In the final episode of the season, I interview my mom and grandma about their experiences giving birth and reflect on maternal legacy and the power of our personal stories.

Download our free Birth Conversation guide on Tend's Instagram: instagram.com/tend.us/

Darryl Slim is a Diné (Navajo) elder and wellness mentor who learned traditional ceremony from his grandparents. In this conversation we talk about birth as awareness of the present moment, tending to yourself and your own experience, the role of partners in pregnancy, and the traditions of blessingway and hozho.

Darryl Slim: www.darrylslim.com

D'Anne Graham is an independent scholar of the social history of medicine focusing on women's health. In this episode we talk about the history of birth in the United States beginning with the rise of male-dominated medicine as a profession. Together, we debunk some popular myths about birth and explore how attitudes and power dynamics of the 19th and 20th century continue to influence our birth landscape today.

Aspen Institute Maternal Mortality Report: https://www.aspeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Maternal-Morality-Report.pdf 

Tend.us

Sarita Bennett is a midwife and family practice physician with over 40 years of experience attending births. She was also my midwife for my second birth! In this episode we talk about birth as a sacred experience, overcoming dysfunctional coping mechanisms, listening to our bodies to create a foundation of health, and evolving out of a management model of care towards a birth culture that centers the physiology and autonomy of birthing people.

Connect with Sarita at: https://www.foundationalconcepts4mws.com/

Connect with Tamara at: tend.us

Ashley Gates Jansen is a non-denominational minister and theatre teacher. In this episode, we talk about grief as a portal into aliveness and connection, what is lost when we exile grief, and the gold at the heart of the grief experience. 

Therese Jornlin is a teacher, healer, and ancient wisdom keeper. In this episode, we talk about birth as an initiation that is meaningful for the entire community, how feeling dissonance is actually a powerful guide into our own power, and how by gathering in community and ceremony we can birth ourselves out of old paradigms into a place of connection and remembrance.

Therese Jornlin: https://www.theresejornlin.org/

Tend.us

Join me as I introduce myself and share the birth story of this podcast as well as what you can expect from our first season, Conversations with Elders.

More at Tend.us