit www.ebbirth.com. Find us on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/EvidenceBasedBirth/), Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/ebbirth/), and Pinterest (https://www.pinterest.com/ebbirth/). Ready to get involved? Check out our Professional membership (including scholarship options) (https://evidencebasedbirth.com/become-pro-member/). Find an EBB Instructor here (https://evidencebasedbirth.com/find-an-instructor-parents/), and click here (https://evidencebasedbirth.com/childbirth-class/) to learn more about the Evidence Based Birth® Childbirth Class.

On today's podcast, to celebrate IBCLC Day, we're going to highlight and talk with IBCLC Nichelle Clark about supporting pumping parents in lactation.

Nichelle Clark (she/her) is an International Board Certified Lactation Consultant, or IBCLC, wife, and mother of two residing in Chesapeake, Virginia. She is the owner of SonShine & Rainbows Lactation Services. Born and raised in Upper Marlboro, Maryland, Nichelle joined the United States Navy in 2010 and served honorably for 7.5 years. In 2020, she founded Black Breastfeeding 365, an organization that seeks to bridge the gap between Black parents and the lactation professionals who serve them. When she's not spending time with her husband and children, she serves as a United States Lactation Consultant Association, or USLCA, advisory board member, and Clinical Lactation Journal social media editor. In her spare time, she admins multiple online support groups for people of color, providing breastfeeding support and lactation education to her community. As an exclusive pumping mom herself, Nichelle is a champion for breastfeeding parents to write down their own rules and breastfeed their way.

We talk about Nichelle's personal experience with being an exclusive pumping parent and the barriers she faced when advocating her choice to exclusively pump and re-lactate. We also talk about debunking pumping myths in lactation and how Nichelle serves parents of color in her community as an IBCLC to encourage making informed choices during one's lactation journey.

Content warning: We mention COVID, trauma, and infant loss.

RESOURCES:

Learn more about Nichelle Clark here. Follow Nichelle on Facebook and on Instagram.

Listen to EBB 189 here.

Learn more about the Academy of Breastfeeding Medicine here.

Learn more about Black Breastfeeding Mamas Circle here.

Learn more about Breast Milk Donation for Black Moms here.

Learn more about Lactation Education Resources here.

Learn more about the United States of Lactation Consultants Association (USLCA) here.

Learn about the Black Birth Healer here.

For more information and news about Evidence Based Birth®, visit www.ebbirth.com. Find us on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/EvidenceBasedBirth/), Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/ebbirth/), and Pinterest (https://www.pinterest.com/ebbirth/). Ready to get involved? Check out our Professional membership (including scholarship options) (https://evidencebasedbirth.com/become-pro-member/). Find an EBB Instructor here (https://evidencebasedbirth.com/find-an-instructor-parents/), and click here (https://evidencebasedbirth.com/childbirth-class/) to learn more about the Evidence Based Birth® Childbirth Class.

On today's podcast, we're talking with EBB's newest research editor and co-founder of the Minnesota Healing Justice Network, Ihotu Ali, about cultural appropriation and racial healing in birth work. Ihotu Ali (she/her) is a doula, Maya abdominal massage therapist, a doctoral student in chiropractic medicine, and now EBB's newest research editor. Ihotu, meaning "love" in the Idoma language, is the granddaughter of a traditional Nigerian chief, of Polish-Irish farmers, and a graduate of Columbia University. Ihotu has conducted maternal health research with the United Nations before becoming a doula in 2011. Fascinated by the connections between Western and traditional medicine, Ihotu spent a decade study in Afro-Indigenous and global cultural practices for childbirth, ancestral, and wound healing. Ihotu is now alongside medical training in chiropractic care in the neuroscience of spirituality and meditation. Ihotu is a co-founder of the Minnesota Healing Justice Network, which was featured in Rolling Stone magazine for their focus on rest for residents and healers through the 2020 Uprising, and is now the director of the Oshun Center for Intercultural Healing.

We talk about what is cultural appropriation, the difference between cultural appropriation and cultural appreciation, and how it can show up in various birth working spaces. We also talk about the importance of racial healing and how it can apply in birth work, especially for birth workers of color.

Content warning: We mention cultural appropriation, trauma, racism, and anti-Blackness.

RESOURCES:

Learn more about Ihotu Ali and The Oshun Center here.

Learn more about cultural appropriation in wellness spaces here.

Learn more about exploring yoga and cultural appropriation here.

Learn more about how culture can be appropriated here.

See a complete list of resources for this episode on the show's blog page here.

For more information and news about Evidence Based Birth®, visit www.ebbirth.com. Find us on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/EvidenceBasedBirth/), Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/ebbirth/), and Pinterest (https://www.pinterest.com/ebbirth/). Ready to get involved? Check out our Professional membership (including scholarship options) (https://evidencebasedbirth.com/become-pro-member/). Find an EBB Instructor here (https://evidencebasedbirth.com/find-an-instructor-parents/), and click here (https://evidencebasedbirth.com/childbirth-class/) to learn more about the Evidence Based Birth® Childbirth Class.

On today's podcast, we're going to talk with EBB Childbirth Class parents, Kaya and Jess Tuchscherer, about their double rainbow baby in giving birth after two prior losses.

Kaya Tuchscherer (she/her) is a physical therapist, and Jess Tuchscherer (he/him) is a high school English teacher and river guide. They love good food, family, and outdoor adventures. Kaya and Jess live in Jackson, Wyoming with their son, Henry, and two chocolate Labradors, Eddie and Porter.

We talk about Kaya and Jess' inspiring story of their challenges of trying to conceive, along with giving birth after experiencing infant loss twice. We also talk about how the EBB Childbirth Class facilitated by EBB instructor, Chanté Perryman, taught them how to communicate on how to achieve the birth experience they wanted with their double rainbow baby, Henry.

Content Warning: We mention challenges to pre-term birth, miscarriage, attempts to conceive, placental abruption, COVID, cesarean, newborn loss, grief and loss of family members, and trauma.

RESOURCES:

Learn more about EBB instructor, Chanté Perryman here. Follow Chanté on Instagram here.

Watch the "Life With A Newborn: Why It's So Hard To Take A Shower" video here.

Listen to EBB 145 here.

For more information and news about Evidence Based Birth®, visit www.ebbirth.com. Find us on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/EvidenceBasedBirth/), Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/ebbirth/), and Pinterest (https://www.pinterest.com/ebbirth/). Ready to get involved? Check out our Professional membership (including scholarship options) (https://evidencebasedbirth.com/become-pro-member/). Find an EBB Instructor here (https://evidencebasedbirth.com/find-an-instructor-parents/), and click here (https://evidencebasedbirth.com/childbirth-class/) to learn more about the Evidence Based Birth® Childbirth Class.