Triumphant Birth

Billie Harrigan is a fierce advocate for restoring safety and sanity to modern birth practices. She has served birthing families for about 40 years and has taught midwives and other birth practitioners in 125 countries.

Billie is also the founder of Birth Trauma Ontario, an agency dedicated to the education and healing of both perpetrators and their victims from the global scourge of obstetric violence. She has authored the world’s first and most comprehensive online course in becoming equipped in the skills of trauma informed care specific to the childbearing experience.

She is the founder and director of the private member association, The Hive Collective, which brings together a community that is creating holistic alternatives for reclaiming our sovereignty over our bodies, births, babies, families, finances, and future.

In this episode, we discuss:

-Billy's first birth experience and her journey into the field of maternity care
-Legislation and the history of regulated midwifery in Canada
-Birth Trauma Ontario as a healing and educational resource
-The importance of trauma-informed care in childbirth
-The roles of doulas and traditional birth companions
-The impact of medical trauma on women's choices
-What true prenatal care looks like
-The impacts of our language 

www.billieharrigan.com
www.harriganhive.com
www.thehivecollective.life
www.birthtraumaontario.ca

@billieharrigan
@birthtraumaontario
@triumphant_birth

Thank you for being here!

Dr. Sadey Broecker is a chiropractor specializing in prenatal care and is passionate about helping other moms experience empowered and informed pregnancies and births. Her own journey into motherhood, guided by the transformative births of her two boys and the unwavering support of her husband, not only shaped who she is but also shaped her approach to caring for women, babies, and full families within her office.

In this episode, we discuss:

-What inspired Dr. Sadey to become a chiropractor
-Benefits of specialized chiropractic care in pregnancy
-Birth choices and BMI
-Navigating the choice of home birth with her partner
-Isaiah's intense and euphoric home birth 
-Breastfeeding challenges and self-forgiveness
-Cal's unplanned free birth in a snowstorm
-Birthing beyond 42 weeks

@triumphant_birth
@luxlifechiro

Danit Tsur-Almog is a doula, childbirth educator, and birth story processing expert and teacher. She now spends most of her time training birth professionals through her business, Leida K'Masa (meaning Birth as a Journey in Hebrew) and holding one-on-one birth story processing sessions. Danit's work is largely influenced by her trainings with Pam England, so much so that she translated some of Pam's works into Hebrew. Danit has also been influenced by Adyashanti as well as other non-dual teachers, and her passion is in bringing compassion into our births and lives.

In this episode, we discuss: 

• Danit's origin story in birth work
• Understanding our internal voices
• The feeling of inadequacy as a common human experience
• The Enneagram and personal belief systems
• Belief systems and their impact on birth, trauma, and healing
• Control as an an illusion
• How stories can change over time

For 1x1 birth story processing sessions with Danit: [email protected]

IG: @triumphant_birth
IG: @danit_leida.kmasa

Brittany Ebben is a wife, mother of three, and impressive birther. In this heartwarming and final episode of 2024, we dive into Brittany's incredible journey of bringing new life into the world during the holiday season.

As she shares her unique experience of missing a Christmas celebration to welcome her baby at a birth center, we discuss:

-Braxton hicks and prodromal labor
-What she needed for her body to go into active labor
-Anticipating a big baby
-Deciding when to call the doula and midwife and when to leave for the birth center
-Fast labor
-Calm labor
-AROM (artificial rupture of membranes/having waters released/broken)
-Fear of having baby in the car
-Her husband’s perception of her births

To see Brittany’s birth video, head to IG:
@albabirthcenter
@triumphant_birth

Stay tuned for more birth stories and guest episodes in 2025, and thank you for being here!

Raquel is a married mother of four with a passion for birth choices. Her first birth was a Cesarean section due to having a breech baby, and the trauma of that process stuck with her for years. After two subsequent C-sections, Raquel was determined to do things differently with her fourth baby despite opposing opinions and having a heart-shaped uterus. Her journey to a successful breech home birth after three C-sections led her to become a doula and birth educator, and it highlights the importance of research, education, advocacy, emotional connection, and having a supportive team and partner.

Raquel now partners with her husband to teach birth classes that empower birth partners to become birth advocates. They support families in California from Ventura to Santa Barbara County, and from there she also partners with Midwife Blyss Young and Dr. Stuart Fischbein on the Birthing Instincts podcast. Being able to join this amazing duo and being a part of something that played a huge role in her last birth story feeds her soul daily.

In this episode, we discuss:

-Raquel's three surgical births
-Trauma resulting from a fear-based "standard of care"
-Dissociation as a protective mechanism
-How doulas can help mothers navigate their birth experiences
-The importance of joy and relaxation in pregnancy
-How laws and policies can limit birth choices
-Navigating the decision to have a home birth
-Navigating VBAC bans and varying levels of hospital support
-Birth journeys as transformative experiences to personal growth
-Children witnessing birth
-Emotional challenges during labor
-Nuances of breech birth
-Significance of the birth experience as a profound connection point to her newborn

Raquel is a doula and birth educator who partners with her incredibly supportive husband to teach birth classes that empower birth partners to become birth advocates. They provide support for families in California from Ventura to Santa Barbara County. She also partners with Midwife Blyss Young and Dr. Stuart Fischbein to support the Birthing Instincts podcast. Being able to join this amazing duo and being a part of something that played a huge role in her last birth story feeds her soul daily.

Resources:

[email protected]
@lolitasrebellion on IG
@birthinginstincts on IG

Follow @triumphant_birth on IG

Thank you for listening!

Ann Marie Rian, CPM, LM is a home birth midwife and wise woman with expertise in homeopathy, herbal medicine, prenatal education, midwifery education, and so much more.

This continuation of last week's conversation dives into:

-The power of words in pregnancy and birth
-Experiencing transformation without a power struggle
-How pregnancy and birth can accelerate clarity and personal growth
-How homeopathic remedies work
-Examples of how homeopathy supports pregnancy, birth, and motherhood
-How homeopathy differs from allopathic and other holistic approaches
-Versatility of remedies for both acute and chronic issue support
-How you and your family can start working with homeopathy

Resources:

Schedule a Homeopathy Consultation with Ann Marie:
[email protected]

Ann Marie's Facebook Page

Homeopathic Workshops from Great Lakes Homeopathy Collective: https://facebook.com/groups/864787738078528/

Other Homeopathic Practitioners and Classes:
Rebecca Beringer: www.healingwayhomeopathy.com
www.sourcehealinghome.com
Fieldwork Homeopathy:www.fieldworkhomeopathy.com

Books:
The Complete Homeopathy Handbook
Homeopathy for Pregnancy, Birth, and Your Baby's First Year
Homeopathic Guide to Stress

For people looking for a midwife in Wisconsin: wisconsinguildofmidwives.org

Follow Triumphant Birth on IG

Ann Marie Rian, CPM, LM is a home birth midwife and wise woman with expertise in homeopathy, herbal medicine, prenatal education, midwifery education, and so much more.

In this episode, we discuss Ann Marie’s experience as a doula, her path to becoming a midwife, lessons from her teachers and nervous system, and transformative experiences that shape both midwives and parents. Our discussion highlights the importance of building confidence in families, the role of authority in healthcare, and the personal growth that comes from supporting others through the birthing process. She also shares her own home birth story featuring a nuchal hand and her partner catching her daughter as well as her experience with postpartum anxiety, isolation, and how the complexities of the postpartum experience has impacted her approach to birth.

Join us next week for part two of this conversation as we dive deeper into the world of homeopathy as a supportive tool for birth and beyond.

What do teething babies, MAHA, and the American maternal mortality rate have in common? This episode.

Listen in for a brief personal update from Jamie and an invitation to vote two of our very own birth superstars into federal positions alongside RFK, Jr. This is an incredible opportunity for our listeners (YOU!) to have a tangible impact on the systems that hold and direct birthing families in this country. How do we get the medical and midwifery models to play nice? How can we lower the primary C-section rate? How can we reduce obstetrical violence? How can we lower the maternal mortality rate and improve infant outcomes? Dr. Stu and Lindsey will ask these questions and have a positive, generational impact on our nation's families, starting with birth. I'm sure of it.

To vote for Dr. Stuart Fischbein and midwife Lindsey Meehleis, go to:

https://discourse.nomineesforthepeople.com/c/health/7/l/latest?order=votes

Tune in next week for another exciting guest episode!

Thank you for being here.

In this episode, Hayley shares her experience with a traumatic first birth in the hospital followed by two redeeming births. Even though she chose midwifery and an unmedicated approach from the beginning, she learned that all midwives are not created equal and found herself switching practitioners at 33 weeks pregnant. Themes in her first pregnancy include high blood pressure and white coat syndrome, talk of big baby and other scare tactics, induction, anxiety, serial ultrasounds, coached pushing with an epidural, and fear in pregnancy.

After her first experience, Hayley learned everything she could about birth and went on to experience empowering second and third births at a freestanding birth center. Hayley's journey highlights the importance of knowing her options, advocating for herself, informed consent, emotional processing, and human connection in pregnancy. She talks about the stark differences in prenatal care between the hospital and birth center settings and how her redemptive experiences gave her a renewed sense of confidence in motherhood.

You can find Hayley on IG @hayley.felch

Marissa Anderson's redeeming twin birth is nothing short of miraculous. After retaining rightful custody of her son who the government medically kidnapped (the saga discussed in part 1), Marissa and her family had a LOT of healing to do.

In this episode, she shares how she finally got her baby healthy, worked through her traumatic past, helped create a documentary about her case, and decided to continue expanding her family. Marissa's faith and intentionality played a significant role as she prepared her body for her next pregnancy and navigated her state laws while searching for the right midwife who would support her twin home birth. This conversation highlights the importance of advocacy, research, autonomy, and trusting her God-given instincts during labor and birth which ultimately resulted in a hospital transfer and C-section that saved her daughter's life. Marissa's journey is filled with gratitude, proving that even the darkest circumstances can be healed and redeemed in ways beyond our wildest imagination.

You can find Marissa on IG @marissachavoya_anderson