Charlotte tells her High Risk Birth Story about her son Matthew, who was born in 2014. An early anatomy scan at 16 weeks showed that Matthew had omphalocele, which is a condition where the digestive organs develop in the umbilical cord outside of the body. Charlotte shares her experience with genetic testing, developing preeclampsia, and her son’s surgery after birth.

In this episode of High Risk Birth Stories, Brittany and Kyle Schueckler tell the story of their twins, Ryan and Owen. After struggling with health issues including Lupus and Factor V Leiden, Brittany found out she was pregnant with twins, but baby B was significantly smaller. Through her pregnancy, she and Kyle had to make difficult decisions including having an amniocentesis test, planning a cesarean delivery, and more.

In part two of Chanie’s High Risk Birth Story, she tells Dr. Fox about her second pregnancy. After years of struggling with fertility treatments to have a second child, an IUI cycle unexpectedly resulted in a quintuple pregnancy. Chanie explains making the difficult decision to reduce the pregnancy, including seeking advice from a rabbi, the procedure, and delivering her twins.

Chanie, who has two interesting birth stories. In this episode, Chanie shares the story of her first pregnancy and birth, which includes water breaking at 32 weeks, a week-long stay in the hospital before giving birth, and her baby’s brain hemorrhage. As a listener of the podcast, Chanie found strength in hearing other people’s stories, and hopes that “my story can give somebody else some strength as well.”

On this episode of High Risk Birth Stories, Megan Hofbauer tells her story of choosing to terminate a pregnancy after genetic testing indicated her baby had trisomy 18. Megan explains that “it’s important to put a name and a story behind terminating for medical reasons” and shares her firsthand experience to clear up common misconceptions about this controversial subject.

Andrew Rosenstock joins High Risk Birth Stories to share the story of his wife’s second pregnancy. While they were first receiving care from a midwife, Andrew and his wife switched to maternal fetal medicine care after a subchorionic hematoma and other complications were detected. He explains their experience with CVS testing, placental mesenchymal dysplasia, and more.

Stephanie Castellano, a Healthful Woman listener, wrote in to share her story of delivering her twins. Because Stephanie has PCOS, she knew she had to undergo fertility treatment, which included both IUI and IVF. After getting pregnant with her twins, she faced complications including a short cervix and fetal fibronectin. Then, after a scheduled C-section, Stephanie experienced hemorrhaging that ultimately resulted in PTSD.

In this episode of High Risk Birth Stories, Athena Antal, a certified nurse-midwife, tells the story of delivering her first baby. Athena decided to have a home birth even though she was a labor nurse at the time, but after some difficulties, while laboring at home, her midwife drove her to the hospital for an epidural where she ultimately had a forceps delivery. She explains what this experience was like and how it changed her plan for her following pregnancies.

In the first home birth episode of High Risk Birth Stories, OB-GYN Dr. Amber Warmsley talks about her experience choosing home birth for her second child. After delivering her first baby at the hospital, an experience she says she treated “almost like a science experiment,” Dr. Warmsley began shadowing a home birth midwife. She explains why she ultimately chose home birth, how the experience met her emotional needs, and more.

Elise Nelson, a Healthful Woman listener, joins Dr. Fox to talk about her High Risk Birth Story. In this episode, she tells the story of delivering her second baby in May 2021, which includes pregnancy through COVID, postpartum hemorrhage, and adjusting to taking care of a newborn and two-year-old with help from family.