The Human Realm Podcast

The first episode of the Human Realm Podcast dwells on the very first human experience: Birth. This experience is intricately linked with the themes of pregnancy, motherhood, infancy and caregiving. Our guest in this episode is someone who has supported 20,000 families through these stages.

I had the privilege to listen to Yogyata Wadhwa, founder of The Birth Life, share her own journey to finding her path and calling with this work, the challenges she faced as well as meaning she continues to find along the way.

The same self-guided instinct which she applies to her own life is helping families connect with theirs during a life stage where it is easy to become overwhelmed by all the noise- from the internet, from wellwishers, from experts, and even from within one’s own mind.

While the social and medical aspects of birth and motherhood are relatively more spoken about, we also discussed some of the mental, emotional as well as spiritual aspects.

In a happy coincidence, this episode comes out during the Navratri festival celebrating the Goddess and her various forms.

About Our Guest, Yogyata Wadhwa

Yogyata is an IBCLC (International Board Certified Lactation Consultant), Physiotherapist, and Paediatric Feeding Therapist. She is the founder of The Birth Life and is based in Gurgaon, India. She has supported over 20,000 families across India, the US, UK, and Australia, helping with breastfeeding, baby sleep, and feeding transitions.

Website: www.thebirthlife.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thebirth.life/

The Human Realm podcast is available on Substack and Spotify podcasts. Do hit “Subscribe” on the platform of your choice to get updates on upcoming episodes.

Episode Time Stamps

00:00 - Welcome to The Human Realm and the episode’s focus on birth as the universal human experience

01:09 - Introducing Yogyata Wadhwa and The Birth Life

03:06 - Supporting the fourth trimester after birth

04:01 - How this work became personal healing for Yogyata

04:17 - Childhood experiences that shaped her view of postpartum care

07:02 - Becoming a birth educator, doula, and hypnobirthing practitioner

08:02 - “How can I help these mothers?” as a lifelong question

12:43 - Following gut instinct over trends and career pressure

15:31 - The social cost of choosing breastfeeding and birth support work

17:45 - Belief plus action: why intuition still requires hard work

18:40 - How birth changed Shefali’s own relationship with the body

20:09 - Why motherhood is often reduced by patriarchal culture

22:32 - Pregnancy and birth as mental, emotional, and spiritual work

23:30 - Interoception and the body’s signals during pregnancy

26:20 - Shefali’s own experience of feeling transformed by pregnancy

27:57 - The growing noise around pregnancy, babies, and “the baby market”

30:41 - What helps some mothers stay connected to instinct

34:54 - Why witnessing birth feels sacred and spiritual

35:51 - A mother walking out of the hospital in labor

38:01 - Witnessing the fierceness and divinity of in another birth story

41:26 - Birth does not look the same for every woman

43:40 - Why birth is uncertain and must be met without preconceptions

45:08 - What people miss in the emotional landscape of early infant care

48:48 - The fourth trimester as a metamorphosis

52:10 - Yogyata’s message: celebrate motherhood and listen for your own rhythm

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thehumanrealm.substack.com

Hi there!

I am excited and actually quite surprised to be starting a podcast. I never expected that starting a podcast can be one of those things about which someone says, “It just happened.” Yet here we are.

In this announcement episode, I share how this podcast came about. I introduce you to someone/ something called “the Voice”. Perhaps you know it or a version of it. I would love to hear from you, and know about that.

Now about the podcast itself.

The Human Realm Podcast is about exploring the inner landscape of human experiences, and what it means to stay conscious and self-led within them.

What do I mean by inner landscape of human experiences? I mean the parts of any experience- from the mundane to extraordinary ones- that we don’t get to see on the surface. Definitely not on social media, and often also not in the humdrum of daily life.

However, if we look just under the surface, at the mental, emotional, spiritual currents, we might notice the richness of so-called ordinary experiences, and the relatability and human-ness within extraodinary experiences.

When we are tuned in to this layer, we are better able to observe what’s really going on for us and others. Within this awareness, there is possibility for choice, conscious engagement with situations, and the ability to listen to one’s own internal signals for aligned action.

We are going to talk a lot about these internal signals!

I’m personally looking forward to warm conversations with interesting guests, and sharing these with you on a monthly basis.

The podcast is available on Substack and Spotify (and soon on Apple podcasts). Do hit “Subscribe” on the platform of your choice to get updates on upcoming episodes.

Listen on Spotify

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thehumanrealm.substack.com