There are some universal needs of women in labor. In this book review and discussion, I'm digging into a little booklet by midwife Ruth Ehrhardt, which draws heavily from the work of the late Dr. Michel Odent, to paint a picture of what those needs are, and how to ensure that those needs are met.

If you are about having a smooth, physiological birth, this episode is for you.

Resources for going deeper:

• Buy the book go HERE.
• Listen to the free audiobook HERE.
• Get a FREE basic needs checklist HERE.

Preparing for home birth (with or without a midwife)? Here's how I can help:

• Faith-Filled Home Birth Challenge⁠

• Courses (so many!)

• ⁠Holy Wild Birth Podcast⁠, co-hosted with Lauren Hall (longer, deeper episodes featuring birth stories and conversations)

• ⁠The Blog⁠

• Weekly email ⁠Newsletter⁠

• ⁠Embrace Birth Journey⁠ -- comprehensive course library for holistic, faith-based pregnancy, home birth and postpartum

• ⁠Free Birth With God⁠ mini-course

• Birth nerd ⁠merch⁠

Stuff I Recommend:

• ⁠Restorative Roots⁠ -- ancestral meals for postpartum mamas (and other people too). Use code SISTERBIRTH to save $20 on your first order of >$200

• ⁠Needed supplements⁠ - radically better nutrition for conception, pregnancy, and postpartum. Use code SISTERBIRTH to save on your first subscription or bundle

• ⁠17Hats⁠ - client management system I've used/trusted for nearly 10 years. Use this link to get a referral deal!

• ⁠Body Talk Basics⁠ -- puberty and cycle wisdom class for mothers and daughters. Use code SISTERBIRTH to save 10%

• ⁠YNAB⁠ - the budgeting program I'm addicted to and which has kept me out of the red for 15 years (even with variable/unpredictable income). This link gets you one free month!

In the world we're living in, we have to pay to have things left alone. If you don't want additives, fillers, and preservatives in your food or your birth, you may have to pay a higher price tag.

Check out The Basic Needs of a Woman in Labour, now also available as a podcast mini-series on Spotify.

Preparing for home birth (with or without a midwife)? Here's how I can help:

• Faith-Filled Home Birth Challenge⁠

• Courses (so many!)

• ⁠Holy Wild Birth Podcast⁠, co-hosted with Lauren Hall (longer, deeper episodes featuring birth stories and conversations)

• ⁠The Blog⁠

• Weekly email ⁠Newsletter⁠

• ⁠Embrace Birth Journey⁠ -- comprehensive course library for holistic, faith-based pregnancy, home birth and postpartum

• ⁠Free Birth With God⁠ mini-course

• Birth nerd ⁠merch⁠

Stuff I Recommend:

• ⁠Restorative Roots⁠ -- ancestral meals for postpartum mamas (and other people too). Use code SISTERBIRTH to save $20 on your first order of >$200

• ⁠Needed supplements⁠ - radically better nutrition for conception, pregnancy, and postpartum. Use code SISTERBIRTH to save on your first subscription or bundle

• ⁠17Hats⁠ - client management system I've used/trusted for nearly 10 years. Use this link to get a referral deal!

• ⁠Body Talk Basics⁠ -- puberty and cycle wisdom class for mothers and daughters. Use code SISTERBIRTH to save 10%

• ⁠YNAB⁠ - the budgeting program I'm addicted to and which has kept me out of the red for 15 years (even with variable/unpredictable income). This link gets you one free month!

Is there an invitation for us hidden in foregoing the use of at-home pregnancy tests? What if skipping them might be the perfect way to begin the journey of intuitive, spirit-led, autonomous pregnancy and birth?

Listen in!

Preparing for home birth (with or without a midwife)? Here's how I can help:

• Faith-Filled Home Birth Challenge⁠

• Courses (so many!)

• ⁠Holy Wild Birth Podcast⁠, co-hosted with Lauren Hall (longer, deeper episodes featuring birth stories and conversations)

• ⁠The Blog⁠

• Weekly email ⁠Newsletter⁠

• ⁠Embrace Birth Journey⁠ -- comprehensive course library for holistic, faith-based pregnancy, home birth and postpartum

• ⁠Free Birth With God⁠ mini-course

• Birth nerd ⁠merch⁠

Stuff I Recommend:

• ⁠Restorative Roots⁠ -- ancestral meals for postpartum mamas (and other people too). Use code SISTERBIRTH to save $20 on your first order of >$200

• ⁠Needed supplements⁠ - radically better nutrition for conception, pregnancy, and postpartum. Use code SISTERBIRTH to save on your first subscription or bundle

• ⁠17Hats⁠ - client management system I've used/trusted for nearly 10 years. Use this link to get a referral deal!

• ⁠Body Talk Basics⁠ -- puberty and cycle wisdom class for mothers and daughters. Use code SISTERBIRTH to save 10%

• ⁠YNAB⁠ - the budgeting program I'm addicted to and which has kept me out of the red for 15 years (even with variable/unpredictable income). This link gets you one free month!

In this episode, we're exploring 4 sources of words that may be spoken over you during a pregnancy: your birth attendant(s), your husband, your self, and your birth preparation materials.

Words are powerful -- holding the power of life and death! -- so use them with intention and gather life-speakers around you during this vulnerable time.

Get $100 off Embrace Birth Journey with code SPEAKLIFE (available only to the first 5 who claim it)

------

Preparing for home birth (with or without a midwife)? Here's how I can help:

• Faith-Filled Home Birth Challenge⁠

• Courses (so many!)

• ⁠Holy Wild Birth Podcast⁠, co-hosted with Lauren Hall (longer, deeper episodes featuring birth stories and conversations)

• ⁠The Blog⁠

• Weekly email ⁠Newsletter⁠

• ⁠Free Birth With God⁠ mini-course

• Birth nerd ⁠merch⁠

Stuff I Recommend:

• ⁠Restorative Roots⁠ -- ancestral meals for postpartum mamas (and other people too). Use code SISTERBIRTH to save $20 on your first order of >$200

• ⁠Needed supplements⁠ - radically better nutrition for conception, pregnancy, and postpartum. Use code SISTERBIRTH to save on your first subscription or bundle

• ⁠17Hats⁠ - client management system I've used/trusted for nearly 10 years. Use this link to get a referral deal!

• ⁠Body Talk Basics⁠ -- puberty and cycle wisdom class for mothers and daughters. Use code SISTERBIRTH to save 10%

• ⁠YNAB⁠ - the budgeting program I'm addicted to and which has kept me out of the red for 15 years (even with variable/unpredictable income). This link gets you one free month!

Ok, I’m trying something new here today for my 30th episode.

This one is NOT scripted. It’s just a grab-bag of thoughts and updates, mostly related to birthy things, but not always.

Things I’m about to chatter about:

• I got a mic at last (can you tell?)
• The new Holy Wild Birth episode schedule - including an upcoming episode featuring an EBJ grad that will come with a coupon code on August 13
• Hearthmother Journey fall cohort starting soon (and you’re invited to the open house on August 18)
• An upcoming series of readings from a favorite book I feel every person who wants to be in a birthing room should have to read
• reconnecting with the joy of [birth] photography
• the quietness of mind and spirit that comes from staying off social media
• dreaming of what it might look like to be an off-call birthkeeper (is that an oxymoron?)

• wrap-around support for free-birthing mamas

Let me know what you think of this format!

Helpful, related links:

• Holy Wild Birth Podcast - back and better than ever
• Open House for Hearthmother Journey- join the Mighty Networks Rooted In Eden PMA, then find the event called Open House on August 18th
• Birth services I offer

Stuff I Recommend:

• Restorative Roots -- ancestral meals for postpartum mamas (and other people too). Use code SISTERBIRTH to save $20 on your first order of >$200
• Needed supplements - radically better nutrition for conception, pregnancy, and postpartum. Use code SISTERBIRTH to save on your first subscription or bundle
• 17Hats - client management system I've used/trusted for nearly 10 years. Use this link to get a referral deal!
• Body Talk Basics -- puberty and cycle wisdom class for mothers and daughters. Use code SISTERBIRTH to save 10%
• YNAB - the budgeting program I'm addicted to and which has kept me out of the red for 15 years (even with variable/unpredictable income). This link gets you one free month!

Let’s have a talk about the other “N word”: Need. There’s a pendulum swing that can happen here and we need to talk about that. Whether you’re planning a free birth or a home birth with a midwife, you will be challenged to make room for need in your journey.

Mentioned in this episode:

• Faith-Filled Home Birth Intensive (contains a valuable coupon code, in addition to being a very valuable video series)
• In Everything by Paper Horses (song)

Preparing for home birth (with or without a midwife)? Here's how I can help:⁠

• ⁠Holy Wild Birth Podcast⁠, co-hosted with Lauren Hall (longer, deeper episodes featuring birth stories and conversations)

• ⁠The Blog⁠

• Weekly email ⁠Newsletter⁠

• ⁠Embrace Birth Journey⁠ -- comprehensive course library for holistic, faith-based pregnancy, home birth and postpartum

• ⁠Free Birth With God⁠ mini-course

• Birth nerd ⁠merch⁠

If you're afraid of birth (and even pregnancy), you are NOT alone and you aren't crazy! We live in a world that gives us lots of scary images and stories that naturally induce fear. BUT you don't have to stay there. I'm chatting a bit about the process of moving past fear and into joyful anticipation. There's much more that could be said, but this is a good start. There's lots more about releasing fear in Embrace Birth Journey, too. Not to mention the fact that the whole course dismantles fear just by its nature of holistically inspiring and equipping you so that you're approaching birth confidently. It just sort of "crowds out" fear, I think.Go through my 5-day workshop Trust God, Trust Birth: The Path to Confident, Joyful Home Birth...www.sisterbirth.com/trust

Preparing for home birth (with or without a midwife)? Here's how I can help:

• Faith-Filled Home Birth Challenge⁠

• Courses (so many!)

• ⁠Holy Wild Birth Podcast⁠, co-hosted with Lauren Hall (longer, deeper episodes featuring birth stories and conversations)⁠

• Weekly email ⁠Newsletter⁠

• ⁠Embrace Birth Journey⁠ -- comprehensive course library for holistic, faith-based pregnancy, home birth and postpartum

• Birth nerd ⁠merch⁠

You're a Christian woman pursuing a faith-filled, anointed home birth, so naturally, you're thinking about creating a birth team that can facilitate the spiritual environment you desire. Ideally you'd love a midwife who knows and follows Jesus like you do, but what if you can't find one? How much does it matter? Here are some thoughts to consider.

note: this episode was originally recorded as a Facebook Live in Natural Christian Home Births.

Preparing for home birth (with or without a midwife)? Here's how I can help:

• Faith-Filled Home Birth Challenge⁠

• Courses (so many!)

• ⁠Holy Wild Birth Podcast⁠, co-hosted with Lauren Hall (longer, deeper episodes featuring birth stories and conversations)⁠

• Weekly email ⁠Newsletter⁠

• ⁠Free Birth With God⁠ mini-course

• Birth nerd ⁠merch⁠

Is home birth riskier than hospital birth? How do we make room for risk and weigh it against the benefits? I'll use a metaphor about free-range chickens and vaccine-free humans to make my points. ;)

Note: this was originally recorded in 2021 as a Facebook Live in Natural Christian Home Births.

The workshop I reference at the end is here: www.sisterbirth.com/trust

Preparing for home birth (with or without a midwife)? Here's how I can help:

• ⁠Faith-Filled Home Birth Challenge⁠

• Courses (so many!)

• ⁠Holy Wild Birth Podcast⁠, co-hosted with Lauren Hall (longer, deeper episodes featuring birth stories and conversations)⁠

• Weekly email ⁠Newsletter⁠

• ⁠Embrace Birth Journey⁠ -- comprehensive course library for holistic, faith-based pregnancy, home birth and postpartum

• Birth nerd ⁠merch⁠

What did you do wrong? What if you didn’t do anything wrong at all? What if there are reasons for a long labor that aren't in your control and are even "meant to be" for the good of you or your baby?

(Note: this episode was originally a short YouTube video.

Like this episode and want to go deeper?

• ⁠Faith-Filled Home Birth Challenge⁠

• ⁠Holy Wild Birth Podcast⁠, co-hosted with Lauren Hall (longer, deeper episodes featuring birth stories and conversations)⁠

• Weekly email ⁠Newsletter⁠

• ⁠Embrace Birth Journey⁠ -- comprehensive course library for holistic, faith-based pregnancy, home birth and postpartum