The Birth Prep Podcast with Taylor Minaberry

Girl, your Instagram saved folder is NOT a birth prep plan 👀 There's a big difference between knowing a whole lot about birth and actually being prepared to give birth. In this episode, we're talking about why it's so easy to get stuck in the information rabbit hole, what intentional birth preparation actually looks like, and how to do your part while trusting God with the rest.

Inside this episode:
💖 Why consuming endless birth content can feel productive without actually preparing you for labor.
💖 How the desire for control might be keeping you stuck in research mode.
💖 The balance between preparing diligently and surrendering your birth to the Lord.
💖 The three pieces of intentional birth prep: what you need to know, practice, and plan.
💖 Three simple action steps you can take THIS WEEK to stop collecting information and start preparing for your baby.

Links & Resources Mentioned:
🪩 The Birth Prep Reset: A 7-day Jesus-centered experience to help you get intentional, take action, and actually prepare for birth. [CLICK HERE]
🪩 Instagram: @thebirthprepcoach - Come tell me what your first step is going to be!

You don't need to know everything about birth, momma. You need to take what you're learning and actually DO something with it. Let's get to work! 💕

Hey! Today, we’ve got a special guest joining us - Allison from raising.lions.not.sheep_ on Instagram. She’s a mom of three and a huge advocate for medical freedom, passionate about sharing the truth about the procedures and interventions that affect our babies.

In this episode, we're diving into something super important and sometimes a bit controversial: newborn procedures in the hospital. We’ll chat about the hepatitis B vaccine, the vitamin K injection, and erythromycin eye ointment.

Allison is going to share her journey of digging into vaccine research, all sparked by her own pregnancy and the drive to make the best decisions for her kids. She stresses how crucial it is to really understand these procedures so we can make informed choices instead of just going with the flow. This episode is loaded with valuable info and resources to help us parents navigate these choices and stand up for our newborns' health!

Follow Allison on instagram: https://www.instagram.com/raising.lions.not.sheep_/

Check out Allison's resources: https://msha.ke/raising.lions.not.sheep

Visit Allison's shop, Awake Apparel: https://awakeapparel.square.site/

Back up instagram: https://www.instagram.com/raising.lions.not.sheep_2/ 

If you’ve ever wished your husband or birth partner would actually GET IT when it comes to birth prep, momma, this episode is for you. I’m chatting with Travis Stroud, aka Doula Dude, about why men need to stop treating birth as “her thing” and start learning how to actually show up for the woman and baby they’re responsible for protecting. We go DEEP into birth education, unlearning what we’ve been taught, protecting momma’s peace, taking ownership of your birth choices, and why preparing for birth is really preparing for parenthood.

Inside this episode:

✨ Why Travis went from knowing basically nothing about birth to becoming completely obsessed with learning about it alongside his wife

✨ Why “just be supportive” isn’t enough for dads, and what it actually looks like for a man to take responsibility and protect his wife’s peace during pregnancy and birth

✨ The importance of learning what physiological birth actually looks like BEFORE you start making decisions about interventions, providers, birthplaces, and everything else

✨ Why birth stories, birth education, and a little bit of unlearning can completely change the way you see what’s possible

✨ Why your birth prep isn’t just about getting the birth you want, but about laying the foundation for your marriage, your family, and the way you step into parenthood together

Connect with Travis on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/doula.dude/
Connect with Samantha (Travis' wife): https://www.instagram.com/risingsoulsamantha

Travis' Recommended Resources: linktr.ee/Doula.dude

And of course, if you're here because you want to prepare for an unmedicated hospital birth, don't forget that you don't have to choose free birth or home birth to take ownership of your experience! You just need to be willing to learn, prepare, and become the HGIC 💖

We've all heard it: "Well... as long as the baby is healthy." It sounds comforting, grateful - even reassuring. But what if that phrase is actually shutting down one of the most important conversations we need to be having about birth? 👀

In this episode, we're calling it what is: a healthy baby is the bare minimum - not the gold standard - and your experience matters just as much as the outcome.

✨ Why this phrase gets thrown around so easily - and why it shuts women down
✨ How it can minimize and dismiss very real birth trauma
✨ Why you can feel grateful for your baby and still be upset about your birth
✨ What respectful, informed care should actually look like (hint: you’re part of the decision-making)
✨ Why birth prep isn’t just about “getting through it” or avoiding pain

If you've ever walked away from your birth feeling unseen, unheard, or like things happened to you instead of with you—this episode is for you.

🙌 Ready to prepare for the birth you actually want? Inside The Birth Prep Course, you'll learn how to walk into your hospital birth feeling informed, confident, and in control of your decisions - so you can advocate for yourself and feel good about your experience, no matter how it unfolds. 👉 Learn more here: https://www.thebirthprepcoach.com/tbpc-e

📲 Let's connect! Instagram: @thebirthprepcoach

If this episode resonated with you, share it with another mom who needs the reminder that her experience matters, too! 💖

Choosing an unmedicated birth doesn't mean choosing to feel everything with no plan. It means building a different kind of plan - one that is more effective, more accessible, and more overlooked than anything a hospital can offer you. In this episode, I break down exactly why preparation is your most powerful pain management tool and what that preparation actually looks like in practice.

In this episode:
💖 Why the way our culture talks about labor pain is priming women to experience more of it
💖 The science behind why preparation physically changes your experience of pain - not just mentally, but neurologically and hormonally
💖 The marathon analogy that reframes everything about how we think about birth and pain tolerance
💖 What real pain management preparation actually looks like: stage-by-stage education, breathing and relaxation practice, comfort measures, mindset work, and birth environment
💖 Why knowing your tools and having practiced your tools are two completely different things

Ready to build your real pain management plan? The Birth Prep Course walks you through every single piece - the education, the skills, the mindset work, all of it - so you walk into your birth prepared, not just hopeful.

There's more info here: https://www.thebirthprepcoach.com/tbpc-e
and you can always DM me over on Instagram with any questions you have! https://www.instagram.com/thebirthprepcoach

One of the most common - and most consequential - mistakes women make when planning an unmedicated hospital birth has nothing to do with their provider, their birth plan, or their mindset. It's going to the hospital too early. 

In this episode:
💖 What actually happens to your labor when you arrive at the hospital too early - and why your home is doing something for your oxytocin that the hospital simply cannot replicate
💖 The most colorful analogy I have ever used on this podcast to explain why your birth environment matters (you'll never forget it, I promise 🤣)
💖 Why the 5-1-1 rule is a generic guideline built for women without birth education - and why you deserve better than a generic guideline
💖 How to actually know when it's time to leave: early vs. active labor, the emotional signpost, your personal factors, and trusting yourself
💖 A real story from a momma (podcast listener) who showed up to the hospital at 10 centimeters and had the birth of her dreams

Ready to actually understand your labor so you can make confident decisions in real time? That's exactly what we do inside The Birth Prep Course - the stages, the environment, the timeline, all of it.
More info here: https://www.thebirthprepcoach.com/tbpc-e

If you've ever wondered why some women walk out of their unmedicated births saying "I can't believe I did that" while others feel like they barely survived - this episode is your answer. Today we're talking about the fear-tension-pain cycle. What it actually is, how it works inside your real body, and exactly what you can do to stop it before it ever gets started.

In this episode:
💖 The physiological chain reaction that connects fear, tension, and pain in labor - and why it has absolutely nothing to do with how tough you are
💖 Why adrenaline is the enemy of oxytocin, what that actually costs you in labor, and why this is the reason so many unmedicated births fall apart
💖 Why education is the single most effective fear prevention tool for birth - not positive thinking, not more affirmations, not just trusting your body
💖 The critical difference between being educated and being prepared - and why you genuinely need both to walk into that room ready
💖 The personal story from my third birth that changed everything, and the faith that carried me through preparing for my sixth

Ready to break the cycle before it starts? Everything we cover in this episode - the education, the breathing and relaxation skills, the mindset work, the comfort measures - is all built out inside the Birth Prep Course!
Enroll here: https://www.thebirthprepcoach.com/tbpc-e

There is a five-letter framework that will completely change how you show up in your prenatal appointments and your labor room. Inside we break down B.R.A.I.N. - the informed consent tool that turns you from a passive patient into the HGIC of every single decision made about your birth!

💖 B.R.A.I.N. Cheat Sheet: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1iaz3ltAsZ2-TP0hXdA7cXYzYvUtOxOwt/view?usp=sharing

💖 This is a small fraction of the work we do inside The Birth Prep Course. You can find more info and enroll here: https://www.thebirthprepcoach.com/tbpc-e 

Your birth partner could be the difference between the birth you planned and the one you're still emotionally recovering from two years later - and most of them are walking into that room completely unprepared. In this episode, we break down exactly what it takes to turn a well-meaning partner into a genuinely powerful one. 💪

In this episode:
✨ The unprepared partner problem - why good intentions are not enough, and what happens in the room when your partner doesn't have a real job description
✨ The 4 things every birth partner needs to know before labor starts - including why knowing what transition looks like could be the single most important thing you do together
✨ The 3 layers of birth partner training: mindset, information, and hands-on skills - and how to actually work through each one before your birth day
✨ Why an unprepared partner can accidentally derail your unmedicated birth without meaning to - and what to do instead
✨ A direct word to the birth partners listening - because what you do and don't do in that room matters more than you know

Ready to do this work together? Everything we talked about in this episode - the education, the skills, the mindset prep - is all inside The Birth Prep Course. Enroll here: https://www.thebirthprepcoach.com/tbpc-e

Wanting an unmedicated birth and actually being prepared for one are two veryyy different things - and in this episode, we break down exactly what separates the women who walk out of that delivery room saying "I did it" from the ones who weren't ready when it mattered most.

In this episode:
💖 Why your pain tolerance has nothing to do with whether you can have an unmedicated birth - and what actually determines it
💖 The fear-tension-pain cycle: what it is, why it's the real reason most unmedicated attempts stall, and how to interrupt it before you ever step foot in a hospital room
💖 The skills most women completely skip (breathing, relaxation on command, comfort measures) - and why skipping them shows up in the hardest moments of labor
💖 How to build a birth team that will actually go to war for your plan - including the one question most women never think to ask their provider
💖 Why mindset is your most underestimated birth tool, and how to build the kind of mental strength that holds the line at 3am when someone offers you an epidural

Ready to actually build these skills? Every single one of them is inside The Birth Prep Course - organized, practical, and built specifically for the woman planning an unmedicated hospital birth. Learn more and get started today: https://www.thebirthprepcoach.com/tbpc-e