Birth Matters

Today’s birth story is shared by Aatreyi, a podcast listener who worked with a wonderful doula from East River Doula Collective. She shares her experience navigating pregnancy and birth in New York City (as is usually the case on this podcast). Aatreyi also talks about the pivotal role acupuncture played in starting her labor right before her due date, helping her avoid a medical induction. We discuss how the constant focus on perc...

In today's episode, we're joined by Priscilla and Micah, who share their deeply personal journey from miscarriage to a blissful home birth experience. They open up about the challenges of navigating their birthing location and provider and how they had their choice to plan a homebirth affirmed in several ways throughout pregnancy, including through their own research, doula, and birth class. They detail the spiritual, emo...

Following Michelle’s first baby’s unmedicated hospital birth, which she shared in Episode 86, Michelle is surprised to be told at around 39 weeks that she needs to go straight to the hospital to be induced due to gestational hypertension. She advocates to go home to say goodbye to her son and grab her bag. Once she checks into the hospital for the induction, it goes much more efficiently than anticipated and she’s able to give birt...

In this episode, Liz and Kevin open up about their journey through pregnancy, sharing their firsthand experience with white coat hypertension and the challenges it brought. They discuss the pressures they faced around induction, their decision to delay an induction in hopes of an unmedicated birth, and the lessons they learned along the way. They also talk a bit about breastfeeding and how identifying and correcting a tongue tie th...

In this episode, we welcome Alaska McFadden—birth doula, childbirth educator, lactation counselor, and occasional home birth midwife assistant—who shares her powerful transition from birthworker to birthing person. Alaska opens up about her path to pregnancy after a previous loss, navigating conception at 37, and the emotional complexities of carrying a baby after supporting so many others in doing the same.

Alaska discusses the cha...

In this episode, Lisa reconnects with Ann Morris—doula, childbirth educator, and mother of two—to hear the powerful story of her second birth: a planned home birth after a positive hospital experience. Ann shares why she chose midwifery care, how her husband became her “moula,” and how she prepped mentally and physically for a peaceful, water birth at home. From laborade popsicles to postpartum healing and navigating breastfeeding ...

Due to her experience working in Brooklyn hospitals as a social worker, Lindsay chose to work with midwives for a more personalized birthing experience. Her story includes gleaning lots of tips from friends who gave birth shortly before her, some fairly extreme work stress leading up to labor, the confusion of stop-start labor, how she had to wait a long time to get the epidural and then it slowed progress, how multiple visitors pr...

Today, Donna shares her transformative journey from a first birth experience via C-section to achieving a VBAC (Vaginal Birth After Cesarean) with her second child. She describes her extensive preparations, the critical role of her doula, and the stark differences between her two birth experiences. From facing prodromal labor to making informed choices like hiring a supportive healthcare team and deciding on an epidural, Donna reli...

In this episode, Rachel, a mother of three boys, a doula, and a passionate advocate for maternal health shares her transformative journey through her three pregnancies and births. She details the challenges of her first traumatic C-section, the struggle and acceptance of her second scheduled C-section, and then her victorious vaginal birth after 2 cesareans with her third baby. We discuss the systemic biases and disparities in heal...

Today Bea shares her perinatal journey from dealing with unexpected infertility and IVF to the whirlwind experience of a fast labor and delivery. She discusses the realities of fertility treatments and the specific challenges surrounding her fear of needles, the surprise of her water breaking dramatically while she was asleep, and a bit about the great support she got in early breastfeeding, sleep challenges, and an early thyroid i...

Today's episode is a combination of 3 birth stories and then a chat with a fellow birth worker named Meagan Heaton, co-founder of The VBAC Link. She's going to share a little bit about her three births, which include two cesareans and one vaginal birth after two cesareans. Then we have a chat about vaginal birth after cesarean. This episode should be interesting and educational even if you are expecting your first baby an...

Seanna had a traumatic first birth in 2020. It was an emergency cesarean in 2020 in which she felt completely unempowered. In her 2nd pregnancy, she makes many different decisions in hopes to have a radically different, more empowering birth. She goes to therapy to process and heal from the birth trauma with the help of EMDR. Seanna takes birth class and learns how to advocate for herself and her baby, hires doulas, chooses a truly...

Today NYC obstetricians Drs. Worth & Mussalli chat with Lisa to discuss all the ins and outs of gentle cesarean as well as the different medical indications for a c-section. They also compare and contrast planned cesareans to emergency cesareans to non-emergent cesareans. You’ll also hear them detail a new collaborative care model pathway in which pregnant folks in NYC can get prenatal care with them and then transfer their car...

Upper West Sider Diana wanted an unmedicated birth and prepared by hiring doulas and switching from a large OB practice to a hospital midwife in an OB practice that she felt much more comfortable with. As she approaches her due time and her provider starts bringing up scheduling an induction at 40 weeks, she does all the things to try to go into labor. At 39 weeks, her water ruptures spontaneously (and loudly) while sleeping and sh...

Today we welcome new mom, Chantal. Previously diagnosed with polycystic ovarian syndrome, Chantal expected getting pregnant to take a while, so getting pregnant on the first try came as a surprise. On the heels of completing birth class and having a marathon of 3 baby showers, another surprise happens when Chantal’s water breaks prematurely at 35 weeks. When she arrives at the hospital, she learns her hospital has a free doula prog...

Today you’ll hear from one of the two homebirth midwives that was highlighted and praised in the last episode. Our guest today is Sorayya Kassamali Rickicki, a New York City-based home birth midwife whose practice is called Taarab Midwifery. Sorayya shares her journey from being a birth doula to becoming a midwife, inspired by her own physiologic, unmedicated births. The conversation emphasizes the importance of respectful care, th...

In this episode, Sheyda and her partner Corentin (who goes by Coco) share their experience of having a home birth for their son, Hugo. They discuss their prenatal journey in choosing to give birth at home with a midwife team and doula team and how ideal their birth team was for them because they prioritized consent-based, connected care. They share how, while the labor and birth went pretty smoothly, Sheyda chose to transfer to the...

Tracy’s second pregnancy surprises her by being much more challenging than the first. Toward the end of pregnancy, baby #2 is persistently transverse (or sideways) and her OB recommends manually turning the baby. Tracy isn’t fond of that idea, so she does some research and goes to a chiropractor who specializes in helping with this using the Webster technique. Baby successfully flips and Tracy’s able to have the vaginal birth she w...

Brooklyn-based craniosacral therapist Regina Patane (BabyCranioNY) joins Lisa to provide some educational insights into this alternative modality of bodywork that can support babies and parents in their recovery from the birthing process. She not only explains the technique itself but also gives specific examples of how powerfully it can help a baby and parent receive gentle adjustments from the physically arduous experience they’v...