Episode Summary:

In this enlightening conversation, Alejandra Dydzinsky, an Empirical Midwife, shares her journey through motherhood and Midwifery, emphasizing the importance of self-directed Birth and the need for women to reconnect with their innate power. She discusses the concept of Empirical Midwifery, which prioritizes personal experience over formal titles and highlights the significance of trust and community in the Birthing process. We explore the spiritual nature of Midwifery, the challenges faced by modern Midwives today and the importance of mentorship in fostering a new generation of empowered Birth Guardians.

In this episode you will discover:

* Empowerment in Birth is crucial for women

* How self-directed Birth allows for more authentic experiences

* Empirical Midwifery and emphasizing personal experience in Birth

* Trust is essential in the Midwifery relationship

* Community support enhances the Birthing experience

* Midwifery as a spiritual and relational practice.

* Women’s need to reconnect with their innate power

* The bond with families is vital for Midwives

* Mentorship is key for future Midwives.

* Cultural perceptions of Birth need to shift

About Alejandra Dydzinsky:

For Alejandra Dydzinsky, trusting Birth is about far more than confidence, it is an inward journey of self-knowledge, coherence and honesty.

Each family we meet in pregnancy, Birth and postpartum is unique, and each of us carries our own way of serving women. Through reflection and shared presence, her practice and teachings explore how we can honour these encounters with responsibility, humility and love, trusting that what is needed already lives within us.

Alejandra Dydzinsky is a mother, Empirical Midwife and woman who has lived Birth from the inside out. She Freebirthed all five of her children and has spent the past 17 years supporting women and families through conception, Birth and early childhood.

Rooted in the understanding that we are mammals and part of nature, Ale’s work honours the physiological, emotional and relational dimensions of Birth. She believes that how life begins, for both the baby and the family, shapes awareness, connection and the possibility of genuine bonds for a new humanity. Ale walks the path of Midwife, mother and woman with deep intention, choosing this way of being wholeheartedly and authentically.

Connect with Alejandra Dydzinsky:

Instagram : @alejandra_partera

Web : www.alejandrapartera.com

About Catalina:

Catalina Clark is a Home Birth Midwife based in Sonoma County, California, and the founder of Midwife of Healing. With over a decade of experience in Birth, she walks alongside women and families in reverence for physiologic Birth, trusting the innate intelligence of the body and the sacred bond of MotherBaby. Her work bridges Traditional Midwifery, somatic healing and spiritual ceremony, supporting Birth as a sovereign portal for transformation, remembrance and self-reclamation.

Rooted in her own journey through the medical system, Freebirth and motherhood, Catalina now guides others back to their inner knowing. Through Childbirth preparation, Breathwork, mentorship and community care, she invites families into a New Paradigm of Birth. One that is grounded in authenticity, transparency, integrity and love.

Support The Midwife of Healing Podcast:

The Midwife of Healing Podcast is fully self-funded, edited and produced by me, Catalina, alongside my life as a full-time mama and practicing Midwife. Supporting the show helps make this work sustainable so I can continue bringing you high-quality, thoughtful guests and conversations.

One way to support the podcast is by becoming a paid subscriber on Substack. While I’m not offering exclusive paid content at this time, your membership directly supports the production of the show so these conversations can continue to be shared freely.

You can also explore discounts on some of my favorite brands and products, prenatal vitamins, supplements, protein powder, beef organ capsules and real-food nourishment that I’ve used for many years in my own life, for my family and within my Midwifery practice. Support the show and explore these deals and resources HERE!

Connect with Catalina:

📸 Instagram → @catalina.clark

🌐 Website → midwifeofhealing.com

👉 Email → [email protected]

Sign up for my newsletter to receive upcoming information and offerings.

Listen to The Midwife of Healing Podcast:

🎧 Available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube.

Experience Quantum Birth Breathwork:

✨ Download the Quantum Birth Breathwork Session

Work with Catalina:

📍 Practicing Home Birth Midwife in West Sonoma County, California

Book an individualized 1:1 session to awaken to yourself and the remembrance of your own healing power

* Virtual Prenatal Visits

* Birth Preparation

* Birth Partner Support

* Midwife and Doula Mentorship

* Postpartum Planning

* Birth Story Integration

* Ceremonial Breathwork

Thank you for being here. It is an honor to walk this path with you. May we continue to remember these ancient and future ways together. 🤍

Episode Summary:

Our guest Rachelle Seliga is a visionary Midwife, teacher and leader in women’s holistic health and wellness, known for her pioneering work over the past 10 years in INNATE Postpartum Certification Training.

Prepare to unlock the hidden layers of human consciousness, Birth and parenting as Rachelle Seliga and I take you on a profound exploration of the Quantum energetics of Life throughout the cosmos, the unseen forces guiding parenting through adolescence and the transformation of Birth and postpartum care that we have witnessed in over a decade of cultural shifts.

In this conversation you will discover the ways in which society has collectively ignored physiologic postpartum and early childhood attachment, leaving lasting scars. And learn how you, as parents or practitioners, can be part of igniting and reclaiming this truly radical shift.

Rachelle reveals the true power of sovereignty, not just as independence but as a balancing act of intimacy and self-trust that can revolutionize your relationship with your children, your community and yourself. This conversation is absolutely essential listening for parents, Midwives, healers and anyone craving a deeper understanding of the Childbirth continuum from the lens of human consciousness and collective transformation.

If you’re ready to challenge outdated paradigms and step into a new era of human potential, Rachelle’s wisdom will inspire your journey. Now is the time to align your inner sovereignty with the collective evolution, because our highest potential lies in reclaiming Life as a sacred portal of powerful transformation.

Prepare to be inspired, challenged and awakened because this episode promises a deep dive into the spiritual and energetic dimensions of Birth and human evolution.

Inside this conversation you will discover:

* The deep connection between Birth and postpartum as a portal of evolution and its role in raising the consciousness of humanity

* How to navigate the evolution of parenting from early childhood and into the teen years with attunement, trust and respect, avoiding disconnection and rebellion

* The systemic barriers preventing the cultural shift towards sovereign, community-based Birth and postpartum caregiving, and the pathways to breaking through them

* Why the colonial and modern healthcare systems are rooted in disconnection and how to reimagine a new paradigm rooted in traditional, community-based support

* Practical insights into embodying sovereignty in your life, from Birth choices to personal evolution, with tools for navigating societal chaos and inner coherence

About Rachelle:

Rachelle Seliga is a Mother and a Midwife; dedicated to midwifing a cultural shift through her teachings, trainings, and hands-on experiences.Rachelle lives and works from the understanding that our physiologic design IS our divine design, which IS our “blueprint,” which ARE our original instructions. These different ways to say the SAME thing acknowledge that there is an order, a structure, a map to LIFE that supersedes human will; it is Nature’s Design. Nature’s Design is Rachelle’s Greatest mentor, and her work is grounded in Nature’s Thriving Life Principles.Rachelle is a woman enamored with LIFE and with a burning fire to live into potential. She is currently apprenticing the idea that Ram Dass shared “The world is perfect as it is, including our desire to change it.” This paradox speaks to the heart of Rachelle’s approach: surrendering to what Life asks of us, while holding the focused and directional prayer of our heart’s desires. She values Aliveness, Relationships, Beauty, and Action.Rachelle is the Creator & Director of INNATE Postpartum Care - Certification Training, which has trained hundreds of practitioners, who offer postpartum care to thousands of families worldwide.

This year is the 10th year that she has been teaching INNATE Postpartum Care’s Training; which begins April 22nd!

Connect with Rachelle:

* Website: https://www.innatetraditions.com/

* Instagram: @innatetraditions

About Catalina:

Catalina Clark is a Home Birth Midwife based in Sonoma County, California, and the founder of Midwife of Healing. With over a decade of experience in Birth, she walks alongside women and families in reverence for physiologic Birth, trusting the innate intelligence of the body and the sacred bond of MotherBaby. Her work bridges Traditional Midwifery, somatic healing and spiritual ceremony, supporting Birth as a sovereign portal for transformation, remembrance and self-reclamation.

Rooted in her own journey through the medical system, Freebirth and motherhood, Catalina now guides others back to their inner knowing. Through Childbirth preparation, Breathwork, mentorship and community care, she invites families into a New Paradigm of Birth. One that is grounded in authenticity, transparency, integrity and love.

Support The Midwife of Healing Podcast:

The Midwife of Healing Podcast is fully self-funded, edited and produced by me, Catalina, alongside my life as a full-time mama and practicing Midwife. Supporting the show helps make this work sustainable so I can continue bringing you high-quality, thoughtful guests and conversations.

One way to support the podcast is by becoming a paid subscriber on Substack. While I’m not offering exclusive paid content at this time, your membership directly supports the production of the show so these conversations can continue to be shared freely.

You can also explore discounts on some of my favorite brands and products, prenatal vitamins, supplements, protein powder, beef organ capsules and real-food nourishment that I’ve used for many years in my own life, for my family and within my Midwifery practice. Support the show and explore these deals and resources HERE!

FREE Resource Self-Directed Birth:

Self-Directed Birth is a foundational FREE resource for parents and practitioners who sense that Birth preparation must go deeper.

Inside, we explore sovereignty without isolation, physiology beyond ideology, nervous system awareness, altered states of consciousness and relational responsibility, inviting families and caregivers to meet Birth together.

This is not a checklist for Birth plans or a formula for achieving “pain-free” labor. It is an orientation toward embodiment, discernment and trust rooted in Self.

Download the free Self-Directed Birth Guide ↗

Connect with Catalina:

📸 Instagram → @catalina.clark

🌐 Website → midwifeofhealing.com

👉 Email → [email protected]

Sign up for my newsletter to receive upcoming information and offerings.

Listen to The Midwife of Healing Podcast:

🎧 Available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube.

Experience Quantum Birth Breathwork:

✨ Download the Quantum Birth Breathwork Session

Work with Catalina:

📍 Practicing Home Birth Midwife in West Sonoma County, California

Book an individualized 1:1 session to awaken to yourself and the remembrance of your own healing power

* Virtual Prenatal Visits

* Birth Preparation

* Birth Partner Support

* Midwife and Doula Mentorship

* Postpartum Planning

* Birth Story Integration

* Ceremonial Breathwork

Thank you for being here. It is an honor to walk this path with you. May we continue to remember these ancient and future ways together. 🤍

Episode Summary

What if infant sleep was never meant to be controlled?What if the problem was never the baby, but the system surrounding them?

In this conversation, with Brittany Chambers we enter into the deeper story beneath sleep training, Birth intervention and the cultural conditioning that has normalized separation between mother and child. Brittany shares her work in reclaiming infant sleep as a biologically driven, relationship-based process that cannot be understood outside the context of Birth, nervous system imprinting and attachment as human being have evolved to thrive through cooperation, complex communication and bonded relationships as social mammals.

Together, we explore how early experiences of disconnection shape our sense of safety, our capacity for intimacy and the way we move through the world. As well as how Birth and motherhood is a portal for remembering something ancient and intact.

This is far from a conversation just about newborn sleep. It is about soft feminine power, self-sovereignty and what it means for the evolution of human consciousness to raise humans who have never had to abandon themselves in order to belong.

We invite you to soften at your triggering edges, to question your belief systems and to come back into right relationship with your heart, your body, your baby and the deeper innate intelligence that has always been within you.

Inside this conversation you will discover:

* The shared awakening through Birth, infancy and sleep

* The imprint of Birth trauma and early separation on attachment and regulation

* How cultural conditioning has reshaped infant sleep and mothering

* The evolution from attachment-based care to sleep training

* The role of systemic control and oppression in parenting norms

* Returning to the body as a source of truth and guidance

* The power of indigenous wisdom, community and relational care

* Practical pathways for self-directed, conscious pregnancy, Birth and parenting

About Brittany Chambers

Brittany Chambers is a mother, writer and the voice behind Good Night Moon Child, a reclamation of infant sleep, attachment, co-regulation and the sacred bond between MotherBaby. Her work lives at the intersection of integrative neurobiology, Birth imprinting and de-conditioning from the systems that have taught mothers to mistrust themselves. Through her presence and teachings, Brittany speaks to the inner knowing all women carry; that babies are not meant to be trained and mothers are not meant to be separated from their instincts. She guides families back into relationship, into the body, into the heart and into the truth that connection is the foundation of being human.

Connect with Brittany

WEBSITE

INSTAGRAM

SACRED SLEEP

INTEGRATIVE INFANT SLEEP FOR PRACTITONERS

About Catalina Clark

Catalina Clark is a Home Birth Midwife based in Sonoma County, California, and the founder of Midwife of Healing. With over a decade of experience in Birth, she walks alongside women and families in reverence for physiologic Birth, trusting the innate intelligence of the body and the sacred bond of MotherBaby. Her work bridges Traditional Midwifery, somatic healing and spiritual ceremony, supporting Birth as a sovereign portal for transformation, remembrance and self-reclamation.

Rooted in her own journey through the medical system, Freebirth and motherhood, Catalina now guides others back to their inner knowing. Through Childbirth preparation, Breathwork, mentorship and community care, she invites families into a New Paradigm of Birth. One that is grounded in authenticity, transparency, integrity and love.

How You Can Support The Midwife of Healing Podcast

The Midwife of Healing Podcast is fully self-funded, edited and produced by me, Catalina, alongside my life as a full-time mama and practicing Midwife. Supporting the show helps make this work sustainable so I can continue bringing you high-quality, thoughtful guests and conversations.

One way to support the podcast is by becoming a paid subscriber on Substack. While I’m not offering exclusive paid content at this time, your membership directly supports the production of the show so these conversations can continue to be shared freely.

You can also explore discounts on some of my favorite brands and products, prenatal vitamins, supplements, protein powder, beef organ capsules and real-food nourishment that I’ve used for many years in my own life, for my family and within my Midwifery practice. Support the show and explore these deals and resources HERE!

FREE Resource: Self-Directed Birth

Self-Directed Birth is a foundational FREE resource for parents and practitioners who sense that Birth preparation must go deeper.

Inside, we explore sovereignty without isolation, physiology beyond ideology, nervous system awareness, altered states of consciousness and relational responsibility, inviting families and caregivers to meet Birth together.

This is not a checklist for Birth plans or a formula for achieving “pain-free” labor. It is an orientation toward embodiment, discernment and trust rooted in Self.

Download the free Self-Directed Birth Guide ↗

Quantum Childbirth Education

Quantum Childbirth Education is a four-hour experiential class offered in person and online. It is designed for those who want to prepare for Birth as a state of consciousness.

Together, we will explore altered states of conciousness, self-directed preparation, nervous system awareness, Breathwork and the relational field of care, supporting parents and practitioners to meet Birth as equals in shared responsibility and trust.

This is not a Birth preparation method. It is an invitation to listen more deeply and prepare from within.

Learn more or join an upcoming QCBE gathering on May 2 ↗

Connect with Catalina

📸 Instagram → @catalina.clark

🌐 Website → midwifeofhealing.com

👉 Email → [email protected]

Sign up for my newsletter to receive upcoming information and offerings.

Listen to The Midwife of Healing Podcast:

🎧 Available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube.

Experience Quantum Birth Breathwork:

✨ Download the Quantum Birth Breathwork Session

Work with Catalina

📍 Practicing Home Birth Midwife in West Sonoma County, California

Book an individualized 1:1 session to awaken to yourself and the remembrance of your own healing power

* Virtual Prenatal Visits

* Birth Preparation

* Birth Partner Support

* Midwife and Doula Mentorship

* Postpartum Planning

* Birth Story Integration

* Ceremonial Breathwork

Thank you for being here. It is an honor to walk this path with you. May we continue to remember these ancient and future ways together. 🤍

Supported by COOKMA:

Hey Ya’ll! I’m so excited to introduce the very first aligned ambassador here on The Midwife of Healing Podcast, my dear friend Lisa from Cookma.

In this episode, Duncan shares how he nourished his wife Erin in those early postpartum days, supporting breastfeeding and bonding in the most grounded, practical ways with warm, healing food. Right before she gave Birth, Lisa sent them the Cookma Mama Bundle to enjoy during that sacred window.

And I just have to say I am a huge fan of Cookma in my own home. I send it to all my friends and family. I gift it in postpartum and I offer it to families in my Midwifery Care Community. Because Cookma is healing foods made easy! It’s organic, nourishing, easy on digestion, quite literally the perfect postpartum food.

If you’re expecting, supporting someone who is or simply want to stock your freezer with real simple nourishment here’s a link with a special discount just for you!

Use code CATALINA for 20% off your order at www.cookma.co.

How You Can Support The Midwife of Healing Podcast:

The Midwife of Healing Podcast is fully self-funded, edited and produced by me, Catalina, alongside my life as a full-time mama and practicing Midwife. Supporting the show helps make this work sustainable so I can continue bringing you high-quality, thoughtful guests and conversations.

One way to support the podcast is by becoming a paid subscriber on Substack. While I’m not offering exclusive paid content at this time, your membership directly supports the production of the show so these conversations can continue to be shared freely.

You can also explore discounts on some of my favorite brands and products, prenatal vitamins, supplements, protein powder, beef organs and real-food nourishment that I’ve used for many years in my own life, for my family and within my Midwifery practice.

Support the show and explore these deals and resources HERE!

Episode Summary:

Somewhere in the infinite spiral of human existence, between the mystery of consciousness and the chaos of modern life, there is a moment where everything begins; Birth!

The great portal where a new human arrives and where parents themselves are reborn.

But in our modern world, Birth has been wrapped in fluorescent lights, paperwork and protocols that often forget the ancient truth at the center of it all.

What happens when a father wakes up to that truth?

What happens when someone who has experienced the hospital system begins asking deeper questions about what Birth really is?

In this episode we explore those questions with comedian, philosopher-jester and cosmic explorer Duncan Trussell, who shares the journey that led him and his family from three hospital Births into the powerful and deeply human experience of Home Birth.

Together we talk about Birth, masculinity, consciousness, family and the strange miracle of being alive at all.

About Duncan Trussell:

Duncan Trussell is a stand-up comedian, writer and host of the widely loved Duncan Trussell Family Hour podcast, where conversations about consciousness, spirituality and the mysteries of human existence unfold through humor and curiosity.

He is also the co-creator and voice of the animated Netflix series The Midnight Gospel, which explores death, rebirth, meditation and human consciousness through surreal storytelling.

Beyond comedy, Duncan is a devoted father of four whose own experiences navigating both hospital and Home Birth opened a new dimension of understanding about family, responsibility and the sacred nature of bringing life into the world.

Listen to The Duncan Trussle Family Hour Podcast HERE.

Duncan Trussell Tour Dates HERE.

About Catalina:

I am a woman, mother, daughter, sister, Midwife and student on the healing path. With over 11 years of experience in Birth, I have found my way home to supporting women in alignment with the natural world and the power of Physiologic Birth. As a Home Birth Midwife in Sonoma County, I am devoted to walking with families in trust, reverence and love. I am here to walk with you along your path, to love you wherever you are and support you on your personal journey. I am not here to fix you or tell you what to do. To heal is to reclaim and reweave the fabric of your True Self back into your being, perfect and complete just as you are. When co-creating together we are stepping into a mutual relationship of universal love and trust with each other, ourselves and the divine.

Self-Directed Birth:

Self-Directed Birth is a foundational FREE resource for parents and practitioners who sense that Birth preparation must go deeper.

Inside, we explore sovereignty without isolation, physiology beyond ideology, nervous system awareness, altered states of consciousness and relational responsibility, inviting families and caregivers to meet Birth together.

This is not a checklist for Birth plans or a formula for achieving “pain-free” labor. It is an orientation toward embodiment, discernment and trust rooted in Self.

Download the free Self-Directed Birth Guide ↗

Quantum Childbirth Education:

Quantum Childbirth Education is a four-hour experiential class offered in person and online. It is designed for those who want to prepare for Birth as a state of consciousness.

Together, we will explore altered states of birth, self-directed preparation, nervous system awareness, Breathwork and the relational field of care, supporting parents and practitioners to meet Birth as equals in shared responsibility and trust.

This is not a Birth preparation method. It is an invitation to listen more deeply and prepare from within.

Learn more or join an upcoming QCBE gathering on May 2 ↗

Midwifing the Midwife: Into the Quantum Paradigm:

A 3-month mentorship for Midwives and Birth GuardiansMidwifing the Midwife: Into the Quantum Paradigm is a longer, slower mentorship for those feeling the call to practice beyond protocol, performance and hierarchy. Over three months, we will gather in weekly live calls, reflective inquiry, shared dialogue and embodied practices to tend the inner work of Midwifery, discernment, presence and ethical sovereignty.

This space is for practitioners who know that the future of Midwifery will not be built through more control and competition, but through deeper listening, authenticity, transparency, integrity and trust.

Learn more about the mentorship ↗ - Enrolling this fall!

Connect with Catalina:

📸 Instagram → @catalina.clark

🌐 Website → midwifeofhealing.com

👉 Email → [email protected]

Sign up for my newsletter to receive upcoming information and offerings. ✨

Listen to The Midwife of Healing Podcast:

🎧 Available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube.

Experience Quantum Birth Breathwork:

✨ Download the Quantum Birth Breathwork Session

Work with Catalina:

📍 Practicing Home Birth Midwife in West Sonoma County, California

Book an individualized 1:1 session to awaken to yourself and the remembrance of your own healing power

* Virtual Prenatal Visits

* Birth Preparation

* Birth Partner Support

* Midwife and Doula Mentorship

* Postpartum Planning

* Birth Story Integration

* Ceremonial Breathwork

Thank you for being here. It is an honor to walk this path with you. May we continue to remember these ancient and future ways together. 🤍

A Note Before You Read:

If my work supports you, if these conversations, reflections and teachings bring clarity, resonance or remembrance on your path then I invite you to consider becoming a Paid Substack Subscriber. Your support will directly sustain the podcast and the immense energy, time, resources and care this work requires of me, making possible what is coming in the new year. Thank you for being part of this unfolding.

Episode #11: Cognitive Dissonance in Midwifery Today with Dr. Stuart Fischbein "Birthing Instincts"

In this final episode of the year on the Midwife of Healing Podcast, I sit in conversation with Dr. Stu, my first clinical preceptor in Midwifery school.

Though not a Midwife, Dr. Stu played a pivotal role in shaping my early understanding of Maternity Care, Birth & Midwifery through witnessing clinical cases, ultrasounds, second opinions, breech and twin pregnancies, VBACs and Home Births labeled to be too “high risk” by state regulations, yet revealing themselves as normal physiologic variations.

Together, this conversation opens a deeper inquiry into cognitive dissonance, not only within medicalized Birth and state politics, but within the heart and soul of modern Midwifery itself.

Topics explored:

- Cognitive dissonance in Birth systems and ideology

- Fear, licensure and litigation in modern Midwifery

- Trusting Birth beyond regulation

- The medical model entering Home Birth

- Autonomy, sovereignty, and informed choice

- Why Midwifery must evolve to serve mothers first

This episode is a loving, honest reckoning and a call forward into a New Paradigm of Birth where mothers and families are truly in control.

With love,

Catalina Clark - Midwife of Healing

About Dr. Stu:

Stuart James Fischbein MD is a community-based obstetrician and an Associate of the American College of Obstetrics & Gynecology, published author of the book “Fearless Pregnancy, Wisdom & Reassurance from a Doctor, A Midwife and A Mom” and peer-reviewed papers Homebirth with an Obstetrician, A Series of 135 Out of Hospital Births, Breech birth at home: outcomes of 60 breech and 109 cephalic planned home and birth center births and Twin home birth: Outcomes of 100 sets of twins in the care of a single practitioner. After completing his residency at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, CA, Dr. Stu, as he is known, spent 24 years assisting women with hospital birthing and, for the next 12+ years, was a homebirth obstetrician who worked directly with midwives assisting local Southern California families. Since retiring from attending home births in late 2022, Dr. Stu has turned his focus to traveling around the world as a lecturer and advocate for reteaching breech & twin birth skills, respect for the normalcy of birth and honoring informed consent. He hosts the weekly Birthing Instincts Podcast with co-host Blyss Young and together they offer hope, reassurance and safe, honest evidence supported choices for those women who understand pregnancy is a normal bodily function not to be feared.

Connect with Dr. Stu:

Follow him on Instagram @birthinginstincts. He can be reached via the websites www.birthinginstincts.com & www.birthinginstinctspodcast.com

Connect with Catalina:

📸 Instagram → @catalina.clark

🌐 Website → catalinaclarkbirth.com

👉 Email → [email protected]

Sign up for my newsletter to receive upcoming information and offerings. ✨

Listen to the Midwife of Healing Podcast:

🎧 Available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube.

Experience Quantum Birth Breathwork:

✨ Download the Quantum Birth Breathwork Session

Work with Catalina:

📍 Practicing Home Birth Midwife in West Sonoma County, California

Book an individualized 1:1 session to awaken to yourself and the remembrance of your own healing power

* Virtual Prenatal Visits

* Birth Preparation

* Birth Partner Support

* Midwife and Doula Mentorship

* Postpartum Planning

* Birth Story Integration

* Ceremonial Breathwork

Thank you for being here. It is an honor to walk this path with you. May we continue to remember these ancient and future ways together. 🤍

Please like, comment, subscribe, save and share this episode with others and if you are able to please consider becoming a paid subscriber on Substack to support my work.

The Real Talk of Midwifery Today

Together, Joni and I opened up a raw and honest dialogue about Midwifery today, including the beauty, the heartbreak, the dissonance and the places where Truth rubs up against the medicalization and fear imprinted upon the Art of Midwifery.

We spoke of the myth of informed consent, of the ways Birth has been co-opted by systems that fear women’s power and of the deep call rising in so many woman and families to return to the roots of Self Sovereignty as our Birthright.

And we did not shy away from the Truth and the reality that there are many moments when this path feels incredibly f*cked up… Living inside this current system… Trying to practice real Midwifery in a world that mistrusts everything… In a world where safety is defined by putting your life and your baby’s life into the hands of someone else… Trying to hold the line of autonomy when so many forces are pulling against it…

It is A LOT.

As we wove through the levels and layers of modern Midwifery, the loss of trust, the spiritual calling, the responsibility of witnessing Human Consciousness, Joni offered one of the most unexpected and potent gifts of the entire episode, a spontaneous Human Design reading.

It was a moment of remembrance for me, and a blueprint for all of us. Through this offering, Joni reminded me of something MOST essential:

Before we can meet the needs of women, families and communities… We must know who we are.

We must Midwife OURSELVES first.

We must understand our own energy, essence, patterns and needs because our frequency shapes Birth outcomes. Our nervous system sets the tone of the room and our self-knowledge is the foundation of our Integrity.

This is the Spirit of True Midwifery.

For me, this is the heart of real Midwifery, not performance or perfection, but devotion to ongoing self-mastery. Not as some sort of badge of honor, but as a life-long living prayer.

About Joni: Joni M. Edelman is a retired Registered Nurse, longtime childbirth educator, holistic birth companion, and full-spectrum doula behind 13 Moons Birthwork. With over 30 years of experience attending births in every setting — home, hospital, unmedicated, medicated, vaginal and cesarean — Joni carries the wisdom of hundreds upon hundreds of first breaths in her hands and heart.

A mother of six and grandmother of one, Joni is lovingly stepping into her wise-woman era, offering guidance rooted in intuition, physiology, and deep reverence for the sacredness of birth. Her philosophy is simple and powerful: the pregnant woman is the expert of her own pregnancy, and her role is not authority, but wise companion — protecting privacy, supporting physiology, and honoring the innate capability of every woman to grow, birth, and mother her child.

In addition to her birthwork, Joni also supports women and caregivers through Healing Through Human Design, where she offers readings that help people understand their energetic blueprint, meet themselves with compassion, and tend their own needs before tending the needs of others.

Connect with Joni:

🌙 Birthwork Website: https://www.13moonsbirthwork.com/about

✨ Human Design: https://www.healingthroughhumandesign.com/about-joni

📸 Instagram: @thirteenmoonsbirth

Connect with Catalina:

📸 Instagram → @catalina.clark

🌐 Website → catalinaclarkbirth.com

👉 Email → [email protected]

Sign up for my newsletter to receive upcoming information and offerings. ✨

Listen to the Midwife of Healing Podcast:

🎧 Available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube.

Experience Quantum Birth Breathwork:

✨ Download the Quantum Birth Breathwork Session

Work with Catalina:

📍 Practicing Home Birth Midwife in West Sonoma County, California

Book an individualized 1:1 session to awaken to yourself and the remembrance of your own healing power

* Virtual Prenatal Visits

* Birth Preparation

* Birth Partner Support

* Midwife and Doula Mentorship

* Postpartum Planning

* Birth Story Integration

* Ceremonial Breathwork

Thank you for being here. It is an honor to walk this path with you. May we continue to remember these ancient and future ways together. 🤍

“Reproducing Culture” Traditional Andean Birth Wisdom with Cynthia Ingar Waman

Last summer, I had the honor of walking with my sister and teacher Cynthia Ingar Waman through the Sacred Valley of Peru for the Wachakuy: Sacred Birth Way Birthkeeper Program. It was a gathering that felt to me like a Healing for the Healers and a Midwifing of the Midwives.

Midwives from all over the World came together in an energetic exchange to receive, to listen and to remember what Birth means when culture, community and the cosmos remain in connection to one another.

Before anything, I want to thank Cynthia, her lineage, her family and her devotion to living and breathing the daily practices of the spiritual cosmology of the Andes. Cynthia is not only preserving this wisdom as an Anthropologist and Sacred Birth Guardian; she is embodying it. Every time I sit with her, I learn, and I unlearn. Layers fall away, revealing how little we really need to “know” when we remember how to listen.

When I first arrived in the Sacred Valley, I carried a quiet grief along with me, this idea that traditional Andean Birth culture had been lost, as is true for many indigenous communities. Lost through colonization, modernization, the passing of elder Midwives and the push toward more biomedical training. Yet as I sat and listened to Cynthia, I began to remember that nothing sacred is ever truly lost.

What I witnessed in this moment instead was resilience, the deep, living memory of a people who have never forgotten their place between the solar plexus of the Earth and the heart of the Universe. Birth, in Andean culture, remains a fully intact Sacred Ceremony. Even when women travel from their mountain communities to clinics to give Birth, the preparation, songs, foods and prayers that surround Birth are still always carried strongly by the village.

Every man and woman knows some piece of the Midwife’s art, like how to turn a baby with a manta or poncho, what to feed a pregnant mother, what to say (and what not to say) to a woman in labor or postpartum.

Birth is a Community Responsibility, it is our most sacred offering to life itself.

These teachings have been like seeds in my heart this past year, growing slowly, reminding me that Traditional Midwifery is not something we “practice.” It is something we live.

In our conversation Cynthia said, “In anthropological terms, women are the reproducers of culture.” If Birth is the act of reproducing, then I must ask: So what are we reproducing? Through Industrialized Birth, are we reproducing a culture of love, trust and connection or a culture of fear, control and trauma?

To remember the Heart of Birth is to remember the Heart of Humanity. This conversation with Cynthia was like a key in a lock, it opened a door in me, an understanding that to be a Midwife is to tend to culture itself, to the roots of our remembering.

Birth, no matter where or how it unfolds, is the most Sacred Ceremony of Life.

Birth belongs to the family, the community, the culture, the land and to the great web of creation. So it is here, through this Great Remembering that I continue to walk my path as a Midwife of Healing.

With love,

Catalina

About Cynthia Ingar Waman

I am Cynthia Ingar Waman, born and raised by Pachamama (Mother Earth) in Peru. I am a Peruvian carrier & teacher of ancestral woman medicine & traditions, having Andean blood on both my family lines. I am a medical Anthropologist (PhD), Birth Guardian/Doula, Pregnancy-Postpartum Guardian, women’s medicine/health educator, and mother of 2 boys and 1 girl birthed at home. I am a life-long student of Andean traditional midwifery and autonomous midwifery student (AAM). I am the founder and director of Hampi Warmi Project (founded in 2008), a community-based Peruvian project created to bring intercultural reproductive health to Andean women and girls; to revitalize ancestral Woman Medicine wisdom & practices, including Andean community midwifery; and to de-colonize midwifery in Peru. I live with my family in the Sacred Valley, in Peru, where we are honored to be human Guardians to a beautiful piece of land, guarded by Apu Pachatusan.

To connect with Cynthia please visit: https://hampiwarmi.org/

Join Cynthia for the “Wachakuy Sacred Birth Way” Birthkeeper Program in Peru

A unique Birthkeeper training program in the heart of the Andes in Peruvian medicine land, where ancestral midwifery and woman wisdom is still vividly breathable. Join us in a Birth Medicine Journey into the roots of Andean ancestral indigenous midwifery with the prayer of Protecting the Sacred around pregnancy, birth and the postpartum Universe. Shared yearly in-person in January and April.

A unique Birthkeeper training program in the heart of the Andes in Peruvian medicine land, where ancestral midwifery and woman wisdom is still vividly breathable. Join us in a Birth Medicine Journey into the roots of Andean ancestral indigenous midwifery with the prayer of Protecting the Sacred around pregnancy, birth and the postpartum Universe. Shared yearly in-person in January and August.

Wachakuy (to give birth in Quechua) is an educational/ experiential/ medicine program created to accompany mothers-to-be, mothers, midwives, doulas, other birth workers and women in general interested in delving deeper on the Mysteries around Birth on their particular journeys. This Woman Medicine program is centered on the Andean sacred teachings around pregnancy, birth, and pospartum, understood as one Rite of Passage, braided with other sacred techniques and teachings.

The Sacred Birth Way program is a 45- hour program, consisting of 9 sessions, which includes conscious pregnancy/ birth preparation, birth, sacred midwifery, and postpartum teachings rooted in the Andean wisdom of the Ukhu Pacha. The program is enriched by a journey to three sacred feminine sites: Moray (Peruvian Cosmic Womb), Tipon (Mother Water Temple), and Unu Urco (Fertility Temple), where we will perform deep woman-birth medicine work and ceremony, asking permission from the start and giving thanks, as is the Andean Way.

The heart of the “Wachakuy” Initiative is supporting the experience of every woman you serve – throughout pregnancy, birth, and postpartum – as sacred experiences, whatever the culture she belongs to or the specific circumstances of her particular context. You will learn how to be able to hold and support this root-foundation for women.

The program is built on 2 parts: the first part centered on *Pregnancy and Birth as a Rite of Passage: Entering the Threshold of the Ukhu Pacha* and *The Universe of the Postpartum Period: Transitioning the Ukhu Pacha*. We will navigate together through this continuum.

Learn more about the Wachacuy Program here: https://hampiwarmi.org/index.php/birthkeeper-program/

Connect with Catalina:

📸 Instagram → @catalina.clark🌐 Website → catalinaclarkbirth.com👉 Email → [email protected]

Sign up for my newsletter to receive upcoming information and offerings. ✨

Listen to the Midwife of Healing Podcast:

🎧 Available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube.

Experience Quantum Birth Breathwork:

✨ Download the Quantum Birth Breathwork Session

Work with Catalina:

📍 Practicing Home Birth Midwife in West Sonoma County, California

Book an individualized 1:1 session to awaken to yourself and the remembrance of your own healing power

* Virtual Prenatal Visits

* Birth Preparation

* Birth Partner Support

* Midwife and Doula Mentorship

* Postpartum Planning

* Birth Story Integration

* Ceremonial Breathwork

Thank you for being here. It is an honor to walk this path with you. May we continue to remember these ancient and future ways together. 🤍

Episode 8: With Great Love Comes Great Grief: Planned Freebirth, Stillbirth & Near-Death Experience with Emma Cardinal

In this deeply moving episode, Emma Cardinal shares her story of love, loss, and transformation through the journey of a planned Freebirth, Stillbirth and personal Near-Death Experience.

This conversation explores:

- The intersection of birth, death and transformation

- The healing crisis within modern midwifery

- How grief and love are inseparable

- The importance of context, community and compassion in every birth story

- Why walking the middle way means honoring paradox and many truths

Emma’s son, Floyd, lived only in the womb, but his spirit continues to breathe Life into this world through his mother’s voice. Her words remind us that Birth and Death are not opposites, they are two threads woven throughout the same tapestry.

This conversation is not about choosing sides.It is not about hospital vs. home, licensed vs. unlicensed, medical vs. mystical.It is about being HUMAN.It is about being humbled by Life.It is about the ways we love so deeply that it breaks us open, and how that expansion becomes our medicine.

Women are awakening to their strength and power, but also softening to the truth that Birth cannot be controlled.To walk with Birth is to walk with Death.To Midwife Life is to Midwife loss.To love is to grieve.

This episode is an offering to the Middle Way, a space beyond polarity, where paradox and many truths can exist simultaneously. A space where context matters, where compassion leads and where every story is sacred.

My prayer is that you listen with your heart open and your spirit grounded. May we hold Emma’s story, and all stories like it, with the reverence they deserve.

Thank you Dear Emma & Floyd for your graciousness, generosity and contributions to the Evolution of Human Consciousness through the portals of Life and Death.

🪞🕯️🕊️

About Emma Cardinal:

Emma Cardinal is Floyd’s Spirit Mama. Earth Woman. Space Holder.Grief tending, death keeping, birth honoring, story medicine — walking the middle way. A prayer born from loss. 🥀 Connect: Instagram → @ahummingbirdprayer

Connect with Catalina:

📸 Instagram → @catalina.clark

🌐 Website → catalinaclarkbirth.com

👉 Email → [email protected]

Sign up for my newsletter to receive upcoming information and offerings. ✨

Listen to the Midwife of Healing Podcast:

🎧 Available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube.

Experience Quantum Birth Breathwork:

✨ Download the Quantum Birth Breathwork Session

Work with Catalina:

📍 Practicing Home Birth Midwife in West Sonoma County, California

Book an individualized 1:1 session to awaken to yourself and the remembrance of your own healing power

* Virtual Prenatal Visits

* Birth Preparation

* Birth Partner Support

* Midwife and Doula Mentorship

* Postpartum Planning

* Birth Story Integration

* Ceremonial Breathwork

Thank you for being here. It is an honor to walk this path with you. May we continue to remember these ancient and future ways together. 🤍

This conversation marks a beginning. Both for Amanda, and for myself.

If you listened to the previous episode, you heard another woman step away from a “standardized” licensed Midwifery practice in our community at that time. And it was not for lack of desire for support, but because her trust had thinned. Today’s story continues that very thread which continues to weave through nearly every conversation I am having with women and Midwives these days…

In this conversation you’ll hear:

* How Amanda moved from licensed Midwifery care, to searching for an aligned Midwife, to claiming the Freebirth she knew was hers

* What it looks like when a Midwife resists the urge to steer the care, and simply witnesses with reverence

* The quiet courage of choosing a path no one else can choose for you

* How Birth is a transformational journey, not just for the mother and family, but for everyone who walks beside them

* The role of ceremonial prenatal care, slowing down, listening deeply and honoring pregnancy as a sacred season, not a checklist

* Why sovereignty and trust must sit at the center of every birth, no matter the setting

* The ways our stories, bodies and wombs carry memory, and how Birth becomes an opportunity for remembering and healing

* What happens when Midwifery shifts from performance or management into presence, humility and authentic relationship

* How revisiting and sharing these stories serves as medicine. for mothers, for Midwives and for the community

This is the Birth That Changed My Midwifery Path

This was one of the first stories that transformed my Midwifery practice. And it’s also been a very common story. In the short time I’ve opened myself to this work, I’ve received hundreds of stories from women and Midwives who are yearning for something more, something real, slow and deeply authentic. These aren’t performances. This isn’t about ego. This is life, raw, ordinary, miraculous, and I honor each of us wherever we are on the path.

Why do I continue to share these stories here, in the noisy online world where there’s always something for everyone?

Because there are many simple, living truths about Birth and Midwifery that we are reclaiming, and some of us have never lost. Telling and retelling these stories is medicine for me, and, I hope, for you and our wider community.

If you’re walking this way, you’re not alone. Please, come sit with us.

🎧 Listen Now: Amanda’s Freebirth Story: A Midwife’s Turning Point on Episode #7 of The Midwife of Healing podcast Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube.

About Amanda Castilone

Amanda is a Feminine Somatic Guide, Womb Healer, Medicine Woman, and Mother here to hold sacred space for women to return home to themselves.

Her work lives in the realm of the body, where stories are held in tissue, where memory lingers in the womb, and where truth hums beneath the surface. Through hands-on womb healing and embodied somatic coaching, Amanda supports women in softening back into their own bones, breath, and truth.

Her work not about fixing, but about remembering. Remembering what it feels like to belong - to your body, to your heart, to the sacred current of the feminine that lives within you.

Amanda lives near Asheville, NC with her husband, daughter, and sweet pup, Cosmo. She supports women in 1:1 Hands-On Womb Healing Ceremonies, 1:1 Somatic Coaching containers, Online group containers, and small group retreats.

Connect with her via email [email protected] or on Instagram:@amandacastilone

Connect with Catalina:

📸 Instagram → @catalina.clark

🌐 Website → catalinaclarkbirth.com

👉 Email → [email protected]

Sign up for my newsletter to receive upcoming information and offerings. ✨

Listen to the Midwife of Healing Podcast:

🎧 Available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube.

Experience Quantum Birth Breathwork:

✨ Download the Quantum Birth Breathwork Session

Work with Catalina:

📍 Practicing Home Birth Midwife in West Sonoma County, California

Book an individualized 1:1 session to awaken to yourself and the remembrance of your own healing power

* Virtual Prenatal Visits

* Birth Preparation

* Birth Partner Support

* Midwife and Doula Mentorship

* Postpartum Planning

* Birth Story Integration

* Ceremonial Breathwork

Thank you for being here. It is an honor to walk this path with you. May we continue to remember these ancient and future ways together. 🤍

"We Did Not Come Here to Go to Sleep" - Midwifery Care, Freebirth, Postpartum ICU & Personal Liberation with Taylor Eyewalker

In Episode 6 of the Midwife of Healing Podcast, I sit with the luminous Taylor Eyewalker to explore her first Childbirth journey. Through leaving Midwifery care, choosing Freebirth, the multiple real-life complications she experienced postpartum and the ways in which self-responsibility and aligned action can carry a woman through even the most challenging thresholds of Birth and Becoming.

Undisturbed birth is not only about freedom and sovereignty. It is also very much about the obstacles, the unexpected turns, the courage it takes to meet them and the responsibility we have to look our problems straight in the eyes if we want to alchemize our pain into power.

Taylor’s story reminds us that true inner sovereignty requires living life fully AWAKE and choosing to stand in our own power even when the programming of our world tells us to hand it over.

One of the most important pieces of this story that I want to illuminate here is the question of trust in Midwifery. A question that I proposed in my personal story above, and also one that I hear from women in my community every day. In fact, we have two stories back-to-back this month on the podcast of women who began in Midwifery care, left halfway through their pregnancies and both chose Freebirth, both during their first pregnancies. This wasn’t even planned at all, it literally just occurred to me as I was preparing this article for you.

When I became a student Midwife in 2016, I supported busy Midwifery practices across Los Angeles County. In my four years as a student (2016–2020), we never had women leave mid-pregnancy. I literally cannot think of one time when a woman either discontinued care to have a Freebirth or switched to a different Midwife in town. Not one. I’m sure it happened but in my experience this was not common practice.

This is meaningful to me. Because in 2020, of course, things changed and medical and Midwifery care began to look different. But by 2021–2024, I was receiving regular calls from women looking for a “Spiritual Midwife” or seeking second opinions on their Midwife. Many were fully switching care or choosing Freebirth. Today, I hear stories daily of women dropping out from their Midwifery practices, and this is not just in the wider Freebirth movement, this is within my own community and the community in which I was trained.

We clearly have a problem with our Midwifery care “system” today, and women are losing trust more and more…

My mentor Whapio (listen HERE to our conversation on Episode 4 of The Midwife of Healing Podcast) often says that Birth hasn’t changed much, hospitals haven’t changed much, obstetricians haven’t changed much, but that women have changed, that women are no longer willing to submit themselves and that they want their Births back! But in this moment I have been challenging her on this quite a bit, because I don’t think it’s women who have actually changed. Women have always wanted their Births to be theirs, especially women who have chosen to welcome a Midwife into their inner worlds and Childbirth journey.

It is the Midwives who have actually changed quite a bit…

Women have historically really trusted their Midwives deeply, as an “alternative” (but really the original) to the medical system, because Midwifery care was nourishing and individualized, rooted in love and trust. Yet, more and more I hear stories where Midwifery itself has become standardized and programed after the medical model, stripped of its original artistry. Midwifery has absolutely changed, and the medical paradigm has completely infiltrated so many seemingly “holistic” Home Birth Midwifery practices today.

Midwives are calling their intake interviews “sales calls” to bring new “clients” in and meet “quotas.” Prenatal appointments feel scripted and prescriptive. Conversations on risk, complication and transfer are becoming more common than fostering deep, soul-level connections that create relationships built on trust and personal connection.

Midwives have never been in the business of selling women on the idea of Home Birth, Midwifery Care, Freebirth and certainly not on the ideal that women “NEED” a Midwife in order to be “saved”.

At its roots, Midwifery has never been a medical profession. It is a consciousness practice, a spiritual science and a healing, creative art form.

When it comes to Midwifery today, we have certainly lost our way…

We have a lot of work to do as Midwives to regain the trust of women. So many women and families are now leaving the “Midwifery System” the same way they’ve left the medical system. Not for lack of support, but for lack of trust.

Taylor’s journey is a reminder that True Traditional Midwifery, that is sovereign, wise, and rooted in trust, must be brought out from under the shadow of the medical paradigm and returned back into its own light.

✨ Listen now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and YouTube to Episode 6 "We Did Not Come Here to Go to Sleep" Midwifery Care, Freebirth, Postpartum ICU & Personal Liberation with Taylor Eyewalker on The Midwife of Healing Podcast and walk with us into this era of remembrance.

About Taylor Eyewalker

Taylor Eyewalker is a mother and a doula for human transformation, a Kundalini Yoga teacher, Master practitioner and teacher of Kambo, creator of the Uncoil Method, and an energetic and biological medicine practitioner. For nearly 20 years, she has guided thousands through yoga, ceremony, and healing work, blending physical practice with spiritual expansion.

Her mission is to support individuals in clearing lineage patterns and core wounds, aligning them with their highest creative blueprint, and living in vibrant self-expression. Taylor’s unique gift as a medical intuitive allows her to see and address blockages at their root, creating profound opportunities for healing and transformation.

To connect and learn more about Taylor and her offerings visit tayloreyewalker.com.

Connect with Catalina:

📸 Instagram → @catalina.clark

🌐 Website → catalinaclarkbirth.com

👉 Email → [email protected]

Sign up for my newsletter to receive upcoming information and offerings. ✨

Listen to the Midwife of Healing Podcast:

🎧 Available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube.

Experience Quantum Birth Breathwork:

✨ Download the Quantum Birth Breathwork Session

Work with Catalina:

📍 Practicing Home Birth Midwife in West Sonoma County, California

Book an individualized 1:1 session to awaken to yourself and the remembrance of your own healing power

* Virtual Prenatal Visits

* Birth Preparation

* Birth Partner Support

* Midwife and Doula Mentorship

* Postpartum Planning

* Birth Story Integration

* Ceremonial Breathwork

Thank you for being here. It is an honor to walk this path with you. May we continue to remember these ancient and future ways together. 🤍