Episode 12: Catching Triplets with Kristine Lauria, Midwife

In this episode of the Birth Like a Mammal™ podcast, Lindsay sits down with Kristine Lauria, an international midwife who currently works for Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders). She specializes in high-risk maternity care in low-resource settings and is passionate in her support of breech birth, bodily autonomy in medical decision making and is a staunch advocate for undisturbed, physiologic birth. She has attended over 5000 births in more than 25 countries around the world, including many sets of twins and triplets. When not in the field with MSF, she is an instructor with Breech Without Borders and is also their Global Midwifery Director. She lives in Michigan's upper peninsula with her dogs.

Earlier this year, Kristine went viral on Instagram for supporting a triplet home birth. Lindsay was so impressed with Kristine's energy and awareness illustrated in the video, she immediately reached out and asked Kristine for an interview.

During this discussion, Kristine gives us a replay of the aforementioned triplet birth as well as an additional triplet birth she had attended previously. She gives us insight into her midwifery apprenticeship and her work abroad in third world countries. Lindsay and Kristine discuss disruption to mammalian birth, where the responsibility lies when it comes to birth, especially at home, and how *talking* in itself is an intervention during labor.

Kristine shares her journey to midwifery, her own experience birthing her son 20+ years ago, and how pervasive the lack of knowledge regarding how mammalian birth functions is within obstetrics. Lindsay labels Kristine "an authentic midwife" to describe how true to the definition of "midwife" Kristine's practice is. This is a fantastic episode to tune into if you are considering home birth, or perhaps experienced a reproduction of obstetrics from a licensed midwife during your baby's home birth. Kristine is the real deal.

Quotes from Kristine:

• "She knew that this was her show, she had to do this......(she) took full responsibility for birth and did not see me as her savior."
• "I consider talking an intervention at a birth, because it is. And every time you open you mouth, you are taking a little bit away form that person's experience."
• "It's THEIR show, it's not MY show."
• "So, then is it any wonder why there is such a huge movement of people moving away form even home birth midwives and just deciding 'well i guess we better do this ourselves because we can't have what we want'?" 

Kristine Lauria can be found @globalmidwife64 on Instagram and you can follow her travels and work at www.midwifewithoutboundaries.wordpress.com. 

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Music Credit:

Snow Path by Vlad Gluschenko | https://soundcloud.com/vgl9

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