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This one first aired back in November 2025 and you guys loved it. It ended up being one of the most downloaded episodes I have ever done.
So I am bringing it back out of the vault because it's just too good to let it sit there!
This is the stuff nobody really tells you about getting ready for birth. The things I wish I had known before my first baby. So whether you are hearing it for the first time or coming back around again, grab a notebook and settle in. I think you are going to love it. ❤️
You’ve been prepping for birth, but with so much conflicting advice, it’s easy to feel nervous or unprepared… and you’re not alone! In this episode, I’m breaking down what most people don’t tell you about getting ready for labor — from birth myths and epidurals to baby positioning, mindset, and practical ways to feel confident no matter how your birth unfolds.
We’re covering what really matters during birth prep, including how to:
• Spot the signs of active labor and plan for support
• Understand epidurals, pain, and movement — what providers often don’t mention
• Influence your baby’s position safely during pregnancy
• Use mindset, flexibility, and planning to stay calm and confident
• Prepare your birth partner to truly be your rock in the delivery room
• Focus on three simple, actionable things you can start today to feel ready
If you’ve ever wondered, “Am I ready for this?” or “What actually matters for a smooth birth?” — this episode is for you. It’s honest, empowering, and full of practical tips to help you feel informed AND ready for your best birth yet!
Don't forget to RATE & FOLLOW the Pregnancy & Birth Made Easy Podcast!
Leave a Review! ⭐️ Here's how >>
On Apple Podcasts
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FOLLOW "Pregnancy & Birth Made Easy" so you never miss an episode that makes pregnancy & birth feel easier!
Here’s how to do it in just 2 seconds:
Let's Connect!
Three exercises to help prepare you for your BEST birth: https://www.myessentialbirth.com/3-exercises
Join the Course! https://www.myessentialbirth.com/getstarted
Email: [email protected].
Follow @myessentialbirth on INSTAGRAM!
Back by popular demand, this is one of 2026's most-listened episodes. If you're building your birth plan right now, grab your notebook and tune in, mama!
What if the birth plan you worked so hard on… actually set you up for disappointment?
Most moms spend hours researching, Googling templates, and checking every box, and still walk away from birth feeling blindsided, unprepared, or like the whole experience just happened around them.
And it's not their fault. It's because nobody ever showed them what a birth plan is actually supposed to do, or the mistakes that quietly sabotage even the most prepared moms in the delivery room.
In this episode, we're pulling back the curtain on the most common birth plan mistakes I see all the time, and more importantly, exactly what to do instead.
Whether you're just starting to think about your birth plan or you already have one and something feels off, this episode is going to change the way you think about it completely.
Here are some highlights from the episode:
Birth doesn't have to go perfectly for you to walk away feeling incredible about your experience.
What matters most is that you felt informed, understood your options, and had a voice every step of the way. I know you're going to love it, mama.
Don't forget to RATE & FOLLOW the Pregnancy & Birth Made Easy Podcast!
Leave a Review! ⭐️ Here's how >>
On Apple Podcasts
On Spotify
FOLLOW "Pregnancy & Birth Made Easy" so you never miss an episode that makes pregnancy & birth feel easier!
Here’s how to do it in just 2 seconds:
Let's Connect!
Three exercises to help prepare you for your BEST birth: https://www.myessentialbirth.com/3-exercises
Join the Course! https://www.myessentialbirth.com/getstarted
Email: [email protected].
Follow @myessentialbirth on INSTAGRAM!
This is a rebroadcast of one of our most loved episodes — whether you are listening for the first time or coming back for another listen, I know you are going to get something out of it. Enjoy! ❤️
I have three babies I gave birth to and two girls who made me a mama in a different way — and all three times I gave birth I was planning to go unmedicated.
It only happened once.
And it was not because my body failed me. It was because I did not have the tools I needed and I did not know then what I know now.
About nutrition. About mindset. About preparing my birth partner. About what actually helps once you are deep in labor and things get really hard.
That is exactly why this episode exists. In this one I am walking you through everything — starting in pregnancy with nutrition, movement, posture, and mindset work, and moving all the way through labor with the tools, positions, support, and options that make the biggest difference when you are working toward an unmedicated birth.
There is no judgment here about how you choose to give birth. But if unmedicated birth is your goal — I want you to have every single thing you need to get there. ❤️
Here are some highlights from the episode:
Links Mentioned:
🔗 My Essential Birth Course: myessentialbirth.com/getstarted
🔗 3 Free Exercises: myessentialbirth.com/3-exercises
📱 Instagram: @myessentialbirth
Don't forget to RATE & FOLLOW the Pregnancy & Birth Made Easy Podcast!
Leave a Review! ⭐️ Here's how >>
On Apple Podcasts
On Spotify
FOLLOW "Pregnancy & Birth Made Easy" so you never miss an episode that makes pregnancy & birth feel easier!
Here’s how to do it in just 2 seconds:
Let's Connect!
Three exercises to help prepare you for your BEST birth: https://www.myessentialbirth.com/3-exercises
Join the Course! https://www.myessentialbirth.com/getstarted
Email: [email protected].
Follow @myessentialbirth on INSTAGRAM!
What if your baby has been trying to tell you they need to go to the bathroom this whole time, and you just did not know how to listen?
Before disposable diapers existed, 92% of American babies were out of diapers by 18 months.
Today our average is three years old. And according to my guest today — that shift had nothing to do with biology and everything to do with marketing.
Andrea Olson is the author of Go Diaper Free, the world's leading educator on elimination communication, and a mama of six who has never had more than one baby in diapers at a time.
She has helped over a million families start this practice across the world. And in this episode she breaks down everything you need to know from what elimination communication actually is, to the cues your baby is already giving you, to how to start from the very first day of your baby's life.
I sat with this conversation for a long time after we finished recording.
Babies are not any different biologically than they were before disposable diapers existed. They still have the same instincts. They are still trying to tell us what they need. We just stopped listening.
And this episode is going to change the way you think about diapers, potty training, and tuning into your baby from day one. ❤️
Here are some highlights from the episode:
🎁 Free resources for listeners:
Head to www.myessentialbirth.com/EC to grab the Easy Start Guide and the Potty Training Primer.
Connect with Andrea:
🌐 Website: godiaperfree.com
🛍️ Store: tinyundies.com
📱 Instagram: @godiaperfree
▶️ YouTube: Go Diaper Free
Don't forget to RATE & FOLLOW the Pregnancy & Birth Made Easy Podcast!
Leave a Review! ⭐️ Here's how >>
On Apple Podcasts
On Spotify
FOLLOW "Pregnancy & Birth Made Easy" so you never miss an episode that makes pregnancy & birth feel easier!
Here’s how to do it in just 2 seconds:
Let's Connect!
Three exercises to help prepare you for your BEST birth: https://www.myessentialbirth.com/3-exercises
Join the Course! https://www.myessentialbirth.com/getstarted
Email: [email protected].
Follow @myessentialbirth on INSTAGRAM!
Signing the general consent form when you walk into the hospital does not mean you have agreed to everything that follows.
Not the Pitocin.
Not the vaginal exam.
Not the electronic fetal monitor.
Not the cesarean.
Not the hospital policy.
Every single one of those still requires your informed consent.
I had the privlege of sitting down with Hermine Hayes-Klein, an attorney who has spent 25 years specializing in women's rights in pregnancy and childbirth.
She moved to the Netherlands while pregnant with her first baby, watched a completely different birth system up close for five years, came home, and became a lawyer who takes the birth cases nobody else will touch.
The ones where the baby is okay but the mama is not. She represents the women nobody is fighting for. And she wins.
What Hermine shares about your actual rights in the birth room is the kind of information that changes how you walk into every single prenatal appointment and ultimately into your birth.
Here are some highlights from the episode:
Connect with Hermine:
🌐 Website: Hayes Klein Law: https://www.hayeskleinlaw.com/
📱 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/herminehayesklein/
Documents to print and put in your hospital bag:
📄 ACOG Ethics Committee Opinion — Maternal Refusal of Medically Recommended Treatment (June 2016)
📄 ACOG Committee Opinion on VBAC — if you are a VBAC mama
📄 ACOG Committee Opinion on Breech — most recent version
📄 Your state's informed consent statute — Oregon's is ORS 677.097
Research mentioned:
🔬 Search Neel Shah and Ank de Jonge together with the word induction or gestational age to find the three country study mentioned in this episode
Don't forget to RATE & FOLLOW the Pregnancy & Birth Made Easy Podcast!
Leave a Review! ⭐️ Here's how >>
On Apple Podcasts
On Spotify
FOLLOW "Pregnancy & Birth Made Easy" so you never miss an episode that makes pregnancy & birth feel easier!
Here’s how to do it in just 2 seconds:
Let's Connect!
Three exercises to help prepare you for your BEST birth: https://www.myessentialbirth.com/3-exercises
Join the Course! https://www.myessentialbirth.com/getstarted
Email: [email protected].
Follow @myessentialbirth on INSTAGRAM!
Gestational diabetes is one of those topics that every pregnant mama needs to understand way before she ever gets to that 28 week test, whether she thinks it applies to her or not.
And I could not be more excited about who I brought in to talk about it today.
Bonnie and Karina are midwives in Davis County Utah and two of my favorite people in the birth world.
I met them early in my birth work journey and I have never stopped being grateful for it. Bonnie has a background in nutrition and has been in birth work since 2014.
Karina has had type one diabetes for over 35 years and lives this every single day. Between the two of them, they know more about gestational diabetes than most providers you will ever sit across from. I have actually told Bonnie that if I ever get pregnant again, I am either flying her out to me or heading to Utah, because these are the women I want in my corner. 💛
This conversation is practical, surprising, and one of the most helpful episodes I have recorded on pregnancy nutrition and testing.
I learned things I was not expecting to learn. And I think you will too.
Here are some highlights from the episode:
Connect with Bonnie & Karina:
📱 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/daviscountymidwives/
📍 Birth Center: Bountiful, Utah https://daviscountymidwives.com/
Don't forget to RATE & FOLLOW the Pregnancy & Birth Made Easy Podcast!
Leave a Review! ⭐️ Here's how >>
On Apple Podcasts
On Spotify
FOLLOW "Pregnancy & Birth Made Easy" so you never miss an episode that makes pregnancy & birth feel easier!
Here’s how to do it in just 2 seconds:
Let's Connect!
Three exercises to help prepare you for your BEST birth: https://www.myessentialbirth.com/3-exercises
Join the Course! https://www.myessentialbirth.com/getstarted
Email: [email protected].
Follow @myessentialbirth on INSTAGRAM!
Is your baby fussy, clicking while nursing, struggling with tummy time, or just not quite seeming like themselves, and nobody can give you a straight answer about why?
In this episode, I sit down with Michelle Emanuel, pediatric occupational therapist, board-certified lactation consultant, and one of the leading experts in tongue tie and oral function, and we take a deep dive into all things tongue-tie.
Because tongue tie is not just about nursing pain or a string under the tongue.
It is connected to how your baby breathes, how they move their body, why they are gassy and fussy, why they hate tummy time, and if it goes undetected, to speech challenges, crowded teeth, sleep issues, and emotional dysregulation years down the road....like, what?! But it's true!
I have been in the birth world for 14 years and I walked away from this conversation looking at things completely differently.
In fact I went and looked inside all of my teenagers' mouths when we finished recording and I am not even a little bit embarrassed about it. 😂
I know you are going to love Michelle as much as I do. ❤️
Here are some highlights from the episode:
Connect with Michelle:
📱 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tonguetiebabies/
▶️ YouTube: Michelle Emanuel: https://www.youtube.com/user/MichelleE110/videos
🌐 Website: tummytimemethod.com
Don't forget to RATE & FOLLOW the Pregnancy & Birth Made Easy Podcast!
Leave a Review! ⭐️ Here's how >>
On Apple Podcasts
On Spotify
FOLLOW "Pregnancy & Birth Made Easy" so you never miss an episode that makes pregnancy & birth feel easier!
Here’s how to do it in just 2 seconds:
Let's Connect!
Three exercises to help prepare you for your BEST birth: https://www.myessentialbirth.com/3-exercises
Join the Course! https://www.myessentialbirth.com/getstarted
Email: [email protected].
Follow @myessentialbirth on INSTAGRAM!
After giving birth at 28 weeks with her first baby, Kyla knew that this pregnancy was going to look different.
She was intentional about every decision: her providers, her preparation, her birth space, and her mindset going in. And when the time came, all of that work showed up in the most beautiful and amazing way.
Kyla woke up one morning at 39 weeks with a belly that looked completely different.
Contractions started mid-morning and she basically ignored them for most of the day. By 9pm she and Gabe were loading up the car for a two hour drive to their birth center in the middle of the night.
She arrived six centimeters dilated and completely effaced. And just before 3am their baby girl was born in a birth tub with so much hair. 🥹
I absolutely loved this conversation. Kyla and Gabe are one of those couples who just make you feel good the moment they start talking — he kept her laughing through most of labor, she described every contraction as a blessing, and then there were the gorilla noises during pushing that she is still not fully at peace with. 😂 I just know you are going to love them as much as I do.
Here are some highlights from the episode:
Don't forget to RATE & FOLLOW the Pregnancy & Birth Made Easy Podcast!
Leave a Review! ⭐️ Here's how >>
On Apple Podcasts
On Spotify
FOLLOW "Pregnancy & Birth Made Easy" so you never miss an episode that makes pregnancy & birth feel easier!
Here’s how to do it in just 2 seconds:
Let's Connect!
Three exercises to help prepare you for your BEST birth: https://www.myessentialbirth.com/3-exercises
Join the Course! https://www.myessentialbirth.com/getstarted
Email: [email protected].
Follow @myessentialbirth on INSTAGRAM!
You leave your prenatal appointment and get in your car. And something just feels off.
You are confused. Unsettled.
Maybe a little worried about your body or your baby. And you spend the whole drive home trying to figure out what just happened in there and what you are supposed to do about it.
In this episode, I am walking you through exactly what to do when something does not feel right with your provider.
Whether it is an induction conversation that caught you completely off guard, a big baby warning that sent you straight to Google, or a provider you are just not sure about anymore.
And I am being really honest in this one, too, because I have nodded and smiled my way out of appointments that did not feel right, gotten in my car, and completely lost it. I was a doula. I knew better. And I still did it. 😅
Oh, and this one is only about 15 minutes. No excuse not to listen before your next appointment. 😊
Here are some highlights from the episode:
Don't forget to RATE & FOLLOW the Pregnancy & Birth Made Easy Podcast!
Leave a Review! ⭐️ Here's how >>
On Apple Podcasts
On Spotify
FOLLOW "Pregnancy & Birth Made Easy" so you never miss an episode that makes pregnancy & birth feel easier!
Here’s how to do it in just 2 seconds:
Let's Connect!
Three exercises to help prepare you for your BEST birth: https://www.myessentialbirth.com/3-exercises
Join the Course! https://www.myessentialbirth.com/getstarted
Email: [email protected].
Follow @myessentialbirth on INSTAGRAM!
What would you do if you were deep in labor and someone walked in and said it was time to talk about Pitocin, breaking your water, or maybe even a cesarean?
I am you through the exact moment that catches most mamas completely off guard in the birth room (myself included, and I share about it), and the three questions that can slow everything down, get you the information you actually need, and help you make decisions from a place of confidence instead of fear.
With my first baby, I was told we needed an emergency cesarean. And even in that moment of urgency, I wish I had known what I am sharing in this episode.
That there is almost always time to ask questions. That a recommendation is not a requirement. That I had more say than I realized.
This is the episode I wish every pregnant mama could hear before she ever walks into the birth room. It is not about being difficult or argumentative, it is about knowing how to gather information and make the best decision for you and your baby no matter what comes up during labor. I promise this will be an episode you will want to save and jot notes down from.
Share it with your birth partner and listen together if you can!
Here are some highlights from the episode:
Don't forget to RATE & FOLLOW the Pregnancy & Birth Made Easy Podcast!
Leave a Review! ⭐️ Here's how >>
On Apple Podcasts
On Spotify
FOLLOW "Pregnancy & Birth Made Easy" so you never miss an episode that makes pregnancy & birth feel easier!
Here’s how to do it in just 2 seconds:
Let's Connect!
Three exercises to help prepare you for your BEST birth: https://www.myessentialbirth.com/3-exercises
Join the Course! https://www.myessentialbirth.com/getstarted
Email: [email protected].
Follow @myessentialbirth on INSTAGRAM!
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