Watch this episode HERE
We have a really inspiring episode today, as I welcome Zainab, from Saudi Arabia, now living in Michigan. Zainab is a brilliant maiden who has blazed a path of autonomy, teaching Fertility Awareness Method and body literacy to Arab women in her mother tongue of Arabic.
Zainab grew up without initiation into her first bleed, and didn’t even have a word to use for her vagina. She experienced intergenerational shame.
Her awakening began when she discovered FAM along with a calling to share this knowledge with her sisters, particularly those in her home country, where she found women hungry to tune into their bodies and claim their freedom.
Zainab came to Matriarch Rising Festival and experienced it as a touchpoint of what's possible when women in their power come together. She witnessed the centering of mothers, the normalization of freebirth and embodied womanhood, and, of course, the pure, delicious magic. She took these lessons home with her, forever changed.
This year we’re hyped to have Zainab back at MRF offering her workshop The Cycle Wisdom Map, an exploration of body literacy through the lens of the natural cycles around us. Come and experience the uplevel Zainab did! Go to matriarchrisingfestival.com to get your ticket. Join us sisters - it’ll be the highlight of your year - and it may just change your life. 
Here’s what you’ll hear:
✨The body disconnection and shame she was taught as a young woman.
✨Her passion for FAM and joy of translating teachings into her mother tongue.
✨Her leap teaching in Arabic, and the incredible response from women ready to step into their power.
✨Teaching from the “daughter” stage of life.
✨The importance of centering mothers.
✨Cultural amnesia and how her grandmother birthed at home, yet her mother birthed in the hospital.
✨The life altering power of MRF and how it changed her.
 
⭐ Matriarch Rising Festival: Get your tickets NOW! - https://www.matriarchrisingfestival.com 
⭐ Don't miss the MatriBirth Midwifery Institute,  Join the waitlist and receive all the details late spring
Connect with Free Birth Society 

The Women Are Ready: Zainab Brings Body Literacy to Saudi Arabia

The Free Birth Society Podcast features honest, gripping, inspiring, and transformative freebirth stories hosted by the founder Emilee Saldaya in conversation with wild women worldwide. 

In the vast tapestry of childbirth experiences, a thread runs undisturbed, unmedicated, and true to its ancestral roots: freebirth. This differs from your usual home birth with doulas or midwives in attendance. Freebirth stands apart, where birthing is solely in the hands of the birthing woman, accompanied only by her intuition, rhythms of nature, witnessed by her family.

The Free Birth Podcast invites you to a unique corner of the universe where we dive deep into the raw essence of birth, untamed and unassisted. Pushing against the tides of modern obstetrics and its violent approach, we venture into stories of women who've boldly chosen to claim this primal rite of passage. Here, we're not merely sharing tales; we're challenging the status quo and redefining the very narrative of childbirth.

As we unravel discussions on rights in childbirth, dissect varied care models, and amplify the unfiltered voices of freebirthing women from around the planet, our purpose remains clear: to spotlight the distinction and significance of wild birth. This isn't an argument against the myriad ways women choose to birth, but rather an affirmation that freebirth has its revered space in the continuum of birth choices.

Join us in celebrating a movement that underscores the powerful message and has changed the lives of thousands: Birth, in its purest form, is not a medical event but a profoundly personal journey. 

The Free Birth Society Podcast is your compass to navigate and rediscover that journey.

*Freebirth = Birthing in the absence of any hired professionals, away from medical institutions or their agents. Also known as family birth, unassisted birth, wild birth. 

*Sovereign birth = Birthing outside of the medical paradigm, inclusive of births with authentic midwives and doulas. We include many stories on the show where women birthed outside of the medical system with doulas and radical birth keepers.  While these births are not freebirths, they are certainly sovereign births!

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Today on the show I welcome one of my closest friends and favorite people, Julia. Julia lives here in community with us, and so I’m extra excited to have her on to share her story. Julia is a truly wild mother of 3, turns out - soon to be 4, a homesteader, a gorgeous and insanely talented homemaker, and really just the embodiment of strength, fortitude, and integrity. Can you tell I adore her? She has freebirthed twice, and the second time she *literally* labored right here on my land, the Matriarch Rising Festival grounds! How magical is that? 
Julia began her mothering journey quite young, having found her sweetheart at age 17. When Julia found herself unexpectedly pregnant she was already living outside mainstream culture and knew she didn’t want to birth in the hospital. Sadly though, the medical midwife she hired found ways to create drama throughout her pregnancy and birth. 
A huge awakening, followed by a move from L.A. to North Carolina to figure out this homestead life, brought Julia’s and my family together in organic friendship. It’s all very cute, she invited me to be her birth attendant, our husbands met and fell in love, and the rest is herstory. Though she and her family have certainly faced challenges living this rural farm lifestyle, Julia consistently devotes herself to her family, community, and the fullness of her family’s vision. 
Julia’s two freebirths were very different experiences. The birth of her son although powerful and sweet, hit her very hard, so for the birth of her daughter she *chose* pleasure and presence. 
Julia’s story is such a powerful reminder that we can make big choices in our lives and really manifest our dream reality. Come see the beautiful land Julia fell in love with too, at Matriarch Rising Festival this summer! Go to Matriarchrisingfestival.com to get your tickets today. Once you experience community here, you may just have to return home and create it for yourself! Julia will be leading the toddler yoga and mother meet ups at MRF, so come join in and say hi to my bestie. 
Here’s what you’ll hear in Julia’s story: 
✨How she loved being pregnant for the first time, but was constantly fear mongered by her medical midwife. 
✨Her first drama filled first birth with a licensed midwife. 
✨Covid in L.A. and her family’s big leap relocating to North Carolina. 
✨Homesteading while pregnant and the fast and really rocking freebirth of her son. 
✨Rural living and her family’s various moves to find their farm land here in WNC. 
✨The intensity of the end of her pregnancy. 
✨The fast but dreamy and pain-free freebirth of her daughter. 
✨Her community supported postpartum. 
✨Experiencing three generations of women at MRF.
 
⭐ Matriarch Rising Festival: Get your tickets NOW! - https://www.matriarchrisingfestival.com 
⭐ Don't miss the MatriBirth Midwifery Institute,  Enrollment opens May 20th!!
Connect with Free Birth Society 

From Veganism and Medwives to Farming and Freebirth: The Magical Life of Julia Hempe

Watch this episode HERE
Jalynn was aware that the medical system was dangerous for her, as a woman, and a black mother. Thankfully, her first birth was fairly straight forward. She left the birth center clear that she would not go back, not because it was traumatic, but because it simply wasn’t worth leaving her house for. 
With her second, Jalynn stepped into full responsibility with a wild pregnancy and the freebirth of her dreams surrounded by sisterhood and support in a community ashram. She fully actualized her dream birth. 
We’re talking about an epic birth space decorated by a dear sister, friends chanting and vocalizing with her during birth, live flute music, and plants infused with affirmations by Toni Jones herself. It was no fear, all flow, with Jalynn completely centered and held by her community, which transitioned into a brilliantly supported postpartum as well.
Jaylnn goes on to fully integrate this huge uplevel and leave nursing school to pursue a truly holistic path, which is unfolding and gaining power as she does the work to shine her light and show women the way out of the system and into sovereign birth-work.
Here’s what you’ll hear in Jalynn’s Story:
✨Her weariness of the hospital, the racist roots of obstetrics, and the high maternal death rate of black moms.
✨Her desire to find a black woman to support her, but the difficulty she experienced finding midwives of any race to respect and honor her choices.
✨How her first birth sparked an insatiable desire to step into her authentic self.
✨The spiritual confirmation she experienced learning about freebirth and the dangers of ultrasound.
✨Her intuitive self care during her wild pregnancy.
✨Her magical birth surrounded by sisters and fully supported postpartum.
✨Choosing authentic birth education over certified nursing or doula work in the system.
 
⭐ Matriarch Rising Festival: Get your tickets NOW! - https://www.matriarchrisingfestival.com 
⭐ Don't miss the MatriBirth Midwifery Institute,  Enrollment opens May 20th!!
Connect with Free Birth Society 

A Black Woman’s Solution to Maternal Death Rates in the System: Jalynn’s Freebirth

Watch this episode HERE
Today I have the great pleasure of welcoming to the show Dr. Elderberry, and yes, that *is* her legal name. Elderberry is a naturopath, a vitalist herbalist, a homeopath, and a wild mother. I’m so excited for her to share her wisdom of homeopathy, minerals, practicing herbalism energetically, and tuning into mother nature. 
This is an especially fun episode as Elderberry is one of our headliners at Matriarch Rising Festival (@matriarchrisingfestivalnc) this summer, where she will be offering her teachings on homeopathy and supporting your wellbeing beyond the physical. Elderberry’s practice is truly womb to tomb, and she is deeply passionate about the power of sovereign healing. 
If our conversation today lights you up, you won’t want to miss the chance to learn from Elderberry, and our pantheon of wise woman headliners, at MRF this June. Go to matriarchrisingfestival.com to claim your ticket, and get ready for a life changing 5 days; grab your ticket now! Here’s what you’ll hear in our conversation: 
✨How she grew up in the allopathic model, identified it as quackery, and moved beyond. 
✨Why she differs from other naturopathic doctors and their frequent “prescribing.” 
✨What homeopathy is. 
✨What vitalist herbalism is. 
✨The magic of minerals. 
✨The playful relationship mothers and children can have with homeopathy. 
✨The importance of tapping into the energetics of plants. 
✨Her shift from importing herbs to local foraging, and building a free apothecary. 
✨The natural and free childhood she is supporting her son to experience. 
✨How this healing framework goes beyond the physical.
 
 ⭐ Matriarch Rising Festival: Get your tickets NOW! - https://www.matriarchrisingfestival.com 
⭐ Don't miss the MatriBirth Midwifery Institute,  Join the waitlist and receive all the details late spring
Connect with Free Birth Society 

Remineralizing the Spirit with Herbalist Dr. Elderberry

Watch this episode HERE
This may be the most important episode of the season, so I’m glad you’re tuning in this week. Today’s story is from Mina, a freebirthing mother, and RBK graduate in Serbia.
Though Mina dreamt of birthing at home, she knew of no other women around her making that choice, so she birthed her first two babies in a very old school, very dark hospital. Mina faced obstetric violence and abuse and did not want to return.
And so she didn’t. She freebirthed her third. When she found herself pregnant as a newly single mother, Mina of course chose freebirth again, for her breech baby, born at 44 weeks surrounded by her sweet children.
Mina credits The Radical Birth Keeper School for her deep understanding of sisterhood, through which she has cultivated a blossoming community of women in her country also creating change. These women are choosing sovereign birth; they are stepping out of the system and into their full power, just as Mina did.
Obviously Mina’s choice to freebirth is huge, but I was struck by the real ripple effect that happens after a woman freebirths in her community, and then devotes herself to sovereign birth-work. Mina is truly changing birth culture in Serbia, and it’s a really, really big deal.
As Sister MorningStar says, “What one woman can do, all women can do.”. If Mina can do it, you can, too. There are just a few short days left to enroll in our only round of The Radical Birth Keeper School this year. Don’t wait, your time is now. Join us, for The Radical Birth Keeper School Spring 2024 cohort. Wherever you are, there are women around you hungry for wise sisters to support them in their sovereign birth choices. Go to radicalbirthkeeperschool.com and become the lighthouse in your community.
Here’s what you’ll hear in Mina’s story:
✨Her first birth in the hospital and subsequent separation from her baby.
✨The sickening state of maternal care (or lack thereof) in Serbian hospitals.
✨How she tried to strategically use the hospital during her second birth, but still faced abuse.
✨The culture of silence and corruption surrounding homebirth and midwives in Serbia.
✨Her first freebirth and the powerful shift it initiated.
✨The mentorship, sisterhood, and profound growth she experienced in The RBK School.
✨How she chose a fourth pregnancy, single motherhood, and a true family supported freebirth.
✨The importance of finding like minded women and embodying the change in birth culture you wish to see.
 
⭐ Join the Radical Birth Keeper School! Enrollment is open NOW!
⭐ Don't miss the MatriBirth Midwifery Institute,  Join the waitlist and receive all the details late spring
Connect with Free Birth Society 

The Women Are Ready: Zainab Brings Body Literacy to Saudi Arabia

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