Healing Birth

After a birth experience that left her feeling trapped and traumatized, Sian developed severe postpartum anxiety and depression. Realizing she needed help, she turned to the National Health Service (UK) for mental health support, but the therapy she was received was nearly useless to her (and, delivered over the phone no less).

Sian found her way out of the dark place from spiritual, rather than cognitive, solutions, and the joy she now feels from her new son.

We also talk about the importance of planning your postpartum period intentionally, accepting help when it's offered, and asking people to bring you food (SERIOUSLY. Trust us).

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As a listener of this show, you get 10% off at check out with code "healingbirth" (one word).

Here's a link to Soothe the Soul

Here's a link to Snooze Button

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After a long labor, and, feeling like she needed some relief, Emily transferred from her midwife-attended home birth to the hospital. The classic cascade of interventions ensued, beginning with an epidural, ending in a cesarean.

At several points during her labor experience there, surrounded by total strangers and overwhelmed by the sensations in her body, the staff failed to support her in the ways that she needed.

Emily connects the experience of being sexually violated at an early age, and that having been met with shame and indifference from adults who should have protected her, with this experience too. It is a pattern that has showed up in her life, and, it showed up in her labor.

In a postscript that I love, Emily had the strength to provide written and verbal feedback to the hospital where her birth occurred, which caused them to make changes to their policies around how homebirth transfers are handled.

What a wonderful gift to those who will come after her.

You can find Emily on Instagram @storiesandsongbirds

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Support Puffs for the Public! They make high quality, CBD & CBG products that I absolutely love!

As a listener of this show, you get 10% off at check out with code "healingbirth" (one word).

Here's a link to Soothe The Soul bath salts

Here's a link to Snooze Button

Use the link below to purchase! It lets them know you heard about them from me :)

LINK TO PURCHASE

Welcome to SEASON FOUR!

Christina is a coach, doula, and childbirth educator, who helps new parents with the transition when a new child is born.

Like so many of us who get into birth work, her passion for it comes from her own experiences giving birth, which she shares with us today. After two births in German hospitals, the second of which left her traumatized, she knew she wanted to birth her third baby at home. That birth was the powerful, healing experience that she knew she needed.

We also talk about the culture of birth in modern day Germany, and speculate as to why the C-section rate there is rising.

You can connect with Christina on Instagram, @theintuitivemamacoach

Christina is a listener who reached out to me to share her story. If YOU would like to share your birth story on the podcast, I want to hear from you! Send me a note via the contact page at www.healingbirth.net.

If you love the show, please consider supporting the podcast on Patreon! There are bonus episodes, video podcasts, + other content there. www.patreon.com/Healingbirth

Thank you for listening!

An end of year message from my heart to yours.

Thank you so much for listening! I love you!

Send me a note at www.healingbirth.net

We're on Instagram @healingbirth

Diana

Unhappy with her previous experience birthing within the medical system, Saphron decided to simply stay home and free birth her second baby.

Leading up to the birth, she had constant, vivid dreams with visual representations of transformation. Reflecting back on the two birth experiences, she's says that physiological birth is what helps us cross the transformational threshold, ushering us into our full power as a mother.

Having experienced both ways of birthing myself - I fully agree.

We wrap up our conversation talking about the of sacred role of the birthing woman's partner in birth.

If you love the show, please consider supporting us on Patron! www.patron.com/healingbirth.

I love to hear from you! If you would like to send me a note, please use the contact page at www.healingbirth.net. And if you have a story you'd like to share on the podcast, reach out to me there as well!

Jackie shares the story of having her first baby via unplanned cesarean at 35 weeks.

After the NICU stay, and very tough first year, she found healing in getting answers from a spiritual perspective to the "what, why and how" of that birth experience. When she was ready, she and her daughter had a rebirthing ceremony that also helped to heal the trauma of the birth.

Be sure to check out our instagram page @healingbirth for a bunch of photos that accompany this episode!

Jackie is a listener who reached out to share her story. If you have a story you'd like to share on the podcast, please reach out! You can send me a note via the contact page on our website which is www.healingbirth.net

If you love the show, please consider supporting us on Patron! www.patron.com/healingbirth

How do you ravish a mother?

In this vulnerable conversation, Lisa and I share our experiences coming back to our sex lives after a traumatic birth.

I strongly suspect that feeling shut down sexually after giving birth, especially a traumatic one, is something that is way more common than is openly discussed.

The reasons can be myriad. Our relationship to our bodies change, our very identity changes, some of us have complicated physical healing to do, and many of us have experienced medical rape or assault during the birth process, just to name a few. Coming back into right relationship with our sexuality is coming back into right relationship with ourselves, and is such an important piece of the healing journey.

Thank you Lisa for getting so vulnerable and raw with me! You can find Lisa on Instagram @thewomanssanctum and at www.thewomanssanctum.com

You can find Lisa's first appearance on the show, where she tells her whole birth story, here:

https://www.healingbirth.net/podcast/episode/2c7f3747/a-loss-a-cesarean-an-awakening

Intro music is Dreams, by the artist Markvard @Markvardofficial

Transition music is Adventures, by A Himitsu @Ahimitsu

If you love the show, support us on patreon! www.patreon.com/healingbirth

I love to hear from listeners, send me a note via the contact page at www.healingbirth.net

Two births in the Finnish medical system left Anahel angry and knowing, in her words, "something is not right here."

She planned to have her third baby at home. That whirlwind birth experience completely healed the pain of the past two.

Anahel is a listener who reached out to me to share her beautiful story. If you have a story you'd like to share too, reach out! Send me a note at the contact page at www.healingbirth.net

If you love the show, support us on patreon! www.patreon.com/healingbirth

After years of working in hospitals as a midwife, being a part of the broken maternity system that causes 1 in 3 women to experience birth trauma, Anna chose to step out on her own, become a whistleblower and actively work to speak the truth about the power of natural physiological birth. She exposes the over medicalized maternity system for the harm it is causing women, babies, families and the world at large.

Follow Anna @the_spiritual_midwife

Anna has some amazing offerings including a course, her own podcast, and works one on one with women to help unpack birth trauma. You can learn more at her website, which is www.thenaturalbirthcourse.com.

If you love the show, support us on patreon! www.patreon.com/healingbirth

I love to hear from listeners! Send me a note at the contact page at www.healingbirth.net

Julia was planning for a peaceful home birth with her third baby, but plans changed when her labor began at 34 weeks gestation. Even though she gave birth in an environment she didn't want, she did an amazing job advocating for herself and her baby during his subsequent NICU stay, and medical complications.

She truly believes that the circumstances around his birth were exactly as they should be.

I am always amazed at the miracles that happen when we honor our maternal intuition, and listen to guidance from our babies. This story is perfectly illustrative of that truth!

If you love the podcast, please consider supporting the show! www.patreon.com/healingbirth

I love to hear from you! Send me a note at www.healingbirth.net

Transition Music by: @jaysomeday