Nicole Deggins, CNM, MSN, MPH, is one of the country’s leading birth advocacy experts named “The Midwife Shifting the Narrative” by ESSENCE Magazine. She is a sought-after trainer, public speaker and community educator working to eliminate perinatal disparities and bring transparency to prenatal education and the medical obstetrical system. As the founder and CEO of Sista Midwife Productions. She is dedicated to helping individuals and communities create a paradigm shift around the experience of giving birth. She is the creator of the largest online Black Midwife and Doula directory, and the signature Sista Midwife Birth Sister/Doula training. Nicole uses 30 years of experience working with pregnant women and families, to train and support birth workers, communities and organizations that work with childbearing families. Through webinars, keynotes, live workshops, and events, Nicole creates enlightening and engaging programs. Nicole teaches that Birth is The Revolution and through birth we can heal our communities.

Written Transcript Available.

Resources

• Sista Midwife Productions
• The Birth Story Project Online (For anyone who has given birth in Louisiana) survey
• Find a Black Midwife or Doula
• Birth Justice Film Festival (Art of Birthing)
• EBB podcast featuring Nicole
• Shafia Monroe'Pushed by Jennifer Block
• The Vagina Monologues
• Karen Brody: A play called Birth
• Propeller: Impact start up accelerator 

Check it out at Mother Wit and start your journey with me now!

Schedule your first session at Mother Wit and start your journey with me today.

Thriving After Birth (an online course)
Comprehensive Care
60 Min Consultation: Use discount code- FirstConsult10%off
Instagram: @mother.wit.maternity
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My guest today is Andrea Kirschling, a Mother Wit mama who has grown increasingly passionate about "combo feeding" meaning the use of both breastmilk and formula. She's grown so passionate that she has recently become a Certified Lactation Consultant herself and you will soon find her using the handle/website of ComboFeedingSupport. Ill be sure to update our listeners as her local practice gets up and running.

Resources

• Supplemental Nursing System (Medela)
• Symphony Breast Pump (Medela)
• Torticollis
• Tongue tie course for parents and professionals created by Lisa Palladino, The Tongue Tie Expert

IV fluids in labor and effects on infant weight loss in the early newborn period

• Here is a study on restricting fluids showing that this has no effect- but take note that what we are talking about is when people in labor are given lots of fluid. This study uses 2500 ml but I can tell you that in a long induction for example, we are talking about much larger amounts of fluid.
• This study uses lower fluid amounts but comes to the conclusion that we should use the weight of the baby at 24h of life to determine future weight loss rather than using birth weight.

 Related Episodes

• Tongue tie and other bumps in the road
• Your tongue tie questions (and mine!) With Lisa Palladino CNM, IBCLC

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Schedule your first session at Mother Wit and start your journey with me today.

Thriving After Birth (an online course)
Comprehensive Care
60 Min Consultation: Use discount code- FirstConsult10%off
Instagram: @mother.wit.maternity
You Tube Channel

My guest today is Rebecca Feldman. She is a Certified Nurse Midwife and a Psychiatric Nurse Practitioner. She is the founder and director of Brooklyn Parent Support and she specializes in medication management for pregnancy and lactation. She is passionate about group support for pregnant and postpartum people.

In this episode we discuss:

• Baby blues
• Postpartum Depression (rage as a sign of overwhelm)
• Postpartum Anxiety
• Postpartum Psychosis
• Treatment during pregnancy and lactation (Sleep, psychotherapy and medication)
• Prioritizing sleep, breastfeeding and mental health
• Why group support?

A transcript is available for today's episode

 Resources:
1. Brooklyn Parent Support or on IG @Brooklyn_Parent_Support

• Free parents mood support group
• Free Black and LatinX parents support group
• Group therapy for pregnancy and postpartum
• Medication management group

2. Postpartum Support International

3. If you are in crisis and/or having thoughts of suicide:  Call 988, the suicide and crisis lifeline.

4. Maternal Mental Health Hotline: 1-833-943-5746. Call or text 24/7
English and Spanish, interpreter services for 60 languages 

Check it out at Mother Wit and start your journey with me now!

Schedule your first session at Mother Wit and start your journey with me today.

Thriving After Birth (an online course)
Comprehensive Care
60 Min Consultation: Use discount code- FirstConsult10%off
Instagram: @mother.wit.maternity
You Tube Channel

Guest: Kristen Ross is a Mother Wit twin mama and also a postpartum doula in LA. 
@twin.postpartum.doula or her website www.twinpostpartumdoula. com

Kristen was so innovative and creative in her approach to feeding her babies and boy did it pay off. She has mastered the art of exclusive pumping like no other. She has also recently become a postpartum doula and hopes to focus on families with multiples and working with the LGBTQ+ community.

Resources (also see transcript):

• Write your Birth Story (Carrie Murphy, Doula, Writer)
• The First Forty Days (Essential reading per Kristen) and also, The Fourth Trimester
• Healthline: What are Mono-Di twins? (great infographic)
• Twin Anemia Polycythemia Sequence (TAPS)
• Westchester Lactation, Dana Hilsenrath, IBCLC - Amazing Virtual IBCLC who works with my clients, especially my twin moms or people who have had babies in the NICU
• Silverettes
• Erica Davis' Whole Body Pregnancy (Doula Training that Kristen loved)

Brands of Breast Pumps used by Kristen

• Baby Buddha (Kristen's favorite!)
• Spectra
• Hygeia Enjoye (Uses Medela Parts)
• Medela (Symphony- Hospital rental)
• Elvie (Hands free- can work for some, but Kristen does not recommend as a primary pump)

More tips and tricks available in this weeks blog post

Check it out at Mother Wit and start your journey with me now!

Schedule your first session at Mother Wit and start your journey with me today.

Thriving After Birth (an online course)
Comprehensive Care
60 Min Consultation: Use discount code- FirstConsult10%off
Instagram: @mother.wit.maternity
You Tube Channel

Anne is a mom to two boys- James and Charlie.  Before becoming a mom she was a Pastry Chef.  After experiencing serious burn out in the restaurant industry, she shifted to coaching Crossfit.  Then, while pregnant with her first son, she became certified as a Pregnancy and Postpartum Athleticism coach because she was not getting answers to her questions on exercise in pregnancy.  She had her first son in a hospital with an obstetrician, and quickly realized that the whole experience was not what she wanted.  Three years later, she had her second son at home under the care of a midwife.  Both experiences taught her so much about herself as well as the birth world.

Anne is a friend from my OG Crossfit gym in Brooklyn, shout out to Crossfit 718!

 I wanted to have her on the show to share her birth stories, and, more importantly, to talk us through why she had a hospital birth with her first baby and a home birth with her second. 

This is so important for people to hear because Anne’s story is not unique. Many have a first baby in the hospital for a variety of reasons but partly if not entirely, because they were raised believing that this is the safest way to do things and they simply don’t question it as a norm. But for many young and healthy women, having a baby is often the first time they are a “patient” in the hospital, and some will walk away from this experience feeling unsupported, others will feel as if they were fighting an uphill battle, some will be traumatized, obstetric violence and coercion is real. Some people have received the inaccurate memo that out of hospital birth is unsafe. Many don’t know what a midwife is or exactly what we do or where we do it.

Join us as Anne shares her journey with us.

Resources

• Christiane McColskey, City Midwifery (Anne's Midwife mentioned in this episode)
• Tanya Wills, Manhattan Birth (Anne took a class with this awesome midwife to prepare for a home birth)
• New Yorker Article on home birth - Martine Jean Baptiste, one of the two midwives featured in this article will be a guest next season.

Check it out at Mother Wit and start your journey with me now!

Schedule your first session at Mother Wit and start your journey with me today.

Thriving After Birth (an online course)
Comprehensive Care
60 Min Consultation: Use discount code- FirstConsult10%off
Instagram: @mother.wit.maternity
You Tube Channel

My guest today is Emily Wannenburg. She is a midwife who was trained in South Africa. She had her first baby there and her second in Baltimore, MD. She is the owner and founder of 4th Trimester Fitness Method which she will tell us more about as she shares her story. This is the 4th and final birth story for this season. I hope you enjoy it. 

Resources

• Leopold’s Maneuver (Image)
• Cytomegalovirus (CMV)
• Third-degree tears: If you missed Season 2 episode 3, go back and check that out. Plus the accompanying blog post on tip for healing 3rd and 4th degree lacerations.
• Dyspareunia: Simply put, means painful sex. Here is a bit more info.
• Hypnobirthing J breathing (video with two NHS midwives and hypnobirthing instructors)

Check it out at Mother Wit and start your journey with me now!

Schedule your first session at Mother Wit and start your journey with me today.

Thriving After Birth (an online course)
Comprehensive Care
60 Min Consultation: Use discount code- FirstConsult10%off
Instagram: @mother.wit.maternity
You Tube Channel

Nurse Nikki is a Family Nurse Practitioner, trained doula, and IBCLC. She is the owner and founder of Bloom Maternal Health and is one of my heroes. Her mission is to improve maternal health outcomes and decrease disparities, especially for Black women. She inspires me to think outside the box in ways that are hard for me, and interestingly enough, she also encourages me to think inside the box in ways that challenge me. But seriously, my mentors aside, a couple of which you have met already this season, she is up there on a pedestal with those I respect most. 

 Nurse Nikki runs multiple programs including Bloom Community Health, Bloom Period, and My Yoni which we will talk more about today. She also provides services both virtually and in-person to pregnant and postpartum people who have had breast and gynecological surgeries as well as those who have experienced pregnancy loss. She is also one of the lactation consultants that shares her expertise in, Thriving After Birth, my online, comprehensive, self-paced course on all things postpartum.

Resources

• Sista Midwife Productions: Nicole Deggins, CNM, MSN, MPH
• Irth App: Kimberly Seals Allers
• Bloom Maternal Health: Nurse Nikki, FNP, IBCLC: -Available for in-person care in Houston and New Orleans, Dallas (probably) coming soon. Virtual support available nationally.
• Nurse Nikki YouTube Channel 
• IG: @nursenikkinp

Check it out at Mother Wit and start your journey with me now!

Schedule your first session at Mother Wit and start your journey with me today.

Thriving After Birth (an online course)
Comprehensive Care
60 Min Consultation: Use discount code- FirstConsult10%off
Instagram: @mother.wit.maternity
You Tube Channel

My guest today is Cheri Van Hoover. She has been an ardent advocate for women, families, and the profession of midwifery for more than 4 decades. She became a midwife in 1987. A native of Washington State, she lived in California for 32 years, where she received her midwifery education and provided full-scope care for widely diverse populations in varied settings, culminating as assistant clinical professor with the UCSF Faculty OB/GYN Group. 

Since returning to rural Washington 15 years ago, her clinical practice has focused on outpatient reproductive health and she has served as distance faculty for the Midwifery Institute of Philadelphia University, now Thomas Jefferson University. 

This is how I know Cheri. She was first my professor for a health policy course and then we worked together during the years that I was faculty at PhilaU. 

Her scholarly publications cover diverse topics: health policy education, midwives in politics, midwives as palliative care clinicians, and body art. She is an active member of the American College of Nurse-Midwives and has won numerous professional awards. Cheri is the third of 4 birth professionals to share her birth story, which of course is also the birth of a mother and a midwife.

 Resources

• An interview with Suzanne Arms and her website.
• Apgar score (ACOG)
• 27:45 Cheri talks about dopplers. She is talking about most common tool that we use to listen to the heartbeat of a fetus. A handheld doppler allows you to hear and count the fetal heart rate. It is the same technology used with continuous fetal monitoring. Unfortunately, despite its widespread use, it has not been shown to significantly improve outcomes in low-risk pregnancies, it is associated with false positive results and therefore leads to an increased use of cesarean sections.
• Continuous fetal monitoring (Evidence Based Birth)
• Rh-negative blood type and Rhogam (ACNM)
• Story of Kate Bowland NOTE: The author defines lay midwives as, “Midwives who are not nurses.” Later, she defines it as, “midwives without institutional training.” Neither of these definitions are accurate today. They were at the time because the CM and CPM credential did not yet exist. Also, this article is not about “Granny midwives” despite their mention and this is touched on too superficially to do this part of the discussion justice. 

Check it out at Mother Wit and start your journey with me now!

Schedule your first session at Mother Wit and start your journey with me today.

Thriving After Birth (an online course)
Comprehensive Care
60 Min Consultation: Use discount code- FirstConsult10%off
Instagram: @mother.wit.maternity
You Tube

My guest today is Kaela Kajiyama. She is a pediatric sleep coach who I love to connect and collaborate with. She helped me see things differently when it came to this fairly new specialty because, in years past as I became more and more aware of sleep coaches, I got the impression that this was all about implementing cry it out but paying someone to do it for you. Then I started to see some nuance, but I was still quite skeptical, especially as it related to supporting breastfeeding goals, but Kaela has really helped me to see the bigger picture. Of course, all sleep coaches are different and come with their own ideas of what is right or wrong and what works and doesn’t work and there isn’t a lot of hard science yet, but I can still get behind sound advice when framed the right way. It’s not a far cry from things that I would call midwifery intuition, things that we have known in this profession for nearly all of time but have had to prove before being heard. 

Resources

• Kaela’s website: Sustainable Sleep and IG handle: @sustainable.sleep
• Mommy Labor Nurse episode 74 (Liesel interviews me and talks about her mental health)
• Attachment theory vs attachment parenting (Article)
• Thriving After Birth: Mother Wit’s comprehensive, self-paced, online postpartum course

Check it out at Mother Wit and start your journey with me now!

Schedule your first session at Mother Wit and start your journey with me today.

Thriving After Birth (an online course)
Comprehensive Care
60 Min Consultation: Use discount code- FirstConsult10%off
Instagram: @mother.wit.maternity
You Tube Channel

Guest: Robin Bradley

A midwife who practiced in Westchester County for her entire 30+ year career. Robin and Kathy Herron, who you recently heard talking about painful sex in the postpartum period are the two most important midwives in my own professional journey. They took me under their wing and taught me everything they knew.

Robin is here to tell her birth stories today. However, this is also the birth of a midwife. These stories are often interwoven. What a special treat it was for me to document her stories given the role she has played in my life and career.

Resources
Historical people, places, and medical information mentioned in this episode

• Rabbit test 
• Sister Angela Murdaugh 
• Therese Dondero, a midwife who died at the age of 40. She made important contributions including starting the historic and beloved practice at North Central Bronx – A practice that remains beloved today. Please forgive the strange link to an important book called Mainstreaming Midwives. It was not easy to find something open source to share with you. 
• Pelvis shapes and how they relate to birth experiences: Robin talks about her “platypelloid  pelvis.” In reality, most are of mixed shapes. Historically, we have talked about them as distinct. These distinctions have since been debunked. Furthermore, the research that led to the names of these 4 main pelvic shapes was racist and its usefulness is currently being questioned.
• Scopolamine
• Karo Syrup infant formula
• Transient tachypnea of the newborn
• Maternity Center Association
• Kitty Ernst

Check it out at Mother Wit and start your journey with me now!

Schedule your first session at Mother Wit and start your journey with me today.

Thriving After Birth (an online course)
Comprehensive Care
60 Min Consultation: Use discoun