Held & Heard: Infant potty training, elimination communication & postpartum motherhood

If you want a positive natural home birth, how can you overcome the fears you might have grown up with to experience the birth you desire and believe is possible? 

In this episode of Held and Heard, I sit down with naturopathic doctor and Rewire for Birth co-founder Dr. Cindy Tahhan to hear the story behind her two incredibly positive natural home births.

Cindy didn't grow up assuming she would give birth at home. In fact, even after becoming a naturopathic doctor, much of what she had learned about birth still followed the conventional model.

Then she watched two highly trained medical professionals choose home birth for their own family.

It made her wonder: What do they know that I don't?

That question began a much deeper journey into physiological birth, the nervous system, intuition, fear, surrender, and what can happen when we learn to work with our bodies instead of assuming they're something we need to control.

We talk about how to prepare your nervous system for birth, why surrender matters, the role your birth environment can play in physiological labor, how to recognize fears and beliefs you've absorbed about childbirth, and why Cindy believes we should prepare for the birth we desire without attaching our worth or success to a particular outcome.

If you’re hoping or preparing for a natural unmedicated home birth, Cindy’s positive birth stories are exactly the encouragement you need. 

Learn more from Dr. Cindy Tahhan:

And if Cindy's story about elimination communication made you wonder what your baby might already be trying to tell you, you can learn more about my work right here on Held & Heard ;)

Connect with Cindy on Instagram @drcindytahhan 

Keywords: positive birth stories, natural home birth, free birth, midwives, matrescence, unmedicated birth

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💡Just learning about Elimination Communication? Discover the basics with my free Quick Start Guide to EC for babies 0-12 months. 

🧭The Born Ready Course (for babies 0-12 months)

Know that EC is for you? Get it right from the beginning without the guesswork, join the Born Ready course and get my complete, stage-by-stage process from birth to toilet independence by ONE, no matter when you’re starting.

🐥Ditch the Diapers (for babies 10-18 months)

Already pottying your baby successfully, but wondering how to finish the journey and Ditch the Diapers? If your baby is cruising or walking, they’re ready to potty independently. Ditch the Diapers shows you how to get there. 

💌 DM Heather on Instagram @readyfrombirth.ec or email [email protected] to connect!

Why does early motherhood change you so deeply?

You’ve probably heard the word matrescence—the profound physical, emotional, neurological, and identity transformation that happens when a woman becomes a mother. But what if there’s more to this transformation than biology?

In this episode of Held and Heard, Heather explores a question she’s been asking about her own journey through motherhood: What if God is using early motherhood to shape us for His purpose?

From pregnancy and birth to breastfeeding, sleepless nights, toddlerhood, and all the ordinary, exhausting work of caring for a child, motherhood has a way of confronting our need for control and teaching us things we might never have chosen to learn on our own.

Heather explores the connection between matrescence, Christian motherhood, sanctification, and spiritual growth, looking at how early motherhood can cultivate the six central traits that our children - and God - require of us. 

Discover your most peaceful postpartum possible: join Heather's upcoming free workshop Fix the Fuss: Uncover Your Baby's Forgotten Fifth Need on November 5th. 

Sign up here

Topics covered: matrescence, early motherhood, postpartum motherhood, Christian motherhood, motherhood and faith, sanctification, becoming more like Jesus, spiritual growth, motherhood transformation, pregnancy and motherhood, postpartum identity, conscious parenting, infant potty learning, elimination communication.

If you're the kind of woman who researches everything, makes the list, gets organized, and likes to feel prepared before a big life change… pregnancy can turn into one very big project.

And motherhood doesn't exactly cooperate with project management.

In this episode, I'm joined by Nina Spears, founder of Baby Chick and author of The Baby Chick Guide to Positive Pregnancy, to talk about what high-achieving women actually need to prepare for as they enter motherhood.

Nina has spent more than 15 years supporting women through pregnancy, birth, postpartum, and early parenthood—as a baby planner, birth and postpartum doula, childbirth educator, and perinatal educator. She has attended more than 350 births and works with the exact kind of woman who is used to being capable, prepared, and in control.

We talk about why preparing for birth is only part of the preparation you need, why postpartum deserves far more attention during pregnancy, how the invisible mental load begins long before your baby arrives, and why so many capable women find themselves completely overwhelmed once they're suddenly responsible for another human being.

We also get into the uncomfortable reality of what happens when birth doesn't go according to plan—and what it can look like to prepare deeply while still leaving room for the things you simply cannot control.

If you're pregnant and already making lists, reading the books, researching your options, and trying to make sure you do everything "right," I think you'll especially want to hear this conversation.

Because preparing for motherhood isn't just about knowing more.

It's about becoming the mother who can meet what actually comes.

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Connect with Nina Spears on Instagram @thebabychick

Prepare for pregnancy and postpartum at baby-chick.com and grab your copy of The Baby Chick Guide to Positive Pregnancy today!

Can you really potty train a baby before one? If you're practicing elimination communication (EC), you may already know that babies can communicate their need to eliminate long before conventional potty training says they're “ready.” But what happens when your baby is using the potty successfully at home and suddenly refuses when someone else is caring for them?

In this episode of Held & Heard, Heather shares a recent experience with her 17-month-old while visiting family—and what the experience revealed about elimination communication, potty training before one, baby potty signals, and the difference between following your baby's communication and simply putting them on the potty according to a schedule.

If you've been doing EC and wondering whether you're relying too much on timing, struggling to recognize your baby's signals, or wondering whether it's still worth continuing when your baby spends much of the day in diapers or daycare, this conversation is for you.

Heather Medlin is a mother of three, infant potty learning educator, and founder of Ready From Birth. She teaches elimination communication and early potty learning from birth through toilet independence, with an emphasis on listening to your baby's communication rather than waiting for conventional “potty training readiness.”

Get started the right way with the Born Ready course, and put your baby in control of potty time with Ditch the Diapers. 

Learn more about infant potty learning, elimination communication, and potty training before one at readyfrombirth.com.

When should you start potty training your baby?

Most parents are told to wait for “potty training readiness”—usually somewhere in the toddler years, when their child can walk to the bathroom, communicate that they need to go, handle clothing independently, and physically use the toilet.

But what if we’ve confused being ready to START potty training with being able to do the entire process independently?

Potty training isn't actually just one skill, it's a collection of over 40 different skills that must be independently mastered - and are best learned over time. 

What if everything you thought you knew about when to potty train your child - is actually making it HARDER to potty train instead of easier?

In this episode, I’m breaking down the foundational skills behind potty training mastery and explaining why toilet learning can begin long before your baby can walk or talk.

We’ll talk about:

When you can actually start potty training

The difference between potty training readiness and toilet independence

Why walking and talking aren’t prerequisites for beginning

How babies communicate the need to pee or poop before they can speak

The role of interoception and the brain-body connection in potty learning

How elimination communication (EC) allows babies to build these skills gradually

Why my experience potty training my first child at 26 months was completely different from starting EC with my younger two at birth

If you’re been feeling like your baby might be ready long before "they say" she is, this episode is for you.

Pregnant or starting with a newborn? Born Ready walks you through exactly how to begin elimination communication and build these skills from the start.

Already practicing EC, but your baby is still wearing diapers? Ditch the Diapers shows you how to make the shift from you being responsible for pottying your baby to helping your baby take over the process themselves.

Because the goal isn’t for you to get better and better at pottying your baby.

The goal is toilet independence.

Every baby is signaling.

But what if you can't figure out what your baby's signal actually is?

What if you offer the potty and nothing happens…only for them to pee five minutes later?

What if they used to poop in the potty consistently—and suddenly they're refusing altogether?

In this week's episode of Held and Heard, I'm answering real elimination communication questions submitted by listeners, from the newborn days all the way through the transition toward toilet independence.

We're talking about:

• Whether EC is still worth doing if you can't identify your baby's pee signals

Because successful EC isn't about watching your baby every second of the day or getting every catch right.

It's about building communication.

And when you understand how that communication develops as your baby grows, pottying can become something your baby actively participates in—not something you have to manage entirely on your own.

If you have a newborn or young baby and want the complete roadmap for building that communication from the beginning, Born Ready walks you through the process from first signals to increasing independence.

And if your older baby was doing beautifully with EC but you're suddenly dealing with refusal, regression, missed poops, or pee right after offering, Ditch the Diapers will help you understand what's changing and gently guide your baby through this next developmental stage toward toilet independence.

Five days after giving birth to her first baby, Kate Vazquez decided to try something she'd learned about while she was pregnant.

She fed her newborn. Noticed her getting a little squirmy and fidgety. Remembered that this could be a potty cue.

So she offered her the potty.

And her baby peed.

"Oh my gosh. I caught her first pee!"

But what surprised Kate most wasn't that it worked.

It was how EASY it was.

In today's episode, I'm sharing a conversation I originally recorded with Kate during her first 12 weeks postpartum. Kate was a first-time mom who had never heard of elimination communication before we met while she was pregnant. Through our conversations, she became curious about what babies might actually be capable of from birth—and when her daughter arrived, she decided to try it for herself.

We talk about:

• What made EC make sense to her before her baby was even born

If you're pregnant and thinking, This sounds amazing, but will I actually be able to do this with a newborn?—I especially want you to hear Kate's story.

Because you don't need to wait until you're in the fog of postpartum to figure this out.

You can learn what to look for, understand what to do when you see it, and feel prepared to simply try when your baby arrives.

That's exactly why I created Born Ready.

Born Ready takes everything I've learned from practicing elimination communication with my own babies and teaching other families and turns it into a simple, step-by-step method you can learn before birth or begin with your newborn.

Kate had something most pregnant moms don't: close proximity to someone who was already doing this and could show her what was possible.

Born Ready gives you that education before you're trying to figure it out on your own.

So if you're pregnant or holding a brand-new baby and Kate's story has you thinking, Okay...but how do I actually do this?—Born Ready is your next step.

Learn more at readyfrombirth.com.

And if you know a pregnant or brand-new mama who needs to know this is possible, send her this episode. 🤍

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Connect with Kate Vazquez: 

https://www.instagram.com/thekatevazquez

https://radiantbydesign.com/ 

The Radiant & Resilient Podcast

Start and save on your sustainable diaper subscription with Hiro Diapers 

One of the most important things to learn before your baby arrives is how to change a diaper.

But has anyone ever taught you what to do before you change it?

In this episode of Held and Heard, I’m breaking down one of the most overlooked parts of newborn care: your baby’s natural potty cues.

Just like newborn babies communicate when they’re hungry or tired, they can also communicate when they need to pee or poop—often before it happens.

Inside this episode, you’ll learn:

What a newborn may do right before they pee or poop

How responding before your baby goes is different from simply changing a dirty diaper afterward

Why newborns may actually wait for you to respond

The brain-body connection that develops in a newborn when you do this

How I used this with my own babies from their first weeks of life

Because what if diaper changes were never supposed to be your first response?

Learning your baby’s potty cues is part of elimination communication (EC), sometimes called infant potty learning—and it can be much simpler than it sounds. You don’t have to throw away your diapers, watch the clock all day, or wait until your baby is a toddler to begin.

You can simply start learning another way your newborn communicates.

Want to know exactly how to do this from birth?

Inside Born Ready, I teach you my complete step-by-step process for recognizing your baby’s signals, offering the potty, responding confidently, and building this communication from the newborn days toward toilet independence.

Whether you’re pregnant and preparing now or already holding your newborn, you can start from the beginning with a simple plan instead of trying to figure it out as you go.

Join Born Ready here.

Your baby is already communicating. Join the conversation.

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Learn more at Readyfrombirth.com

🐣Preparing for birth? Know what to do from Day One, start the Born Ready course today!

🐥Ready to get on with toilet independence? Help your 10+ month old baby graduate from EC with Ditch the Diapers

📱Follow along on Instagram @readyfrombirth.ec

Have you ever watched another mom with a peaceful, content newborn and wondered...

"What is she doing differently?"

Maybe you've convinced yourself she just got lucky. Maybe her baby is naturally easy.

But what if the difference isn't the baby at all?

In this episode, I'm sharing the five basic needs every newborn has—and the one that almost every parent is taught to ignore. We'll talk about why babies cry, why "colic" often leaves parents feeling helpless, and how learning to recognize your baby's communication can completely change your postpartum experience.

Inside this episode you'll learn:

Whether you're still pregnant or holding your newborn in your arms right now, this episode will help you stop guessing and start understanding.

If you're ready to learn exactly how to recognize your own baby's communication—including the elimination cues almost nobody talks about—the Born Ready course is the complete guide from birth through walking. Learn more about Born Ready.

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Learn more at Readyfrombirth.com

🐣Preparing for birth? Know what to do from Day One, start the Born Ready course today!

🐥Ready to get on with toilet independence? Help your baby graduate from EC with Ditch the Diapers

📱Follow along on Instagram @readyfrombirth.ec

When my 15-month-old caught a virus from his new daycare, everything changed overnight.

His rash was so severe that he couldn't comfortably wear a diaper. As I cared for him through fever, blisters, sleepless nights, and a week at home, I found myself unexpectedly grateful for one decision we'd made from the very beginning: learning to listen to his potty signals.

He didn't suddenly become capable because he got sick. He had been communicating all along.

In this episode, I'm sharing the story of one difficult week that completely reinforced why I believe the best time to begin elimination communication isn't "when life settles down"—it's from the very beginning, when your baby is already wired to communicate.

We'll talk about:

If you've ever thought, "I'll start when things calm down," this episode is for you.

And if listening leaves you wondering what your own baby's signals might look like, I'd love to help you experience your very first catch. Join me inside The First Catch Weekend, where I'll walk you through exactly how to recognize your baby's natural timing, make your first catch in the potty, and discover just how much your baby has been communicating all along.

Because once you see your own baby's signals, you'll never look at them the same way again.

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Learn more at Readyfrombirth.com

🐣Preparing for birth? Know what to do from Day One, start the Born Ready course today!

🐥Ready to get on with toilet independence? Help your baby graduate from EC with Ditch the Diapers

📱Follow along on Instagram @readyfrombirth.ec