Wild Womb

Emilee Saldaya is the host of The Free Birth Podcast and founder of The Free Birth Society. Emilee is a radical birth keeper, free birth educator, and free birther herself! Emilee works tirelessly to help women find their power and to birth freely and intuitively. Her first priority is trusting women and trusting the process of birth.

Listen to The Free Birth Society Podcast here: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/free-birth-society/id1231912533?mt=2

Learn more about The Free Birth Society and join this incredible community here: https://www.freebirthsociety.com/

Welcome back finally to Season 2 of the Wild Womb Podcast. Kicking off Season 2 with this long and lovely conversation with Nubia Jones. Nubia is a certified doula and lactation counselor as well as a spinning babies educator. Nubia is also the Mom of five! Her personal experiences are what got her interested in birth work. She is a doula extraordinaire and a true ray of sunshine. Nubia provides her clients with evidence based information and is always my go-to for advice and resources. You can find Nubia on instagram @doulaviva_births and at www.doulavivabirths.com

Welcome back to the Wild Womb podcast! I am back from my hiatus and had this lovely conversation with Aiyana Leong, a badass abortion advocate who runs the Brooklyn chapter of Shout Your Abortion. This is a movement that was created through social media by Amelia Bono and Lindy West to encourage people who have had abortions to share their stories. It aims to normalize abortion and create a safe space to share experiences. IT IS SO IMPORTANT! Abortion is one of the most common medical procedures in the US and it is statistically impossible to not know someone who has had one. Aiyana shares her own abortion story and we talk about how she got involved with this movement and how you can too! We really can inspire change if we just keep pushing for it.

dm Aiyana on instagram @nobrasnoparents to get involved with SYA BK

donate to NYAAF: http://www.nyaaf.org/

https://www.womenonwaves.org/

https://shoutyourabortion.com/

http://www.gotagirlcrush.com/

email me- [email protected]

Welcome back to the Wild Womb podcast! This conversation is with Lacey Haynes, a long time yoga and meditation guide as well as pussy gazer and free birthing woman. Lacey lives in London where she chose to free birth- a story which was picked up by The Guardian and went viral. Lacey chose to free birth out of a place of deep trust for herself and her body. Before and during her pregnancy she did a lot of deep self work on healing her relationship with motherhood. Lacey now helps other women do the same as well as helps reconnect them to their sexual and feminine power through what she calls "pussy gazing". Lacey is reclaiming and radicalizing motherhood. Lacey is leading these pussy gazing workshops all over the country for more information and to buy tickets go to her website: https://www.laceyhaynes.com/about/ follow her on instagram: @verylacey This conversation was soul nourishing and inspiring. I am thrilled to share it!

Welcome back to the Wild Womb podcast! This week I have my lovely friend from high school, Veronique Meriot. Vera is now the mother to two sons- Sebastien and Bodhi. Seb is the most lovely little boy. He is curious and loving and playful and it has been such a pleasure to see the bond that Veronique and him have. She is such an incredible mother, someone I really look up to and feel so inspired by. It was an honor to have her on here. In this episode we talk about navigating other people's judgement, creating intention through pregnancy and parenting and how magical it is to have a community of supportive women around. She has now had two homebirths and we talk about why she wouldn't do it differently. She trusts her body and the process of birth. She has created a really lovely project throughout the pregnancy and now into parenting to document and process the experience through photos on instagram. Check it out @vherbali it's beautiful.

Much love, Veronique and thank you all!

Episode 10!! This week I spoke with Kelsey Knight and Emily Varnam, the co-founders of the Fifth Vital Sign. The Fifth Vital Sign refers to the fifth vital sign of health for women- the menstrual cycle. Kelsey and Emily created this project in response to the incredible lack of body literacy and education on female reproductive health. They created a course out of information they compiled and taught it all around the country. They now facilitate trainings for women to educate women using the original course as a framework. They are empowering women to empower themselves and each other. "Conversations in Community" is the name of this platform and I encourage anyone interested to participate.

http://www.5thvitalsign.com/

Get in touch with these incredible women, they are so knowledgeable and conscientious. They are doing an incredible job at making this information accessible, approachable, and inclusive.

**note that we lost Kelsey at the end, please excuse my technical issues**

Welcome back to the Wild Womb Podcast! This week we get down and dirty with all things breastfeeding. Leigh Anne O'Connor is an IBCLC and long-time La Leche League leader here in New York. She has helped countless families reach their breastfeeding goals and is a reservoir of resources and knowledge in the perinatal worker community. Breastfeeding is a charged subject and is complicated for so many people. We unpack that quite a bit here. I want everyone to feel supported and to understand that breastfeeding is NOT easy and has so much more nuance to it than anyone tells you until you're in the thick of it. The goal here is to understand that it is possible (most of the time), but that we are not set up for success for so many reasons. Women are not given the support they need, and hopefully from this conversation people will feel like they have a better idea of where to go for support through this journey.

https://www.lllusa.org/

contact Leigh Anne- https://www.leighanneoconnor.com

Happy Mother's Day to all you mama queens out there!! This is a very special episode where my mom comes onto the Wild Womb podcast to share her story. My mom is a truly amazing person and it was so cool to bring her into this space and have the opportunity to hear her whole story- really for the first time. This woman is a deeply patient and compassionate person. I am so fortunate to have such a positive relationship with her. Mother's Day is a complicated day for a lot of people, I am immensely grateful that my mom is here and that she is amazing. I don't know where I would be without her all these years. In this episode we hear her whole birth story and talk a lot about support, breastfeeding, sex ed, consent, and body autonomy/agency. It was really so cool to listen to her story unfold. Happy mother's day to everyone who celebrates-- I hope you all get some extra love and tenderness today. xoxo

Welcome back to the Wild Womb podcast, episode 8 featuring Lara and Jason! I got to work with this lovely couple last year as their doula for the birth of their son, Felix. I loved being their doula, they are really fantastic people. Often times as a doula, I find myself managing a relationship dynamic that feels not quite right- these two were not that. They are so in love, so excited about life and parenthood- and do so well at all of it. As their doula, I found their energy to be inspiring and witnessing their journey really made me feel like the birthing and parenting journey was something I could do and wanted to! In this episode we hear BOTH of their perspectives on the birth, the prenatal experience and doula-hiring process, how they've settled into this new life and what roles they each play. This is a lovely and real conversation about the ins and outs of this life transition from both parents!

Welcome back to the Wild Womb podcast! This week is featuring Naima Beckles, doula and co-founder of For Your Birth. FYB is a partnership-based doula and childbirth education agency serving all the boroughs of New York City. This is the group I work with predominantly and Naima has been a major mentor and guide to me as I have grown as a doula and navigated the NYC birthing jungle. We get to hear all about how Naima came to this work after the homebirths of her two children and how she has started and grown this business into what it is today, alongside her partner Michele. Naima is doing amazing things as a support for other doulas, but more importantly for women out there who may not know all of their options for support. Her mission is to cast a wide net and to keep these conversations going so more people hear about the work we do and opt for the support in order to have better experiences. She is incredible, and I am so fortunate to work with her.

http://www.foryourbirth.com