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

When it comes to home birth preparation, is there such a thing as learning TOO much? When is it time to put down the birth courses, books, and podcasts and approach birth from a less cerebral angle?

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

• FREE ⁠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

So is there a fail-proof way to prevent pre-eclampsia from developing and stealing your home birth dreams right out from under you? Maaayyyybe? There are things you can do to minimize the risk, but other things are out of your hands, sister. Listen to learn more.

Mentioned in this episode:

• Brewer Diet

• Calorie calculator

• Embrace Birth Journey
• Redmond's Real Salt
• Albumin supplement (but eggs are best!!)
• Preventing Pre-E by Great Birth Rebellion
• Nourishing Fertility (Free mini-course)
• The Way Of The Hearthmother

Have you considered the value of laboring alone for a while, delaying waking up your sleeping husband or alerting your midwife to your labor patterns? Here's why it might be worth doing.

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

• FREE ⁠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

If you have never experienced a [non-induced] labor before, whether because you're a first-time mom or because your previous births were inductions or planned cesareans, this perspective will help guide you through it with grace.

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

• FREE ⁠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

I'm seeing lots of advice to seek out unlicensed midwives. But what if it's not the only thing that matters? Could it be more nuanced than that? Let's dig in.

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

• FREE ⁠Faith-Filled Home Birth Challenge⁠

• Courses (so many!) - 30% in May 2025 with code BIRTHLIKEAMOTHER

• ⁠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

No one else has to deliver your baby or even "catch" them in most cases. You can do this yourself! If you've never considered doing so, here are some reasons you might want to, and some tips for making that dream come to fruition!

Mentioned in this episode:

• Alisha Meyers
• Hearthmother Journey (birthkeeper training program)
• Gorilla birth
• Monkey birth
• Cat birth
• Giraffe birth
• Mother's Day Course Sale (30% off all!)

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

• FREE ⁠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

In this episode, I'm reading aloud my old IG journal entries from my postpartum lying-in period with my 4th baby, Maeve.

To read this, and to see the accompanying photos, go ⁠here⁠.

I've made candid journal entries on IG to chronicle the first few weeks after the birth of each of babies, starting with baby #3. I did an episode on postpartum with baby #6 already. In the future, I'll make an episode of my other 2 postpartum diaries as well.

• Prepare for your postpartum (on sale for 30% off with code BIRTHLIKEAMOTHER through 5/31/25)--> ⁠The First Week After Birth Class⁠ or Embrace Holistic Postpartum
• Sign up for nourishing, ancestral postpartum meals with Mama Meals! Use code SISTERBIRTH to get $20 off your first order of $200+
• Mother's Day Course Sale going on now through 5/31

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

• FREE ⁠⁠Faith-Filled Home Birth Challenge⁠⁠

• Pay-What-You-Can ⁠⁠Trust God, Trust Birth⁠ workshop⁠

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

• ⁠The ⁠Blog⁠⁠

• ⁠⁠Newsletter⁠⁠

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

• ⁠⁠Free Birth With God⁠ ⁠mini-course

Meet Dana. She's not real, but she's also a composite of many women I've met over the years. We're going to hear about her first birth (for which she sort of prepared, but mostly hoped and winged it), and her second birth (for which she did the work and reaped the rewards).

Mentioned in this episode:

👉🏼the Mother's Day Course Sale going on now through May 31st, 2025. Use code BIRTHLIKEAMOTHER at enrollment checkout to get 30% off any of my many courses, including the ones Dana used. 😉

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

• FREE ⁠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