In this episode of Girly Pop Birth Talks, Becca and Arielle sit down with Dr. Shanna Saenz, DC, chiropractor and mama of two, to share her two very different — and equally powerful — birth stories.

Shanna walks us through her first birth at the California Birth Center, where her water broke unexpectedly while walking around Raley’s at 37+6. When labor didn’t begin on its own, she made the empowered decision to use castor oil, leading to an 8-hour labor and a calm, supported birth just days later.

Her second birth, a planned home birth through CBC, was a completely different experience — fast, intense, and almost missed. With only two hours of active labor, a water birth in the middle of the day, and a midwife arriving at 2:53 PM with baby born at 3:10 PM, this birth became a powerful lesson in trusting the body and letting go of expectations (and the timeline 😅).

Together, we talk about:

Birth center vs. home birth experiences

Fast labor and how it can surprise even experienced moms

Trusting your body when labor doesn’t follow the “rules”

How chiropractic care can support pregnancy & birth

Surrender, intuition, and body wisdom in labor

What second births teach us about control and confidence

This episode is real, grounding, and empowering — a reminder that birth doesn’t have to look one way to be powerful and that your body is always worthy of trust.

🎧 Perfect for mamas, birth workers, and anyone who loves honest birth stories that leave you feeling more confident in your body.

This week on Girly Pop Birth Talks, Becca & Arielle sit down with Justine Williams, a mama of four whose motherhood journey has taken her through nearly every version of bringing a baby home.

Justine shares her experience of seven pregnancies, including four births, three miscarriages, and one beautiful adoption, as well as giving birth in a hospital, birth center, and at home. Her story is layered with loss, trust, surrender, and the deep knowing that families are built in so many different ways.

Now a stay-at-home and homeschool mama with children ranging from newborn to 9 years old, Justine reflects on navigating big age gaps, postpartum in midlife, and learning to release control while honoring her body and intuition.

In this episode, we talk about:

What it’s like to birth in every setting

Trusting your body after pregnancy loss

The emotional journey of adoption

Parenting across wide age gaps

Letting go of the “perfect birth” story

Redefining what a family can look like

This conversation is tender, grounding, and full of wisdom for anyone walking through pregnancy, postpartum, loss, or adoption.

✨ Press play, grab a cozy drink, and come sit with us.

In this deeply moving episode of Girly Pop Birth Talks, Becca and Arielle sit down with Amanda Vonderheid to share a raw, honest, and incredibly vulnerable birth journey one that holds both profound loss and enduring strength.

Amanda opens up about experiencing six pregnancies, including two living children, three chemical pregnancies, and one devastating stillbirth. She walks us through her three unplanned cesarean births, each one shaped by unique circumstances, medical complications, and emotional weight.

We talk about:

Planning a birth center birth that ended in a hospital transfer, Pitocin, and cesarean after PROM and positional challenges

Navigating preeclampsia at 39 weeks, induction, and the unimaginable discovery that her baby had passed away, followed by a cesarean and postpartum preeclampsia rehospitalization

Hoping for a VBAC after loss, only to face another cesarean due to cord complications and fetal intolerance of labor

The lasting impact of birth trauma and being treated poorly by medical providers

What it means to grieve, heal, and mother after loss

How these experiences reshape trust, advocacy, and the way we hold future pregnancies and births

This episode is tender, heavy, and incredibly important. Amanda’s story is a reminder that birth is not linear, that outcomes do not define worth, and that women deserve compassion, autonomy, and respect—always.

🤍 Content note: This episode includes discussion of pregnancy loss and stillbirth.

🎧 Listen wherever you get your podcasts: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube

💗 If this episode resonates, please share it with someone who might feel less alone because of it.

If you live in Northern California, you’ve probably seen the billboards. Valary Jennings isn’t just our guest she’s the co-founder of Made 4 More Realty, the company behind those local billboards that are all over the Sacramento and Roseville area.

In this episode of Girly Pop Birth Talks, Becca and Arielle sit down with Valary — a 34-year-old mom of two (soon to be three), real estate pro, and woman with real stories about birth center birth and what it takes to trust your body again.

Valary shares openly about:

Birth center births what they’re really like beyond the highlight reel

Her first birth at 40+4 and the healing that followed

A second baby born mostly en caul on the due date

How previous birth experiences shaped her confidence going into baby number three

The emotional, physical, and spiritual prep for another baby while parenting little ones

Letting go of perfection and embracing real birth experiences

This conversation is grounded, honest, and full of heart perfect for anyone navigating birth expectations, healing after a challenging delivery, or preparing for another round.

🎧 Episode 22 is live now

Available on YouTube • Apple Podcasts • Spotify

Come sit with us 💗

— Becca & Arielle

Episode 21: Emergency Induction, Postpartum Hemorrhage & Finding Your Voice After Birth

with Morgan Kuppenbender

In this episode of Girly Pop Birth Talks, Becca and Arielle sit down with Morgan Kuppenbender, a mama sharing her first and only birth story—a vaginal birth that unfolded very differently than expected.

At 31, married, and balancing life as both a wedding planner and tech sales professional, Morgan opens up about her pregnancy, emergency induction, and the moments during birth that forever changed her understanding of advocacy, trust, and postpartum healing.

Together, Becca, Arielle, and Morgan explore:

    •    Experiencing an emergency induction

    •    Delivering a healthy baby boy

    •    A retained amniotic sac and postpartum hemorrhage (850 mL blood loss)

    •    The emotional and physical recovery that followed

    •    Processing birth trauma while stepping into motherhood

    •    How perspectives on control, surrender, and self-advocacy evolve after birth

This conversation is raw, grounded, and deeply validating—especially for parents whose births didn’t go according to plan but still resulted in profound growth and resilience.

Nothing is off-limits in this episode. With Becca and Arielle holding space, Morgan’s story reminds us that birth can be both beautiful and hard—and that telling our stories helps other mothers feel seen, supported, and less alone.

✨ If you’ve experienced an unexpected birth, medical intervention, or postpartum complications, this episode is for you.

🎧 Listen now wherever you get your podcasts

YouTube • Apple Podcasts • Spotify

Grab a snack, get comfy, and come hang 😌 This week is a very unserious girly chat. Becca and Arielle talk careers, the most common things we see as a doula and lactation consultant, shared birth-world chaos, hot takes, and the stuff we text each other about but finally said out loud. Cozy, candid, and slightly unhinged (in the best way).

🎧 Listen now on

Spotify• Apple Podcasts• YouTube

Hi girly pops 💕

This week, Becca and Arielle sit down with Kaleigh Burrage, an RRDS birth doula, as she shares her deeply personal journey through one hospital birth, two home births, and what it’s like to live and work inside the world of birth.

Kaleigh opens up about how each of her births shaped her trust in her body, her intuition, and her understanding of informed choice. We talk about navigating the hospital system, choosing home birth, and the emotional and spiritual shift that happens when you move from birthing mother to birth worker.

This episode is honest, reflective, and grounding — a beautiful conversation about sovereignty, support, and answering the call to serve families through birth.

✨ In this episode, we cover:

• Kaleigh’s first hospital birth
• Choosing home birth for her second and third babies
• How birth led her into doula work with RRDS
• What it’s really like to hold space as a birth doula
• Trusting your body and honoring intuition

🎧 Streaming on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, and Spotify
New episodes drop every Thursday at 6pm.

This week, Becca and Arielle sit down with Caitlin Gillings, a 34-year-old mom of four whose birth stories span nearly every setting: two hospital vaginal deliveries, a birth center birth, and finally a deeply empowering home birth.

Caitlin opens up about navigating six pregnancies, including two losses between her third and fourth babies, and how each chapter shaped the mother she is today. With children now ages 9, 7, 4, and 18 months, Caitlin reflects on how her confidence, intuition, and perspective evolved across her journeys from her early hospital experiences to finding autonomy and peace in her later births.

As a stay-at-home mom, Caitlin brings a grounded, honest, and relatable voice to this conversation. Her story is a testament to growth, resilience, and the beauty of learning to trust your body over time.

This episode holds a deeply sacred story one that moves through four intentional home births, a miscarriage, and then an emergency twin C-section that resulted in the devastating loss of one twin at delivery.

What began as a familiar, confident rhythm of physiological birth suddenly shifted into medical urgency, grief, and long-term caregiving for a medically complex child.

In this conversation, we walk through:

– Four planned home births
– A miscarriage and its emotional impact
– An emergency twin C-section
– Losing one baby at delivery
– Navigating grief while caring for a surviving newborn
– Becoming the full-time caregiver to a child with trach, vent, and g-tube needs

Her living children range from teenage years to toddlerhood, and this episode highlights what it looks like to mother across different developmental stages while holding grief, medical decisions, and everyday life.

We explore:

– The identity shift that comes when birth outcomes change drastically
– How grief and joy coexist in motherhood
– What resilience looks like beyond the romantic version of strength
– The complexities of marriage, household demands, and caregiving
– How life can redraw itself overnight

This episode gives voice to mothers navigating unexpected loss, medical complexity, and survival mode. It offers honesty without dramatizing, hope without glossing over pain, and visibility to stories often held quietly.

Episode 16: Our Thanksgiving Special with Dr. Zwerling 🦃💗
This week, Becca and Arielle sit down with the incredible Dr. Zwerling to hear her journey into becoming an OB-GYN, what a day in her life really looks like, and how her philosophy of care has been shaped by her own first birth experience a prolonged induction (partially at home, partially in the hospital), four hours of pushing, a cesarean birth, and a postpartum hemorrhage.
Dr. Zwerling is passionately dedicated to providing comprehensive sexual + reproductive healthcare for all patients, with specialized training in complex family planning and a deep commitment to serving LGBTQIA+ communities especially trans and gender-expansive folks.
We also dive into her academic research on spirituality in medicine and medical education.
This is a warm, grounded, heart-opening conversation you won’t want to miss.
Listen now Episode 16 is live. 🫶🎙️