Send us a Text Message. Erika gave birth to her first child in the hospital and was labeled a "weirdo"  and stamped as "difficult" for her birth plan intentions.  When the hospital staff tried to take her baby away in order to administer the Vitamin K shot and Erythromycin eye ointment, she refused, holding her baby close as the staff tried to pull the baby from Erika's arms. Next came the call to CPS (Child Protective Services), putting Erika on a government watch list as a threat to her child's well-being. As a long-time yoga practitioner and deep spiritualist, Erika shares her perspective on birth as a one-of-a-kind opportunity to embrace discomfort and release the notion of separation from oneness. 

Erika Halweil

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********** Connect with us on Patreon for our exclusive content.
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734-649-6294 Please remember we don’t provide medical advice. Speak to your licensed medical provider for all your healthcare matters.

#207 | My Baby is Not Going Anywhere: Yoga Teacher Erika Halweil's Birth Story

Join Cynthia Overgard and Trisha Ludwig once per week for evidence-based straight talk on having a safe and informed birth, which starts with determining if you've hired the right provider. If we had to boil it down to a single premise, it's this: A healthy mom and baby isn't all that matters. We have more than 30 years' experience between us in midwifery, informed rights advocacy, publishing, childbirth education, postpartum support and breastfeeding, and we've personally served thousands of women and couples. Listen to the birth stories of our clients, listeners and celebrities, catch our expert-interviews, and submit your questions for our monthly Q&amp;A episodes by calling us at 802-GET-DOWN. We're on Instagram at @downtobirthshow and also at Patreon.com/downtobirthshow, where we offer live ongoing events multiple times per month, so be sure to join our worldwide community. We are a Top .5% podcast globally with listeners in more than 80 countries every week. Become informed, empowered, and have a great time in the process. Join us and reach out any time - we love to hear from you. And as always, hear everyone, listen to yourself.

Alternative Health

Health

Kids & Family

Parenting

Health & Fitness

Send us a Text Message. Dr. Lizzie Kieffer is a doctorate of physical therapy with a specialty practice in women's pelvic floor health.  She joins us today to let us in on the little-known secret to protecting, relaxing, strengthening, and restoring your pelvic floor. She teaches us three simple techniques you can initiate immediately after birth to optimize pelvic floor recovery, how, when and why to do kegel exercises, what it means to have diastasis recti, and explains the differences in pelvic floor changes in a vaginal versus cesarean birth. Not only should every woman having a baby hear this episode, but also, every woman should make pelvic floor therapy a regular part of their life, even as they age into menopause and beyond.

Dr. Lizzie on Instagram

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Down to Birth is sponsored by:
Vitality: An athleisure brand made for women, by women, designed with style and comfort for pregnancy and beyond.
Davin & Adley-- The perfect nursing and pumping bra combined
Silverette Nursing Cups -- Soothe and heal sore nipples with 925 silver nursing cups.
Postpartum Soothe -- Herbs and padsicles to heal and comfort.
Needed -- Our favorite nutritional products to nourish yourself before, during, and after pregnancy.
Use promo code: DOWNTOBIRTH for all of the above sponsors.

DrinkLMNT -- Purchase LMNT with this unique link and receive a free 8-day supply. Be sure to use the unique link to buy yours today.

 Connect with us on Patreon for our exclusive content.
Email Contact@DownToBirthShow.com
Instagram @downtobirthshow
Call us at 802-GET-DOWN Work with Cynthia: 
203-952-7299 
HypnoBirthingCT.com Work with Trisha: 
734-649-6294 Please remember we don’t provide medical advice. Speak to your licensed medical provider for all your healthcare matters.

#269 | Healing, Protecting, and Restoring Your Pelvic Floor with Dr. Lizzie Kieffer

Send us a Text Message. Dr. Trillitye Paullin is a molecular biologist and founder of Free to Feed, a consultation service for navigating infant food reactivity in breastfeeding dyads. Today, Dr. Trill joins us with one of her clients, Chelsea, a first-time mom who found Trill and our podcast and reached out to help spread the research around newborn food reactivity. Trill shares her ground-breaking research into why and how a mother's diet causes allergic responses in babies in the form of bloody stools, skin rashes, vomiting, reflux and colic-like symptoms. With around 25% of parents reporting food allergy symptoms in their babies, these issues have been grossly underserved and misunderstood for decades. We cover: The top 12 foods causing allergy symptoms;The timing of protein transfer, reactivity, and gut healing;How our gastrointestinal health impacts infant food allergies;How stress and cortisol impact the transfer of proteins into milk.Stanford University and Free to Feed have embarked on a transformative partnership to develop tools aimed at accurately identifying and managing pediatric food allergies. This collaboration, part of the "Improving Outcomes for Food-Allergic Children" project led by Dr. Trillitye Paullin and supported by Stanford’s Data Science for Social Good Program, seeks to enhance care quality while preventing unnecessary dietary restrictions for children. By integrating these tools into clinical practice and fostering enhanced awareness among providers, the initiative promises to improve health outcomes for children and provide significant insights into the complexities of food allergies, shaping future policies in pediatric healthcare. **********
Down to Birth is sponsored by:
Vitality: An athleisure brand made for women, by women, designed with style and comfort for pregnancy and beyond.
Davin & Adley-- The perfect nursing and pumping bra combined
Silverette Nursing Cups -- Soothe and heal sore nipples with 925 silver nursing cups.
Postpartum Soothe -- Herbs and padsicles to heal and comfort.
Needed -- For before, during, and after pregnancy.
Use promo code: DOWNTOBIRTH

DrinkLMNT -- Purchase LMNT with this unique link and get a free 8-day supply. Connect on Patreon for our exclusive content.
Email Contact@DownToBirthShow.com
Instagram @downtobirthshow
802-GET-DOWN Work with Cynthia:
203-952-7299
HypnoBirthingCT.com Work with Trisha:
734-649-6 Connect with us on Patreon for our exclusive content.
Email Contact@DownToBirthShow.com
Instagram @downtobirthshow
Call us at 802-GET-DOWN Work with Cynthia: 
203-952-7299 
HypnoBirthingCT.com Work with Trisha: 
734-649-6294 Please remember we don’t provide medical advice. Speak to your licensed medical provider for all your healthcare matters.

#268 | Navigating Infant Food Reactivity in the Breastfed Baby with Dr. Trill @Free.To.Feed

Send us a Text Message. Hello everyone! Cynthia and Trisha are back with the May Q&A; episode. Today, we kick it off with an enlightening discussion on the worst parenting advice you have ever received--here's to all the things we never need to hear as mothers! Next, we hear one woman's beautiful take on her cesarean scar. Then, we dive into your awesome questions beginning with:What is the likelihood that if I had pre-eclampsia and gestational diabetes in my first pregnancy that I will have it again, and what can be done about it?If I have a history of pre-term labor twice, should I take steroids preventatively at 30 weeks by my doctor's recommendation?I am pregnant with my fourth baby, planning a home birth, and I don't want any ultrasounds. Do you think this is ok and will my midwife approve?In the extended version of the episode, available on Apple subscriptions and Patreon,  we discuss the pros and cons of the midwifery lifestyle for one woman trying to decide if she should go the CNM or CPM route; when it is appropriate or necessary to take a urine sample in pregnancy; and why one mother may have been given intramuscular Pitocin instead of intravenous when she already had an IV in place.

As always, we close with a round of quickies touching on how to keep breastfeeding while pregnant, getting induced for "mild" pre-eclampsia, what a high LH reading means, preventing mastitis when you have a plugged duct, our recommended prenatal vitamin, and our most embarrassing moments in public!

Thank you as always for your wonderful questions! Please call in your question to 802-GET-DOWN or 802-438-3696. To get the extended version of today's episode (and all episodes 100% ad-free) just click the subscribe button on Apple Podcasts or download the Patreon App and join any tier.

If you enjoyed this episode, please see our April Q&A; episode:
#262 | April Q&A;: Prenatal Vitamins, Premature Rupture of Membranes, Painless Breech Birth, Precipitous Labor, HypnoBirthing, Prenatal Hypertension

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Down to Birth is sponsored by:
Vitality: An athleisure brand made for women, by women, designed with style and comfort for pregnancy and beyond.
Davin & Adley-- The perfect nursing and pumping bra combined
Silverette Nursing Cups -- Soothe and heal sore nipples with 925 silver nursing cups.
Postpartum Soothe -- Herbs and padsicles to heal and comfort.
Needed -- Our favorite nutritional products to nourish yourself before, during, and after pregnancy.
Use promo code: DOWNTOBIRTH for all of the above sponsors.

 Connect with us on Patreon for our exclusive content.
Email Contact@DownToBirthShow.com
Instagram @downtobirthshow
Call us at 802-GET-DOWN Work with Cynthia: 
203-952-7299 
HypnoBirthingCT.com Work with Trisha: 
734-649-6294 Please remember we don’t provide medical advice. Speak to your licensed medical provider for all your healthcare matters.

#267 | May Q&A: Pre-eclampsia & Gestational Diabetes, Steroids for Pre-Term Labor, Declining the Anatomy Scan, IM vs. IV Pitocin, Preventing Mastitis

Send us a Text Message. Today's episode is a four-way conversation between us and a mother and daughter who are living in France. Nicola Thompson is a former L&D; nurse of 30 years who worked in the U.S., and is now working in France as a traditional birth attendant, full-spectrum doula and IBCLC. Sasha Sharif, her daughter, is a mother of two with a third on the way. Sasha explains the impact her mother's life's work has had on her, and how that wisdom ultimately guided her away from birthing in the French maternity system. Instead, she (and her sister as well) have repeatedly  opted to give birth at home attended by their mother. 

In this episode, we dive into the birth culture in France including what it is like to be a midwife in France, the country's 87% epidural rate in hospitals, how the ARRIVE Trial has influenced birth across the Atlantic, and the fact that the French consider the "due date" to be at 41 weeks! 
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Down to Birth is sponsored by:
Vitality: An athleisure brand made for women, by women, designed with style and comfort for pregnancy and beyond.
Davin & Adley-- The perfect nursing and pumping bra combined
Silverette Nursing Cups -- Soothe and heal sore nipples with 925 silver nursing cups.
Postpartum Soothe -- Herbs and padsicles to heal and comfort.
Needed -- Our favorite nutritional products to nourish yourself before, during, and after pregnancy.
Use promo code: DOWNTOBIRTH for all of the above sponsors.

DrinkLMNT -- Purchase LMNT with this unique link and receive a free 8-day supply. Be sure to use the unique link to buy yours today.

 Connect with us on Patreon for our exclusive content.
Email Contact@DownToBirthShow.com
Instagram @downtobirthshow
Call us at 802-GET-DOWN Work with Cynthia: 
203-952-7299 
HypnoBirthingCT.com Work with Trisha: 
734-649-6294 Please remember we don’t provide medical advice. Speak to your licensed medical provider for all your healthcare matters.

#266 | The ARRIVE Trial Reaches Overseas: Birth Culture in France with Nicola Thompson and Her Daughter

Send us a Text Message. Tiffany and Kelly of Beautiful One Midwifery are a midwife team in California who both began their birth work as doulas.  As a result, they designed their practice from a hands-off, hands-out approach--meaning, the woman is the focal point of all decision-making making, and interventions are only utilized with her absolute permission and desire. Not only does this model require a woman to take radical responsibility for her birth, but it also gives her body and mind the space to give birth as undisturbed as possible while still being supported by a professional and skilled midwife.  Tiffany and Kelly rarely do vaginal exams in labor and essentially never break a woman's bag of water. They consider even speaking to a woman in labor as an intervention that can alter her birth energy.  In today's episode,  you will learn what hands-off midwifery means and how birth can be safely, effectively, and beautifully supported under this model of care.   
Beautiful One Midwifery

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Down to Birth is sponsored by:
Vitality: An athleisure brand made for women, by women, designed with style and comfort for pregnancy and beyond.
Davin & Adley-- The perfect nursing and pumping bra combined
Silverette Nursing Cups -- Soothe and heal sore nipples with 925 silver nursing cups.
Postpartum Soothe -- Herbs and padsicles to heal and comfort.
Needed -- Our favorite nutritional products to nourish yourself before, during, and after pregnancy.
Use promo code: DOWNTOBIRTH for all of the above sponsors.

DrinkLMNT -- Purchase LMNT with this unique link and receive a free 8-day supply. Be sure to use the unique link to buy yours today. Connect with us on Patreon for our exclusive content.
Email Contact@DownToBirthShow.com
Instagram @downtobirthshow
Call us at 802-GET-DOWN Work with Cynthia: 
203-952-7299 
HypnoBirthingCT.com Work with Trisha: 
734-649-6294 Please remember we don’t provide medical advice. Speak to your licensed medical provider for all your healthcare matters.

#207 | My Baby is Not Going Anywhere: Yoga Teacher Erika Halweil's Birth Story

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