Reclaiming Your Birth Story Guide Episode 2: Module 1, Understanding Your Birth Story

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Discover the transformative journey of childbirth as we unveil the first module of our deeply resonant course, 'Processing Your Birth Story.' With Natalie sun-kissed in San Diego, I, Liz, am here to gently guide you through the complex emotional landscape that accompanies the arrival of new life. As new doulas and mothers, we understand the intricate weave of emotions that birth stories hold. This episode is an invitation to embrace and process every shade of those emotions, empowering you to step into your story with courage and clarity.

Embark on an exploration with us into the emotional impact of childbirth and its enduring resonance in our lives. We'll navigate through the joy, the challenges, and the myriad feelings in between, holding space for your personal narrative. Whether you're deep in postpartum or preparing for future births, this episode is a heartfelt offering to connect, support, and celebrate your unique experience. We're not just sharing stories; we're fostering a community of healing and empowerment. Join us as we lay the groundwork for peace, understanding, and a reclaiming of the birth story that is wholly yours.

Introducing the "Reclaiming Your Birth Story: Your Path to Healing and Empowerment" course, led by us, Liz and Natalie – passionate birth advocates and postpartum doulas. As professionals in the field, we bring not only our expertise but also the invaluable gift of firsthand understanding. Join us on a path to healing, recovery, and empowerment as you reclaim your birth story and emerge stronger than ever.

Thank you for being a part of the Golden Hour Birth Podcast community. Your support means the world to us.Stay golden!

To sign up for our newsletter visit our website and blog: www.goldenhourbirthpodcast.com
Follow Liz on Instagram here and Natalie here
Follow us on Facebook here.

xoxo-Liz & Natalie

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to the Golden Hour Birth Podcast, where we
navigate the transformativejourney of birth stories, aiming
to empower and heal.
I am your co-host, liz, and myco-host, natalie, is in San
Diego right now on amuch-deserved vacation, but we
are passionate birth advocatesand we're doulas in training.
We're exploring the depths ofbirth experiences.

(00:22):
We're offering insights andguidance and a pathway to
reclaiming your narrative.
In today's episode, we'll begiving you a sneak peek at
module one of our upcomingmini-course Processing your
Birth Story, finding Peace andHealing the Golden Hour Birth
Podcast a podcast about realbirth stories and creating

(00:42):
connections through our sharedexperiences.
Childbirth isn't just about thechild.
It's about the person who gavebirth, their lives, their wisdom
and their empowerment.
We're Liz and Natalie, theGolden Hour Birth Podcast, and
we're here to laugh with you,cry with you and hold space for
you.
Welcome back to an episode ofthe Golden Hour Birth Podcast.

(01:06):
In today's episode, we're goingto be giving you an overview of
module one of our upcomingcourse, and I just wanted to
give you guys a little bit of anupdate on what's going on with
Natalie and I.
We both finished up our doulatraining and Natalie has her
first client, which is soexciting because she's been

(01:30):
working really hard at this and,as you guys know, we are
working moms, we both have twokids and we both work full-time
jobs and we do the podcast.
So adding on another thingwhich we are passionate about
has been trying at times, butbecause we are so passionate
about it, we just really feel acalling to this work.

(01:54):
We really just want to besupportive to every mother and
birthing person out there, whichis why we do the podcast too,
and now we're doing it inhands-on work as well, which we
are very excited about.
So go ahead and if you knowanybody who needs a doula, we

(02:16):
also do virtual.
Send them our way.
We would be very appreciativefor Send them our podcast.
All right, so today we're goingto talk about our course which
we've created, which is allabout reclaiming your birth
story, processing those feelingsand just really coming to terms
with a birth story, whetherit's positive, negative.

(02:38):
Coming to terms with everythingthat happened during your birth
experience is it just has somany benefits, becoming
empowered, dealing withunresolved emotions that might
come up later If you're inpostpartum right now, just
enhancing that experience,finding connection and support

(03:00):
and then preparation for futurebirths.
This is just an overview ofmodule one, so we'll just dive
right into it.
Giving birth is such an intenseand transformative experience
that it stays with you kind offor your whole life.
I know even like my mom stilltalks about it a little bit from

(03:20):
what she remembers, but I knowI talk about it and my kid is
five years old now, so it stilljust comes up in like different
aspects of my life and manywomen look back on their birth
with joy and pride.
For others, it can bring updifficult emotions like fear,
anxiety, disappointment andsometimes trauma, which is why

(03:42):
we created this course toprovide a space to acknowledge
your birth story, understand itsimpact and move towards healing
.
And in module one we lay thegroundwork to do just that.
So the first topic in module oneis the emotional impact.
So we start by talking aboutidentifying and acknowledging

(04:04):
the emotional impact of yourbirth.
The experience of bringing lifeinto the world is incredibly
powerful on an emotional level.
These emotions can vary widely,from euphoric eyes to
distressing lows.
We all know that labor landfeeling.
It's so important to identifywhat you personally felt,

(04:24):
whether it was joy, grief, peace, anger or, like mine, a whole
mix of emotions, making spacefor your feelings and naming
them is the first step inprocessing your experience.
My own birth experience wasmarked by a lot of challenges,
if you've heard my story aretain placenta, hemorrhaging,

(04:46):
the transfer to the hospitalfloor.
My postpartum period was verydaunting feeding difficulties
and anxiety.
But I always describe my birthas very positive and empowering.
So you know, it's just a wholemix of emotions and throughout

(05:08):
all of this time I had feelingsof guilt, self-blame and
isolation.
In this topic we'll kind of walkyou through.
We'll walk you through on kindof reflecting your birth story,
getting in touch with the fullrange of emotions that it brings
up for you.
This reflection andacknowledgement sets the stage
for addressing unresolved issuesdown the road.

(05:30):
And then we have topic two,which is talking about the
deeper meaning.
So we explore how your birthstory holds a deeper meaning and
significance in your life,beyond just what you know
physically happened that day.
Your birth experience canprofoundly shape your
perspective on yourself.
You know the topic ofself-blame comes up a lot in our

(05:56):
birth stories.
We hear so many people talkingabout how they felt like their
body failed them, justvariations of that, and
self-blame is a big, you know,emotion that people just don't
really deal with.
So we'll discuss how to uncoverthe beliefs, assumptions or

(06:18):
different emotional patternsthat may have come from your
birth story.
For example, if you, you know,felt out of control during birth
, that could influence yourbeliefs about your own
capabilities and trusting yourbody, which is another huge
issue that can come up.
You know, we stop trusting ourbodies, we stop trusting our

(06:40):
intuition.
So by recognizing areas likethis, where your birth
experience shaped you, you canstart to challenge your limiting
beliefs and develop new,empowering ones.
And our course providesdifferent exercises, like
journaling, to help you divedeeper into those implications
of your story.
So then we have our third topicin module one, which is the

(07:06):
importance of processing.
So, finally, we'll look at whyactively processing your birth
story is so crucial for healingand growth.
It goes beyond just retellingyour birth story to others,
which I'm sure we've all doneplenty of times.
It's the internal work toaddress the emotions, fears and

(07:28):
unresolved issues.
And what we've found from ourexperience doing the podcast is
that so many people, probablyjust like you, may not even
recognize the experience todifficult birth until weeks or
months after the delivery roomlights have dimmed.
It can manifest as overwhelminganxiety from a complicated

(07:54):
postpartum period like myselfguilt and self-blame from
unexpected to the end,unexpected challenges in having
to have a C-section,breastfeeding, or flashbacks of
any moments that felt kind ofanything but empowering.
So the truth is, birth traumawears many different masks.

(08:19):
But of course, this course isn'tjust for people who've
experienced birth trauma.
It can be just unpacking kindof any negative feelings that
surround it.
Maybe somebody in your lifewasn't as helpful as you hoped
they would be.
You had a baby.

(08:40):
That was difficult.
There's just a lot of differentthings, and birth trauma can
even come in many differentforms.
So not being listened to,getting a cervical check that
you didn't consent to, I meanyeah, the list can go on and on.

(09:02):
We talked about that in thefirst episode of this kind of
mini course episode, so we'rejust really hoping that this
course can be a beacon of hope,offering a path to healing,
recovery, empowerment, guardlists of the path your birth may

(09:23):
have taken.
We hope that it's time toreclaim your birth story and
write a new chapter filled withstrength, resilience and renewed
understanding.
We'll share all the benefitsthat can come with processing
your birth story increaseself-awareness, personal
empowerment, resolving fears,strengthening resilience and a

(09:45):
lot more and we'll talk aboutdifferent methods you can use,
like talking to a friend ortherapist, journaling, joining
support groups, tryingexpressive arts so many
different things.
The key is creating a safespace to fully explore your
experience and emerge withgreater understanding and peace.

(10:06):
We'll provide tangibletechniques to guide you through
this journey.
So that'll be kind of what wecover in module one.
We'll be doing some more ofthese episodes, kind of going
through all the differentmodules, so that you can get a
good idea of what you're gettinginto before signing up for our

(10:26):
course.
We want you to trust us, trustthe process, trust the course,
so that you can feel safe to beable to take this emotional
journey.
So, as you can see, the courseprovides an in-depth roadmap to
reflect on your birth story,understand its impact and take
steps towards emotional healing.

(10:46):
So stay tuned for the fullcourse launch coming soon.
I don't think we have an exactdate yet.
It is still in the works.
We did have a little issue withrecording our recording our
videos.
It just got lost pretty much.
I had tech support looking forit and yeah, so you know just

(11:13):
techie things that we're notthat great at, but we can't wait
for you to join our communityand continue your healing
journey.
If you have any thoughts orreflections after listening to
this episode, if you wanna hearmore, just feel free to reach
out.
You could also find us onInstagram and Facebook.
But yeah, we will be back nextweek with another birth story,

(11:39):
so stay tuned for that.
We're still doing those Everyother week for now.
You know, as life goes just gota little overwhelming for us to
be kind of producing theseepisodes every week.
You know it is just that night.
We record each episodeourselves, we edit each episode.

(12:03):
We have to put it up on thewebsite or see I don't even know
the tech words for this Ourhosting podcast website, put it
out to Apple and Spotify, andthen we do the marketing as well
.
So we truly, truly appreciateif you share this with anybody

(12:25):
who you think might be helpful,any of our birth story episodes,
anything just to get us youknow more listeners and get the
word out, so we will catch younext episode.
Thank you for joining us on thisepisode of the Golden Hour
Birth Podcast.
We hope you've enjoyed ourdiscussion and found it

(12:48):
insightful and beneficial.
Remember, the Golden Hour BirthPodcast is made possible by the
support of listeners like you.
If you appreciate the contentwe bring you each week, consider
leaving us a review on yourfavorite podcast platform or
sharing the show with yourfriends and family.
Your support helps us reachmore people and continue
creating valuable episodes.

(13:09):
If you have any questions,suggestions or topics you'd like
us to cover in future episodes,we'd love to hear from you.
You can reach us on our website, www.
Goldenhourbirthpodcast, orconnect with us on social media.
We value your feedback and wantto make sure that we're
delivering the content you wantto hear.
Before we sign off, we'd liketo express our gratitude to our

(13:33):
incredible guests who joined ustoday.
We are honored that they trustus enough to be so open and
vulnerable.
We're grateful for their timeand willingness to share their
stories with us.
If you're interested in takingthe conversation further with us
, join us on our Facebook group,the Golden Hour Birth Circle.
We'll be back next week withanother exciting episode, so be

(13:53):
sure to tune in.
Until then, stay golden andremember to take care of
yourself.
We'll catch you on the nextepisode of the Golden Hour Birth
Podcast.
Bye.