Yoga Birth Babies

Did you know that stress and anxiety can affect your pelvic floor health? When we experience stress, our bodies often hold tension in unexpected places, including the pelvic floor. For pregnant and postpartum people, this tension can contribute to pelvic pain, discomfort, and other symptoms that are easy to overlook. But how can you tell if stress is affecting your pelvic floor, and what can you do to find relief?

In this revisit episode of Yoga | Birth | Babies, Deb welcomes pelvic floor physical therapist Hayley Kava, PT, MPT, to explore the connection between stress, anxiety, and pelvic floor dysfunction. Together, they discuss how the nervous system and hormonal stress response can influence pelvic floor tension, why relaxation is just as important as strength, and how exhaustion may play a role in pelvic discomfort. They also explore the fascinating connection between jaw tension, breathing, and the pelvic floor.

Whether you’re pregnant, navigating postpartum recovery, or experiencing pelvic floor symptoms, this conversation offers insight into understanding your body and finding ways to release tension. You’ll learn why pelvic floor health isn’t just about doing Kegels, how to recognize signs of an overly tight pelvic floor, and when working with a pelvic floor physical therapist may be beneficial.

This episode is brought to you by beYogi offering professional liability insurance designed specifically for yoga teachers and wellness professionals. Whether you’re already teaching or just beginning your teacher training, beYogi helps protect you so you can focus on supporting your students. Yoga Birth Babies listeners receive $20 off an exclusive professional insurance membership. Visit beYogi.com/yogabirthbabies (https://beyogi.com/yogabirthbabies) to claim your discount.

To connect with Deb and the PYC Community: 

Instagram, Tik Tok, & Facebook: @prenatalyogacenter

Youtube: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Prenatal Yoga Center

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Becoming a mother changes so much about your life, including how you see yourself, your priorities, and sometimes even your career. But what happens when the job you spent years building no longer feels like the right fit? Returning to work after maternity leave can bring unexpected questions about identity, purpose, and what you truly want from your professional and personal life.

In this episode of Yoga | Birth | Babies, Deb Flaschenberg welcomes Leah Smart, personal development editor, podcast host, and certified coach, to explore why motherhood can spark a career identity crisis. Together, they discuss the emotional complexities of returning to work after having a baby, the pressure to balance career and family, and how to navigate career decisions during the postpartum period without feeling rushed to have everything figured out.

They also explore the practical realities of career transitions, including childcare, finances, relationships, and the importance of reconnecting with yourself beyond your identity as a parent. Whether you're preparing to return to work, considering a career change after having a baby, or simply wondering how motherhood fits into the life you've built, this conversation offers a compassionate perspective on navigating change with clarity and intention.

This episode is brought to you by beYogi offering professional liability insurance designed specifically for yoga teachers and wellness professionals. Whether you’re already teaching or just beginning your teacher training, beYogi helps protect you so you can focus on supporting your students. Yoga Birth Babies listeners receive $20 off an exclusive professional insurance membership. Visit beYogi.com/yogabirthbabies (⁠https://beyogi.com/yogabirthbabies⁠) to claim your discount.

To connect with Deb and the PYC Community: 

Instagram, Tik Tok, & Facebook: @prenatalyogacenter

Youtube: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Prenatal Yoga Center

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What does it mean to have a “perfect birth,” and how do our expectations shape the way we experience childbirth? In this episode of Yoga | Birth | Babies, we welcome writer, editor, and storyteller Avital Norman Nathman to explore the cultural narratives surrounding birth, motherhood, and the pressure to get it all right. Drawing from her upcoming book, The Perfect Birth Myth: Pushing Back Against a Broken Industry, Avital unpacks how social media, birth preparation, healthcare providers, and our broader culture can reinforce the idea that if we make all the right choices, we can guarantee a particular birth outcome. We explore when thoughtful preparation becomes perfectionism, why an unexpected birth experience can feel like personal failure, and how the pursuit of an ideal birth can leave parents feeling disappointed or unprepared for the realities of childbirth.

We also discuss the relationship between the “perfect birth” myth and the “perfect mother” myth, including how unrealistic expectations can follow parents from pregnancy into postpartum life. Avital shares insights into the U.S. maternity care system, the pressure to advocate for yourself during labor, and the ways the movement toward physiologic birth can sometimes create its own set of expectations. Together, we consider how to prepare for birth with intention while remaining open to the unexpected, approach birth plans with flexibility, and recognize that a meaningful birth experience is not defined by whether everything goes according to plan.

This episode is brought to you by beYogi offering professional liability insurance designed specifically for yoga teachers and wellness professionals. Whether you’re already teaching or just beginning your teacher training, beYogi helps protect you so you can focus on supporting your students. Yoga Birth Babies listeners receive $20 off an exclusive professional insurance membership. Visit beYogi.com/yogabirthbabies (https://beyogi.com/yogabirthbabies) to claim your discount.

To connect with Deb and the PYC Community: 

Instagram, Tik Tok, & Facebook: @prenatalyogacenter

Youtube: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Prenatal Yoga Center

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What happens when pregnancy and birth become an opportunity to lean into strength, trust, and community? In this episode of Yoga | Birth | Babies, we hear Rosario Del Valle’s deeply personal birth story, from preparing for labor during pregnancy to navigating the unexpected challenges of birth and the emotional experience of meeting her baby for the first time.

Rosario shares how her mindset around physical preparation evolved throughout pregnancy, including a surprising shift in how she approached challenging yoga poses. She also reflects on the power of community during pregnancy, the support she received from her medical team, and the ways she worked through uncertainty during labor. Together, we explore birth preparation, trusting your body, building a supportive birth team, and the realities of postpartum recovery.

This episode is brought to you by beYogi offering professional liability insurance designed specifically for yoga teachers and wellness professionals. Whether you’re already teaching or just beginning your teacher training, beYogi helps protect you so you can focus on supporting your students. Yoga Birth Babies listeners receive $20 off an exclusive professional insurance membership. Visit beYogi.com/yogabirthbabies (https://beyogi.com/yogabirthbabies) to claim your discount.

To connect with Deb and the PYC Community: 

Instagram, Tik Tok, & Facebook: @prenatalyogacenter

Youtube: ⁠⁠⁠⁠Prenatal Yoga Center

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Diastasis recti and pelvic floor health are two topics that come up frequently during pregnancy and postpartum, but there is often confusion about how they are connected and what it actually takes to heal. In this re-release, we revisit our conversation with women’s health and fitness specialist Dr. Sarah Duvall to break down the relationship between the abdominal wall, core strength, posture, and pelvic floor function.

Sarah explains what diastasis recti is, what can contribute to or worsen abdominal separation, and how genetics, posture, and the way we use our bodies can influence recovery. We also explore how diastasis can affect pelvic floor function and how someone experiencing pelvic floor tightness can work on core activation without creating additional tension.

This episode is brought to you by beYogi offering professional liability insurance designed specifically for yoga teachers and wellness professionals. Whether you’re already teaching or just beginning your teacher training, beYogi helps protect you so you can focus on supporting your students. Yoga Birth Babies listeners receive $20 off an exclusive professional insurance membership. Visit beYogi.com/yogabirthbabies (https://beyogi.com/yogabirthbabies) to claim your discount.

To connect with Deb and the PYC Community: 

Instagram, Tik Tok, & Facebook: @prenatalyogacenter

Youtube: ⁠⁠⁠Prenatal Yoga Center

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What can you do to support a physiologic birth when you’re planning to give birth in a hospital? In this episode of Yoga | Birth | Babies, we’re joined by Dr. Melanie Jackson, also known as Melanie the Midwife, to explore the preparation, environment, movement, support, and mindset that can help create the conditions for labor to unfold as physiologically as possible.

Melanie and Deb talk about the nervous system and hormonal blueprint of labor, knowing when to head to the hospital, creating a calmer birth environment, and how partners and doulas can help protect “labor land.” They also discuss movement and positioning during labor—including when someone has an epidural or continuous monitoring—as well as the importance of rest and conserving energy during a long labor. We also unpack the cascade of interventions, how common hospital routines can influence labor, and questions parents can ask so they feel informed and involved in their care.

Throughout the conversation, Melanie and Deb return to an important idea: birth is not something we can completely control. Supporting physiologic birth is not about guaranteeing a particular outcome, but about creating supportive conditions while remaining flexible when circumstances change. They also discuss how to hold space for medical intervention or cesarean birth when it is the safest option, and what can help parents feel positive and supported in their birth experience regardless of how it unfolds.

This episode is brought to you by beYogi offering professional liability insurance designed specifically for yoga teachers and wellness professionals. Whether you’re already teaching or just beginning your teacher training, beYogi helps protect you so you can focus on supporting your students. Yoga Birth Babies listeners receive $20 off an exclusive professional insurance membership. Visit beYogi.com/yogabirthbabies (https://beyogi.com/yogabirthbabies) to claim your discount.

To connect with Deb and the PYC Community: 

Instagram, Tik Tok, & Facebook: @prenatalyogacenter

Youtube: ⁠⁠Prenatal Yoga Center

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Stillbirth is a topic that many expectant parents know very little about, yet it is an important part of pregnancy education and care. In this episode of Yoga | Birth | Babies, we’re joined by Liz O’Donnell, co-founder and Director of Education of PUSH for Empowered Pregnancy, to have an open and empowering conversation about stillbirth prevention, awareness, and how parents can feel more informed throughout pregnancy.

Liz shares the story behind her work and the mission of PUSH, while helping us understand what we know about stillbirth risk, prevention, and the progress that has been made in recent years. We talk about fetal movement and kick counts, signs that deserve attention, communicating concerns with your healthcare provider, and how to advocate for yourself when something doesn’t feel right—all while approaching these topics in a way that supports informed decision-making without creating unnecessary fear.

This episode is brought to you by beYogi offering professional liability insurance designed specifically for yoga teachers and wellness professionals. Whether you’re already teaching or just beginning your teacher training, beYogi helps protect you so you can focus on supporting your students. Yoga Birth Babies listeners receive $20 off an exclusive professional insurance membership. Visit beYogi.com/yogabirthbabies (https://beyogi.com/yogabirthbabies) to claim your discount.

To connect with Deb and the PYC Community: 

Instagram, Tik Tok, & Facebook: @prenatalyogacenter

Youtube: ⁠Prenatal Yoga Center

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this deeply personal episode of Yoga | Birth | Babies, we sit down with Caitlyn Sunseri, a doula and prenatal yoga teacher based in Bakersfield, CA, to talk about healing after a difficult birth and how that healing shaped a completely different second birth experience. Caitlyn opens up about her first birth with her son Ryder, the vision she held for it, and how reality diverged from that vision, and the years of emotional processing that followed as she prepared to grow her family again.

The conversation traces Caitlyn’s path from birth trauma recovery to becoming a doula and prenatal yoga teacher, and how that professional journey became intertwined with her own personal healing. She shares candidly about what it took to face the fear that history might repeat itself, the education and advocacy tools she leaned on the second time around, and what it meant to walk into the very same hospital room years later, this time experiencing the golden hour she’d missed the first time with her daughter Chloe.

This episode is a must-listen for anyone processing a hard birth story, preparing for a subsequent pregnancy after trauma, or simply looking to feel less alone in the complicated emotions that can follow childbirth. Caitlyn’s story is one of resilience, self-advocacy, and the power of informed, supported birth.

This episode is brought to you by beYogi offering professional liability insurance designed specifically for yoga teachers and wellness professionals. Whether you’re already teaching or just beginning your teacher training, beYogi helps protect you so you can focus on supporting your students. Yoga Birth Babies listeners receive $20 off an exclusive professional insurance membership. Visit beYogi.com/yogabirthbabies (https://beyogi.com/yogabirthbabies) to claim your discount.

Get the most out of each episode by checking out the show notes with links, resources, and other related podcasts at: ⁠prenatalyogacenter.com⁠

To connect with Deb and the PYC Community: 

Instagram & Facebook: @prenatalyogacenter

Youtube: ⁠Prenatal Yoga Center

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Pushing is one of the most anticipated and often most misunderstood stages of labor. In this episode, we sit down with Liz Wade and Shaina Brickner, The Birth Nurses, to break down what effective pushing actually looks like, what tends to go wrong, and how positioning can make all the difference in how labor unfolds.

Liz and Shaina share what they commonly see in the delivery room that isn’t always working in a birthing person’s favor, and they explain the real risks of ineffective pushing so you know what to watch for and why technique matters. They also demystify a phrase many people hear from their care provider: that you can push in any position, but may need to shift for delivery, and offer practical language for how to advocate for the birthing positions and breathing techniques (including moving away from valsalva breathing) that feel right for your body.

To bring it all together, they share their own pushing-stage birth stories, offering an honest, relatable look at how different the experience can be from what you might expect.

In this episode, we discuss:

This episode is brought to you by beYogi offering professional liability insurance designed specifically for yoga teachers and wellness professionals. Whether you’re already teaching or just beginning your teacher training, beYogi helps protect you so you can focus on supporting your students. Yoga Birth Babies listeners receive $20 off an exclusive professional insurance membership. Visit beYogi.com/yogabirthbabies (https://beyogi.com/yogabirthbabies) to claim your discount.

Get the most out of each episode by checking out the show notes with links, resources, and other related podcasts at: prenatalyogacenter.com

To connect with Deb and the PYC Community: 

Instagram & Facebook: @prenatalyogacenter

Youtube: Prenatal Yoga Center

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode, we’re joined by Nicole Kruck, L.Ac., L.M.T., founder of Fertile Garden Wellness in New York City, for a warm and informative conversation about acupuncture, bodywork, and integrative care throughout fertility, pregnancy, birth, and postpartum. Nicole shares how she approaches women’s health through an integrative lens and explains how acupuncture and bodywork can complement fertility treatments, IVF, obstetric care, and postpartum recovery.

We take a closer look at two common reasons expectant parents seek acupuncture: breech presentation and preparation for induction. Nicole explains the potential role of acupuncture and moxibustion in supporting breech positioning, when these approaches are typically considered, and what we currently know about the research. We also discuss acupuncture for birth preparation, when it may not be appropriate, and the importance of honoring the limits of what any treatment can accomplish.

Throughout the conversation, Nicole emphasizes a balanced approach—exploring supportive options while working alongside conventional medical care and recognizing that pregnancy and birth don't always unfold according to plan. It’s a conversation about informed choices, whole-person support, and finding ways to feel grounded during a time filled with uncertainty and change.

• Get the most out of each episode by checking out the show notes with links, resources and other related podcasts at: prenatalyogacenter.com

• Don’t forget to grab your FREE guide, 5 Simple Solutions to the Most

Common Pregnancy Pains HERE

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To connect with Deb and the PYC Community:

Instagram & Facebook: @prenatalyogacenter

Youtube: Prenatal Yoga Center

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