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In today's episode we hold space for Katie Spinks as she shares the traumatic birth of her daughter Jolene, including a Pitocin induction that ends in uterine rupture, delayed care, and a devastating HIE diagnosis. 

From there, we zoom out to the bigger questions: what informed consent should actually sound like in hospital birth, why birth plans can be used against mothers, and how hospital policy gets treated like law. We also explore how trauma can push families toward home birth or free birth, and where a search for autonomy can slide into rigid ideology. 

Katie is blunt about what she wishes she’d known before agreeing to the Pitocin induction, and why asking “what are the risks, benefits, and alternatives?” is not being difficult, it’s basic safety.

We close with Jolene’s ongoing journey, including intensive therapy and experimental stem cell treatments in Mexico, and what progress can look like when you’re fighting for every gain.  

If this conversation changes how you prepare, how you consent, or how you advocate, please subscribe, share it with a friend, and leave a review so more families can find it.

You can connect with Katie Spinks on Facebook HERE

You can connect with Katie Spinks on Instagram HERE 

Additional Resources:

MyMaineBirth.com

Closing song by Kate Sutherland.  You can find Kate's community songs and deep nature connection work online at KateSutherland.ca

The Guardian Article - Title: Infludencer's made millions pushing 'wild' births - now the free birth society is linked to baby deaths around the world

The Guardian Article - Title: She was like a deer in the headlights': How unskilled radical birthkeepers took hold in Canada

The Guardian Article - Title: Five Key Findings from our investigation into the Free Birth Society 

The Guardian Article - Title: Friday Briefing: How the free birth society's philosophy contributed to a preventable death 

Interview - Exposed: the business linked to baby deaths around the world

The Guardian Podcast - the BirthKeepers

Send us Fan Mail

Freebirth and unassisted birth are getting more attention for a reason, and the most useful place to start is not with outrage but with curiosity. 

When families move away from hospital birth, it often has less to do with rejecting modern medicine and more to do with a loss of trust after feeling unheard, touched without true consent, or treated as “room two” instead of a person. 

This episode explores the gap between being kept safe by technology and feeling safe in care, a difference that can shape labor progress, trauma, and long-term wellbeing.

Dr. Nathan Riley describes his evolution from conventionally trained OBGYN to a more holistic approach that values the “art of doing nothing” when nothing is needed. 

He challenges routine interventions that become automatic through protocols, like time-based cervical exams, and asks a simple clinical question: if we remove an intervention, do outcomes worsen? 

That evidence-minded approach collides with a system that often trains physicians to be “captain of the ship,” prioritizing a live mother and live baby while discounting lived experience. The episode argues that over-standardization can erase relationship-based care, even though childbirth usually happens without emergency and thrives with calm, privacy, and dignity.

Listeners hear a nuanced view: choosing free birth can be a form of radical responsibility, but it should be grounded in honest counseling about what can go wrong, what skills matter, and what support systems exist if plans change.

Along with the rest of the episodes this week, this conversation also separates the idea of free birth from the ideology promoted by the Free Birth Society. 

The idea centers on non-interference, self-trust, and accepting uncertainty. The ideology critique is sharper: selling certainty, dismissing real complications like hemorrhage, shaming families who choose midwives or hospitals, and creating an echo chamber that replaces community support with blame when outcomes are bad. 

That distinction matters for public discourse, because media narratives can lump all out-of-hospital birth together, increasing pressure on skilled midwives and reinforcing a false binary of “hospital equals safe” and “home equals reckless.”

You can connect with Dr. Nathan Riley at BornFreeMethod.com 

Born Free Method with Nathan Riley, MD, Sara Rosser, CPM,  is a comprehensive program  for soon-to-be parents (and birthworkers) who want to feel empowered, confident, and informed about their fertility, pregnancy and childbirth journeys.

Connect on Instagram @NathanRileyOBGYN

Free Birth Discussion with Nathan Riley, MD, FACOG  - an important discussion from April 2025

Additional Resources:

MyMaineBirth.com

Closing song by Kate Sutherland.  You can find Kate's community songs and deep nature connection work online at KateSutherland.ca

The Guardian Article - Title: Infludencer's made millions pushing 'wild' births - now the free birth society is linked to baby deaths around the world

The Guardian Article - Title: She was like a deer in the headlights': How unskilled radical birthkeepers took hold in Canada

The Guardian Article - Title: Five Key Findings from our investigation into the Free Birth Society 

The Guardian Article - Title: Friday Briefing: How the free birth society's philosophy contributed to a preventable death 

Interview - Exposed: the business linked to baby deaths around the world

The Guardian Podcast - the BirthKeepers

Send us Fan Mail

If you’ve ever felt pulled between “trust birth” and “trust the system,” this conversation lives in the complicated middle where real autonomy actually grows. 

In this episode I’m joined by Maren Green of Indie Birth, a practicing midwife for over 15 years, mother of 10, and a teacher known for speaking her truth.

We dig into the difference between free birth as a personal option for healthy women and the ideology popularized by the Free Birth Society, including the black-and-white message that autonomy requires being alone. 

Maryn shares why she believes midwifery and free birth don't have to be enemies, how trauma can drive people toward extremes, and why “nuance doesn’t sell” in movements built on dogma. Along the way, we talk about responsibility in birth messaging, what it means to stop outsourcing your inner authority, and why nobody gets to “own” a term and nobody gets to define or describe another woman’s lived experience.

Maryn tells the story that rattled the comment sections: her “free birth in the hospital,” where respect, boundaries, and embodied clarity made a medical setting feel genuinely sovereign. 

Then we get practical about birth education and ethics, including why an in-person midwifery apprenticeship matters, what online coursework can and cannot teach, and how communities can rebuild trust after harmful programs. 

As we close Maryn shares about her free summer online group “From the Ashes,” focused on somatic work, grounding, and moving forward from this dogmatic thinking around this topic.  

Connect with Maryn by visiting -  IndieBirth.org

Sign Up for Maryn's Free summer circle, From the Ashes: Transforming FreeBirth Ideology Into Change  -     maryngreen.co/freebirth 

Sign Up for Maryn's  community  - The Circle - This is a place to show up for yourself, a place to be seen and heard.  It is also a place to give and receive.  Our paths as women are all so different but to Maryn, it seems like we have so much to offer each other on this journey of life.  Apply Here to Join 

Are you interested in learning more about The Indie Birth School of New Midwifery?  Click HERE for more info! 

Listen to Maryn's Amazing Podcast - Taking Back Birth 

Taking Back Birth Episode originally released in 2019 Titled - The Honest Truth About Free Birth (re-release)

Taking Back Birth Episode released April 2026 Titled - The Free Birth Cult has Collapsed

Taking Back Birth Episode originally released in November of 2020 Titled - The Time I had a FreeBirth at the Hospital (the indie birth of Rumi Sol)

Midwives Gone Wild - Social Media and the Rise of the Overnight Midwife 

Additional Resources:

MyMaineBirth.com

Closing song by Kate Sutherland.  You can find Kate's community songs and deep nature connection work online at KateSutherland.ca

The Guardian Article - Title: Infludencer's made millions pushing 'wild' births - now the free birth society is linked to baby deaths around the world

The Guardian Article - Title: She was like a deer in the headlights': How unskilled radical birthkeepers took hold in Canada

The Guardian Article - Title: Five Key Findings from our investigation into the Free Birth Society 

The Guardian Article - Title: Friday Briefing: How the free birth society's philosophy contributed to a preventable death 

Interview - Exposed: the business linked to baby deaths around the world

The Guardian Podcast - the BirthKeepers

Send us Fan Mail

A home birth plan can unravel fast when fear, deadlines, and other people’s priorities start driving the room.  Katie joins me to share three very different birth experiences that span from Maine, to France, and then Connecticut and what those births taught her about informed consent, and physiological birth.

We talk honestly about her first pregnancy during COVID, the move to midcoast Maine, and how pressure when she was overdue shaped her options. 

Katie walks through a castor oil induction, a manual water break, a hospital transfer, and a cesarean birth, then names the real postpartum fallout: recovery limits, breastfeeding pressure, and the emotional weight that can linger for years after a C-section.

From there, the story turns toward redemption and self-trust. Katie describes preparing for a VBAC abroad when providers won’t support her, using education, movement, rest, and a calmer environment to create the conditions she wants for labor. She also shares the side of free birth that rarely gets discussed: the bureaucratic and legal intimidation that can follow an out-of-system birth, and the hard choices families make to protect themselves.

Additional Resources:

MyMaineBirth.com

Closing song by Kate Sutherland.  You can find Kate's community songs and deep nature connection work online at KateSutherland.ca

The Guardian Article - Title: Infludencer's made millions pushing 'wild' births - now the free birth society is linked to baby deaths around the world

The Guardian Article - Title: She was like a deer in the headlights': How unskilled radical birthkeepers took hold in Canada

The Guardian Article - Title: Five Key Findings from our investigation into the Free Birth Society 

The Guardian Article - Title: Friday Briefing: How the free birth society's philosophy contributed to a preventable death 

Interview - Exposed: the business linked to baby deaths around the world

The Guardian Podcast - the BirthKeepers

Send us Fan Mail

A pregnancy can look “low risk” on paper and still feel like walking through a storm. Keely, a nurse and mom of six, joins us to tell the full story of her sixth baby, including why she chose a home birth with an unassisted plan while carefully distancing herself from the most extreme corners of freebirth culture.

We talk candidly about the unraveling of the Free Birth Society midwifery training community, and the weight of scary stories circulating online.  

Keely shared her first five birth stories as well as her experience with the MatriBirth Midwifery Institute back in episode 123, so go check that out for her full story. 

Additional Resources:

MyMaineBirth.com

Closing song by Kate Sutherland.  You can find Kate's community songs and deep nature connection work online at KateSutherland.ca

The Guardian Article - Title: Infludencer's made millions pushing 'wild' births - now the free birth society is linked to baby deaths around the world

The Guardian Article - Title: She was like a deer in the headlights': How unskilled radical birthkeepers took hold in Canada

The Guardian Article - Title: Five Key Findings from our investigation into the Free Birth Society 

The Guardian Article - Title: Friday Briefing: How the free birth society's philosophy contributed to a preventable death 

Interview - Exposed: the business linked to baby deaths around the world

The Guardian Podcast - the BirthKeepers

Send us Fan Mail

In this episode I talk with Isabel about how the free birth society's  “sovereign midwifery school” promise turned into confusion, missing transparency, and a culture that punished questions. 

We also unpack what it looks like to unlearn judgment, protect informed consent, and support physiologic birth across the full spectrum from hospital to home.

In this episode we discuss:

• Isabel's early fear of medicalized birth stories and her pull towards home birth
• a traumatic injury as the turning point toward becoming a birth worker
• how Free Birth Society and MMI marketing sold legitimacy and titles
• early wins from self-mastery tools followed by disappointment with course
• red flags around legal risk and the pressure to use labels
• why demonizing the word doula harms clarity and informed consent
• students organizing concerns, then being kicked out or leaving en masse
• German New Medicine as a central lens that felt undisclosed
• rebuilding with nuanced education and practical postpartum and holistic doula training
• developing a new lens on physiologic birth as unfolding best in the place where the mother feels safest

Additional Resources:

MyMaineBirth.com

Closing Song by Kate Sutherland.  You can find Kate's community songs and deep nature connection work online at KateSutherland.ca

The Guardian Article - Title: Infludencer's made millions pushing 'wild' births - now the free birth society is linked to baby deaths around the world

The Guardian Article - Title: She was like a deer in the headlights': How unskilled radical birthkeepers took hold in Canada

The Guardian Article - Title: Five Key Findings from our investigation into the Free Birth Society 

The Guardian Article - Title: Friday Briefing: How the free birth society's philosophy contributed to a preventable death 

Interview - Exposed: the business linked to baby deaths around the world

The Guardian Podcast - the BirthKeepers

Send us Fan Mail

A glossy website, a “world's leading” tagline, and a $12,000 price point can make an online school feel vetted and legitimate. 

Then the curtain lifts. 

I sit down with Emma Moore, a fellow Mainer who grew up in Bangor and enrolled in the Free Birth Society’s Matribirth Midwifery Institute (MMI), to share what it felt like to walk in hopeful and leave alarmed, embarrassed, and determined to tell the truth.

We talk about the emotional setup that makes programs like this so compelling: the hunger for sisterhood, the desire to reclaim birth, and the promise of a “sovereign midwifery” path that blends freedom with structure.

Emma shares her early experience of imposter syndrome inside what was supposed to be a high-intensity cohort, the moment a traumatic birth story from Nicaragua shifted the tone, and how simple questions about terminology, risk, and integrity were treated as threats instead of openings for honest dialogue.

From there, we get specific about what was missing. Emma describes a birth-focused quarter that never actually taught birth skills, a reliance on anecdote labeled “evidence-based,” and a dynamic where dissent gets reframed as “gossip.” 

We also trace what happened when mentors left, and students started comparing notes.  Emma says she was removed quickly after calling out leadership’s denial, losing access to separate paid content and a MRF festival ticket.

We close with the nuance that matters: freebirth can be a valid option for some families, but ideology that blames mothers for complications is dangerous. If you care about home birth, midwifery education, informed consent, and how to vet online birth courses, this conversation offers practical insight and hard-earned perspective. 

Additional Resources:

MyMaineBirth.com

Closing song by Kate Sutherland.  You can find Kate's community songs and deep nature connection work online at KateSutherland.ca

The Guardian Article - Title: Infludencer's made millions pushing 'wild' births - now the free birth society is linked to baby deaths around the world

The Guardian Article - Title: She was like a deer in the headlights': How unskilled radical birthkeepers took hold in Canada

The Guardian Article - Title: Five Key Findings from our investigation into the Free Birth Society 

The Guardian Article - Title: Friday Briefing: How the free birth society's philosophy contributed to a preventable death 

Interview - Exposed: the business linked to baby deaths around the world

The Guardian Podcast - the BirthKeepers

Send us Fan Mail

In this episode I talk with my niece Kately about becoming a mom at 19 and choosing a home birth in rural Maine where options are limited. We unpack a rapid, induced labor, unexpected third-degree tears, early breastfeeding struggles, and what it feels like when support stops being transparent and starts feeling like control.

In this episode we discuss:

• finding out she was pregnant at 18 and the decision to parent
• why a home birth felt safer than the local hospital
• navigating prenatal care in a maternity care desert
• late pregnancy pressure to induce
• tinctures, castor oil, and a labor that moved too fast
• baby's first moments
• third degree tears and choosing no stitches
• boundaries in the birth space and questions about consent and experience 

Additional Resources:

MyMaineBirth.com 

Closing Song by Kate Sutherland.  Kate's community songs and deep nature connection work can be found here at KateSutherland.ca

Send us Fan Mail

In this episode we discuss: 

• Trigger warning for discussion of traumatic birth and maternal death
• childhood medical experiences that train compliance and silence intuition
• prenatal care without real informed consent
• fear based hospital child birth education classes
• a first hospital birth shaped by interventions, coercion, and postpartum separation
• postpartum struggles, sleep training pressure, and a threat from a pediatrician that changed everything
• home birth in Maine during reports of maternal deaths at a local hospital
• why undisturbed labor and birth matters and how coached pushing can derail the process
• My positive experience inside the Birthworker.com community and The Beauty in Birth, birth photography online community and courses.
• My experience in the freebirth society's MMI program
• what I learned from Whapio about understanding everything

Additional Resources:

MyMaineBirth.com 

Closing song by Kate Sutherland.  Kate's community songs and deep nature connection work can be found here at KateSutherland.ca

Matt Nichols shares his wife's Heather's story from August 2013

Remembering Heather Ann Nichols ❤️

The Guardian Article #1 regarding Free Birth Society titled "Influencers made millions pushing 'wild' births - now the Free Birth Society is linked to baby deaths around the world

The Guardian  Podcast - The BirthKeepers 

Addelaide Meadow - YouTube Video, Woman's Care: How good care paves the way for bad care 

Send us Fan Mail

Are you a soon to be mom, a seasoned mother, or simply interested in the world of birth?  You’re in the right place! 

In this episode, we discuss:

• medically managed breech pregnancy care and a C-section experience
• processing disconnection after birth and rebuilding bonding through breastfeeding
• planning a hospital VBAC with a doula and staying hoe longer in labor
• how hospital coaching and limited options shape pushing autonomy ( or lack thereof..)
• hospital water labor without water birth and the exhaustion of advocating mid-contraction
• informed consent concerns around Pitocin for placenta delivery
• postpartum recovery realities including rest, meal support and co-sleeping
• choosing a Maine home birth midwife and feeling equal in care
• peaceful family centered home birth where Dad caught the baby just after they made the first call to their midwife to let her know labor was happening
• delayed cord clamping, cord cutting as a family and nursing
• how respectful care and feeling seen can prevent birth trauma
• ….and a whole lot more!

You can find Kelly on Instagarm @Cardinal.birth.movement

Stick around for the end - there are some little changes you'll notice coming to the podcast and one of those is the closing - this is the first episode featuring a beautiful new closing song "Walk of the Wild Ones" by Kate Sutherland. 

You can find Kate's community songs and deep nature connection work online at katesutherland.ca

Additional Resources you’ll LOVE…

MyMaineBirth.com

If you are ready to prepare for an autonomous birth experience, where you’re respected as the authority over your body and your baby…  regardless of where you plan on birthing -
CLICK HERE for 10% off  the MyAutonomous Birth self-paced, online course! 

Not sure where to start?  I’ve got you covered!  Check out my FREE resource, 37 Questions to Ask Your Care Provider.   Whether you’re interviewing new providers or have already established care, this FREE resource offers guidance on important topics to discuss with your provider.