HOLY WILD BIRTH : Training Christian Birthkeepers, Traditional Midwives in Faith-Based Birth Work

In this Cup of Tea, Brooke & Lauren chit chat about life, pregnancy, birth, family, and their business.

Lauren talks about her pregnancy growing her 9th baby and discusses possible reasons why she is measuring so far ahead; plus, tentative outdoor birth plans (in January)!

They discuss nitty gritty details of waterbirth, technical tools vs. minimalist births, Brooke being on call for three different births wearing three different hats, and the new documentary Allowed to Birth with Kristine Lauria.

Brooke discusses her internal struggles and a conversation she had with a CPM/LM about mutual respect for those in birth work who hold different principles and practice differently than oneself.

Lauren expounds upon what Proverbs 3:3-6 means for her as a midwife trying to find her specific calling and also fit in with her local community.

Brooke & Lauren begin to unpack the new movements of the Lord refining their podcast and their ministry. They discuss what actually makes a Christian birthworker training, and what makes Hearthmother Journey unique among birthworker trainings.

Listen in if you are a mom interested in home birth, because Brooke has a direction to point you in!

Brooke & Lauren end with some life updates including chatting about neurodivergent children and also what it looks like for their unschooling children to go to college.

Mentioned in this episode:

• Curabirth (birth pool heater)

• Allowed To Birth (documentary on Kristine Lauria)

• For Those Who Walk Between Worlds by Midwife Alyssa

• Sing devotional

• The Other Bennet Sister (show)

• Community - join to find the free Monthly Hearthcalls, starting on October 16

Connect:

• Email us to say hi: [email protected]

• Put in a request for future topics and/or submit a question for future Q&A episodes: Fill out the form

• Apply to tell your birth story on the podcast: Holy Wild Birth Podcast : Guest Application

  • Hang out with us and other Holy Wild Women in our private community (off Facebook): Hearthmother Ministries | Hearthmother Portal

• Become a holy, wild birthkeeper with us inside Hearthmother Journey

From Lauren:

• Instagram

• Midwifery consults: Email  [email protected]

From Brooke:

• Instagram

• Trust God, Trust Birth Workshop - a 5-part high-level roadmap to a confident home birth (pay what you can)

• Faith-Filled Home Birth Workshop - a free, 3-part video series delivered to your inbox

• Embrace Birth Journey - comprehensive and holistic faith-based home birth preparation (courses + private community)

• Sister Birth: The Podcast - short, beautifully scripted episode to encourage your along the way

Intro and Outra Music Credit -
Betty Dear By Blue Dot Sessions is licensed under a Creative Commons License.

Can I be a doula if I only serve women in home birth?

This is a common concern for women desiring to be a doula, but have a bias towards home birth. This question comes with a whole host of other ones, including:

Should a midwife also carry emotional & spiritual support on top of physical support for a woman in labor? Or, is that just a doula’s job? Is advocacy support needed for women in home birth?

Brooke & Lauren share their answers to these questions and their "hot take" on whether or not doulas are needed for home birth.

They also dive into the definition of “doula,” as well as what it really means to advocate for women. They discuss the ultimate importance of knowing your specific role in the birth space, regardless of your title.

Brooke & Lauren share very specific and helpful questions you can ask yourself to discern if you should be a doula in someone’s home-birth space.

They also discuss incredibly practical details. They go in-depth into what support beforehand, during, and after the birth looks like. They discuss how a doula can support or fulfill the specific needs a woman has for support during labor, and how doula support at home may not look like mainstream doula support. They also discuss the delicate subject of how doulas can engage with midwives in the home birth space.

Helpful tools to support moms as a home-birth doula:

• Embrace Birth Journey: Christian Home Birth Prep Library

• EBJ affiliate application (great for doulas!)

• Basic Needs of a Woman in Labor checklist

• If you are wondering if you can even say “yes” to birth work when you have small children, first listen to Part 1 of this 2-part series, then come back!

  If you are looking for the nuts & bolts of how to be a doula, childbirth educator, birthkeeper, or midwife as a mama, this episode is for you!

  What is it like to take your work home with such a unique job/calling? What does a “freedom lens” or a “creative family economy” mean? Brooke & Lauren discuss these topics in depth, and how that practically looks like in your life.

  Brooke & Lauren also discuss what it looks like for birthwork to be seasonal, sharing examples from their own lives. They go through different forms of birthwork that you can start today (even with small children!) that you may have thought doesn’t “count” as birthwork.

  How can you begin with the talent & skills God has already put into your hands?

  Brooke ends with a prayer for listeners who are wondering & wrestling with the call to birth service while they have small children.

  
  

  Connect:

  • Email us to say hi: [email protected]

  • Put in a request for future topics and/or submit a question for future Q&A episodes: Fill out the form

  • Apply to tell your birth story on the podcast: Holy Wild Birth Podcast : Guest Application

    • Hang out with us and other Holy Wild Women in our private community (off Facebook): Hearthmother Ministries | Hearthmother Portal

  • Become a holy, wild birthkeeper with us inside Hearthmother Journey

  From Lauren:

  • Midwifery consults: Email  [email protected]

  From Brooke:

  • Trust God, Trust Birth Workshop - a 5-part high-level roadmap to a confident home birth (pay what you can)

  • Faith-Filled Home Birth Workshop - a free, 3-part video series delivered to your inbox

  • Embrace Birth Journey - comprehensive and holistic faith-based home birth preparation (courses + private community)

  • Sister Birth: The Podcast - short, beautifully scripted episode to encourage your along the way

  Intro and Outra Music Credit -
  Betty Dear By Blue Dot Sessions is licensed under a Creative Commons License.

Brooke & Lauren address this exact question in 8 tips across this 2-part series. This episode goes over the first four “tips,” or rather, mindset shifts, for Christian women wondering if they can attend births while having little children.

Brooke & Lauren discuss tricky subjects such as: can Christian women work outside the home? How do you know if a call outside the home is valid?

On a very practical level, they discuss different ways of organizing family life that have worked for them to raise their children and how this allows them to be in birth work.

They also touch on questions such as: what does it look like to have rightly ordered parenthood? Should only single & elderly women be called to birth work? Should/can other people take care of your kids safely?

They discuss how the dynamics of how your family views your work is the key that unlocks whether or not you are able to serve as a midwife/doula/birthkeeper.

What do you think? Which one of these mindset shifts was enlightening to you? Which ones do you still have more questions about?

Catch Part 2 here!

Take the first step towards becoming a Holy, wild birthworker today!

Connect:

• Email us to say hi: [email protected]

• Put in a request for future topics and/or submit a question for future Q&A episodes: Fill out the form

• Apply to tell your birth story on the podcast: Holy Wild Birth Podcast : Guest Application

  • Hang out with us and other Holy Wild Women in our private community (off Facebook): Hearthmother Ministries | Hearthmother Portal

• Become a holy, wild birthkeeper with us inside Hearthmother Journey

From Lauren:

• Instagram

• Midwifery consults: Email  [email protected]

From Brooke:

• Instagram

• Trust God, Trust Birth Workshop - a 5-part high-level roadmap to a confident home birth (pay what you can)

• Faith-Filled Home Birth Workshop - a free, 3-part video series delivered to your inbox

• Embrace Birth Journey - comprehensive and holistic faith-based home birth preparation (courses + private community)

• Sister Birth: The Podcast - short, beautifully scripted episode to encourage your along the way

Intro and Outra Music Credit -
Betty Dear By Blue Dot Sessions is licensed under a Creative Commons License.

Grab your cuppa and cozy up for our September conversation that feels like gabbing with a couple good gal pals.

In this episode, traditional midwife Lauren and birthkeepr Brooke debrief and recount tales from their recent time together when Lauren's family drove up from Arkansas to spend a week with Brooke's in Michigan. During that time, they also facilitated a midwifery skills workshop for Hearthmother Journey students known as Threshold (a Not-Game), where real-as-can-be simulations of various birth scenarios and emergencies unfold as participants practice responding to them. As it turns out, and not surprisingly, the Holy Spirit hijacked the agenda, which left lots of room for things like a closely-guarded story to be a told, prophetic and healing prayer ministry to occur, and old traumas to be felt and released from the body.

They also gab a bit about all the drool-worthy food they prepared and ate whilst together, their experience worshiping together at Brooke's Anglican church (by contrast, Lauren's family attends a charismatic-leaning non-evangelical church back home), and how that led to a humorous eucharist blunder, and how they're adapting their life-giving daily morning habits for a new season. Plus, Lauren shares a happy pregnancy update!

Be ready to swing between being moved to tears by the beauty of the Lord's ways and being moved to giggling fits over silly conversations about horrible children's campfire songs that won't get out of your head. And everything in between.

Mentioned in this episode:

• Olive sauce and homemade hamburger bun recipes (will be shared inside our community)
• SunHugg
• 
  

Connect:

• Email us to say hi: [email protected]

• Put in a request for future topics and/or submit a question for future Q&A episodes: Fill out the form

• Apply to tell your birth story on the podcast: Holy Wild Birth Podcast : Guest Application

  • Hang out with us and other Holy Wild Women in our private community (off Facebook): Hearthmother Ministries | Hearthmother Portal

• Up-Level your birth ministry/biz with Birth Servant Starter Kit

From Lauren:

• Instagram

• Midwifery consults: Email  [email protected]

From Brooke:

• Instagram

• Trust God, Trust Birth Workshop - a 5-part high-level roadmap to a confident home birth (pay what you can)

• Faith-Filled Home Birth Workshop - a free, 3-part video series delivered to your inbox

• Embrace Birth Journey - comprehensive and holistic faith-based home birth preparation (courses + private community)

• Sister Birth: The Podcast - short, beautifully scripted episode to encourage your along the way

Intro and Outra Music Credit -
Betty Dear By Blue Dot Sessions is licensed under a Creative Commons License.

Hearthmother Journey is a Christian training for Doulas, Birthkeepers, and Student Midwives that honor God's physiological design for birth. If you are wanting to keep Jesus at the center of your service of childbearing women, we'd love to invite you into our 1 year in-depth training. This episode will let you hear a little background on Hearthmother Journey and let you hear what a few of our students have to stay.

This training is for you if you are:

• Aspiring and current birth servants

• Women desiring to be better friends, mothers, wives, sisters

• Anyone wishing to grow in her faith or re-center her birthwork on her faith

• Those willing to take responsibility for their education and becoming - hearthmother journey, that language is for a reason. 

• Those willing to take the slow, windy road in step with the Spirit

• Those who are emboldened to be the “rebels” who operate outside the system, in responsibility to their community and YHWH only

• Those who are convicted to carry the heart of a Hearthmother into the system, bringing that light into hard places with confidence

Its not for you if:

• Those wanting surface-level, skills-only training or to amass intellectual treasures

• Those needing to arrive at their destination ASAP 

• Those who believe certification and credentials is the only measuring stick to know they are ready; are looking for us to tell them they’re allowed 

• Those looking for a spoon-fed meal instead of a feast to sit at the table, bringing offering with them, and eat with sisters 

• Those looking for black-and-white answers and a step-by-step “google maps” experience

  
  

  Doors are currently open, but are closing soon: this Monday Sept 14 2026.

  Learn More

  Have some questions?

  Book a 15 minute Exploration Call with Brooke or Lauren

  
  

  Connect:

  • Email us to say hi: [email protected]

  • Put in a request for future topics and/or submit a question for future Q&A episodes: Fill out the form

  • Apply to tell your birth story on the podcast: Holy Wild Birth Podcast : Guest Application

    • Hang out with us and other Holy Wild Women in our private community (off Facebook): Hearthmother Ministries | Hearthmother Portal

  • Become a holy, wild birthkeeper with us inside Hearthmother Journey

  From Lauren:

  • Midwifery consults: Email  [email protected]

  From Brooke:

  • Trust God, Trust Birth Workshop - a 5-part high-level roadmap to a confident home birth (pay what you can)

  • Faith-Filled Home Birth Workshop - a free, 3-part video series delivered to your inbox

  • Embrace Birth Journey - comprehensive and holistic faith-based home birth preparation (courses + private community)

  • Sister Birth: The Podcast - short, beautifully scripted episode to encourage your along the way

  Intro and Outra Music Credit -
  Betty Dear By Blue Dot Sessions is licensed under a Creative Commons License.

In this episode, Brooke & Lauren open up their doors to the public to an experience of which their Hearthmother Journey students get every week: a Hearth Call.

In this podcast, they get curious with a podcast listener who wants to serve in birth work and also struggles with vasovagal response to bodily fluids/in certain medical situations - an incredibly real and honest question! Not only do Brooke & Lauren talk about the other ways one can serve women in the childbearing year, they also dig deep into the source of this question and help the question-asker excavate the why behind her fear of having a physical response to sensitive medical situations.

Next, they discuss with Jeri the feeling of imposter syndrome in birth work. Brooke breaks open her definition of imposter syndrome and acknowledges how common this is for women called to serve in birth work, and addresses how it may never go away. Lauren goes over the curve of becoming an expert in something: unconsciously incompetent to consciously incompetent to consciously competent.

Brooke & Lauren also deep dive into whether or not we should use social media for promoting birth services/businesses. They also chat about how to “invite yourself” into other women’s birth spaces while you are a student - the answer may not be what you think!

This episode is for you if

• You have been wondering if you can be called to birth work but have a vasovagal response to certain medical scenarios

• Feel called to birth work but have imposter syndrome

• Wonder if you should use a website or social media to share your birth services

• How to share with others that you would be open to attending their births

If you would like to be part of the next community hearth call, join our online community.

Connect:

• Email us to say hi: [email protected]

• Put in a request for future topics and/or submit a question for future Q&A episodes: Fill out the form

• Apply to tell your birth story on the podcast

• Hang out with us and other Holy Wild Women in our private community (off Facebook): https://hearthmotherministries.app.clientclub.net/communities/groups/community/home?invite=6a3acb7b9e1f37cda3920fb6

• Become a holy, wild birthkeeper with us inside Hearthmother Journey

From Lauren:

• Instagram

• Midwifery consults: Email [email protected]

From Brooke:

• Instagram

• Trust God, Trust Birth Workshop - a 5-part high-level roadmap to a confident home birth (pay what you can)

• Faith-Filled Home Birth Workshop - a free, 3-part video series delivered to your inbox

• Embrace Birth Journey - comprehensive and holistic faith-based home birth preparation (courses + private community)

• Sister Birth: The Podcast - short, beautifully scripted episode to encourage your along the way

Intro and Outra Music Credit -
Betty Dear By Blue Dot Sessions is licensed under a Creative Commons License.

Destiny shares about her “almost-boring” freebirth with her second pregnancy. She sets the stage by sharing about her thought procesees & journey of preparation with her first baby, a hospital birth that fell flat of her expectations. She shares vulnerably about the emotional difficulties she encountered during her first birth, and how she felt forced to get an epidural and start pushing even with hospital based midwives. She noted that being observed hindered her progress during birth.

Destiny shares about how she ultimately chose to go unassisted with her second birth. She shares about the preparation that went into that, how she took the recommendation “go on with your life as usual” in early labor very seriously. She shares about the support her backup doula gave to her during her freebirth, which ended up being the perfect fit for her!

Destiny ends with her advice to moms wanting to become birthworkers.

You can find Destiny and her birth services in Central Missouri here: @destinymoralesdoula

BIRTH STORY DISCLAIMER:

The choices, beliefs, and opinions of the mamas sharing their stories are as individual as the storyteller herself and do not necessarily reflect the beliefs or recommended choices of Lauren and/or Brooke.

Connect:

• Email us to say hi: [email protected]

• Put in a request for future topics and/or submit a question for future Q&A episodes: Fill out the form

• Apply to tell your birth story on the podcast

  • Hang out with us and other Holy Wild Women in our private community (off Facebook): https://hearthmotherministries.app.clientclub.net/communities/groups/community/home?invite=6a3acb7b9e1f37cda3920fb6

• Become a holy, wild birthkeeper with us inside Hearthmother Journey

From Lauren:

• Instagram

• Midwifery consults: Email  [email protected]

From Brooke:

• Instagram

• Trust God, Trust Birth Workshop - a 5-part high-level roadmap to a confident home birth (pay what you can)

• Faith-Filled Home Birth Workshop - a free, 3-part video series delivered to your inbox

• Embrace Birth Journey - comprehensive and holistic faith-based home birth preparation (courses + private community)

• Sister Birth: The Podcast - short, beautifully scripted episode to encourage your along the way

Intro and Outra Music Credit -
Betty Dear By Blue Dot Sessions is licensed under a Creative Commons License.

Today’s guest, Vonda, has been a midwife longer than Lauren has been alive! She is a Hearthmother Journey graduate, Hearthmother Midwifery Unschool student, and wise-woman midwife.

Lauren and Vonda discuss birth processing as a team or “Backstitching,” as an absolutely necessary process as a midwife. They talk about how it is a common temptation of midwives to just move on with life instead of integrating and processing that birth experience, however small or however simple the birth.

Lauren shares her saying that “The birth is not over until you have recovered,” and now adds that neither is it over until the birth team processes together!

Lauren & Vonda talk about

• The Biblical reason Vonda chooses the third day to process the birth

• How the birth team becomes stronger when they are able to process together & be honest with each other

• 5 ground rules for the birth processing experience

• Hard birth experiences and forgiveness among birth team

• Questions to ask to take the process deeper: How have we shared Jesus during this birth? What has the Lord showed me/changed in me/etc. through this birth?

• The handwashing ritual Lauren started for after births

• Processing and experiencing hard births with your mind & body

• How to process if you don’t have a birth team

• The difference between a helpful birth team & a “birth party”

• Musings on the size of the birth team

• Supporting not just the birthing couple, but also the birth team

You can find Vonda at

Email: [email protected]

Find her on Facebook

Vonda generously shares her process in the form of a PDF for birth processing. We would love to hear if you use it and found it helpful!

Connect:

• Email us to say hi: ⁠[email protected]⁠

• Hang out with us and other Holy Wild Women in our private community (off Facebook): ⁠https://hearthmotherministries.app.clientclub.net/communities/groups/community/home⁠

• Become a holy, wild birthkeeper with us inside ⁠Hearthmother Journey⁠

From Lauren:

• Midwifery consults: Email ⁠[email protected]⁠

From Brooke:

• ⁠Trust God, Trust Birth Workshop⁠ - a 5-part high-level roadmap to a confident home birth (pay what you can)

• ⁠Faith-Filled Home Birth Workshop ⁠- a free, 3-part video series delivered to your inbox

• ⁠Embrace Birth Journey ⁠- comprehensive and holistic faith-based home birth preparation (courses + private community)

Intro and Outra Music Credit -Betty Dear By ⁠Blue Dot Sessions⁠ is licensed under a ⁠Creative Commons License⁠.

In this episode, Brooke & Lauren discuss something they have talked about with many women over the years: fears, worries, hesitations, resistance to the call to serve women in their childbearing year. This episode is like sitting down for coffee with Brooke & Lauren. They crack open all the real questions that come up when someone first thinks about entering the birth room.

• I am a mom & have too many littles; how will this work for me?

• How will I deal with the financial cost of training?

• Will this support my family or detract from my family? → will I end up divorced or with kids who resent me?

• Am I too young or too old?

• Can I serve women without having children of my own yet?

• Am I unworthy to serve in the birth space?

• How do I figure out how to live the on-call life?

• Do I have the capacity to do this work?

• If I am called to birth work, when is the right time?

Brooke & Lauren share some of the wisdom they have gained over their years in birth work and address each of these questions, not by giving a perfect answer, but by uncovering the real fears & doubts underneath these questions.The obstacles most women wrestle with when it comes to birth work can likely be divided up into the following categories, with related fears underneath each one: capacity, worthiness, permission, path confusion, or timing.

They discuss tools for discernment, and what being called to birth work more specifically looks like. They chat how to discern and follow His path for you into birthwork, as well break open several Biblical stories on discernment. They wrap up with some practical next steps you can take in your discernment.

The ultimate question is: does He have your yes?

Podcasts episodes for your continuing discernment:

• Faith Over Fear: No Safe Path into Birthwork

• When Motherhood & Birthwork Collide

  Connect:

  • Email us to say hi: [email protected]

  • Put in a request for future topics and/or submit a question for future Q&A episodes: Fill out the form

  • Apply to tell your birth story on the podcast: Holy Wild Birth Podcast : Guest Application

    • Hang out with us and other Holy Wild Women in our private community (off Facebook): Hearthmother Ministries

  • Become a holy, wild birthkeeper with us inside Hearthmother Journey

  From Lauren:

  • Instagram

  • Midwifery consults: Email  [email protected]

  From Brooke:

  • Instagram

  • Trust God, Trust Birth Workshop - a 5-part high-level roadmap to a confident home birth (pay what you can)

  • Faith-Filled Home Birth Workshop - a free, 3-part video series delivered to your inbox

  • Embrace Birth Journey - comprehensive and holistic faith-based home birth preparation (courses + private community)

  • Sister Birth: The Podcast - short, beautifully scripted episode to encourage your along the way

  Intro and Outra Music Credit -
  Betty Dear By Blue Dot Sessions is licensed under a Creative Commons License.