Ep. 24 Choosing home birth her second time around, with Anne Smanik

Anne is a mom to two boys- James and Charlie.  Before becoming a mom she was a Pastry Chef.  After experiencing serious burn out in the restaurant industry, she shifted to coaching Crossfit.  Then, while pregnant with her first son, she became certified as a Pregnancy and Postpartum Athleticism coach because she was not getting answers to her questions on exercise in pregnancy.  She had her first son in a hospital with an obstetrician, and quickly realized that the whole experience was not what she wanted.  Three years later, she had her second son at home under the care of a midwife.  Both experiences taught her so much about herself as well as the birth world.

Anne is a friend from my OG Crossfit gym in Brooklyn, shout out to Crossfit 718!

 I wanted to have her on the show to share her birth stories, and, more importantly, to talk us through why she had a hospital birth with her first baby and a home birth with her second. 

This is so important for people to hear because Anne’s story is not unique. Many have a first baby in the hospital for a variety of reasons but partly if not entirely, because they were raised believing that this is the safest way to do things and they simply don’t question it as a norm. But for many young and healthy women, having a baby is often the first time they are a “patient” in the hospital, and some will walk away from this experience feeling unsupported, others will feel as if they were fighting an uphill battle, some will be traumatized, obstetric violence and coercion is real. Some people have received the inaccurate memo that out of hospital birth is unsafe. Many don’t know what a midwife is or exactly what we do or where we do it.

Join us as Anne shares her journey with us.

Resources

• Christiane McColskey, City Midwifery (Anne's Midwife mentioned in this episode)
• Tanya Wills, Manhattan Birth (Anne took a class with this awesome midwife to prepare for a home birth)
• New Yorker Article on home birth - Martine Jean Baptiste, one of the two midwives featured in this article will be a guest next season.

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