25. Taking Responsibility for Your Birth with Kelly and Tiffany of Beautiful One Midwifery

Episode Transcript
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Natalie (00:00):
Welcome back to the Resource Doula Podcast.
On today's episode, I chat withKelly and Tiffany of Beautiful
one Midwifery out of San Diego,about home birth, taking
responsibility for yourhealthcare and shifting
perspectives about birth.
I'm Natalie and you're listeningto the Resource Doula Podcast, a
place where we provideinformation to help you make
informed healthcare decisionsfor yourself and your family.

(00:37):
Kelly and Tiffany help naturallyminded women who are fed up with
the medical perspectives ontheir female health concerns,
guiding them towards solutionsthat address the root cause of
their symptoms and help themregain control.
Kelly and Tiffany foundedBeautiful one Midwifery in 2018.
As young moms and new midwivespassionate about normalizing

(00:57):
female health education andequipping women to make the
changes they desire withaccessible information and
simple.
Tools.
Five impactful years later, theyhave cultivated a lively online
community, a thriving in-personclinical practice in San Diego,
and an extensive collection ofalternative health resources
that empower women to takecontrol of their health from

(01:19):
home.
Hey ladies, welcome to the show.

Kelly & Tiffany (01:24):
thank you so much for having us.
We're super excited to be here.
Yeah, what a wonderful, um,opportunity, Natalie.
Thank you.

Natalie (01:31):
Yeah, thank you guys so much for being here.
So I wanted to just ask you guyswhat led you to your career now?
What made you decide, do youwanna be home birth midwives?

Uh, what, what's kind of funny is that I
feel like we were on somewhatsimilar trajectories, but just
kind of parallel not knowingeach other.
Um, our experiences with our ownfirst pregnancies and births
kind of pushed us into, uh,doula support into wanting to be

(02:03):
involved in birth work for twototally different reasons.
I feel like Tiffany was like, ohman, that was not what I like,
was prepared for.
I needed some extra support and.
My first birth was actuallypretty straightforward, but my
husband was the one who waslike, I felt totally uh, kind of
railroaded by it and that's whatkind of pushed me towards birth

(02:25):
work in general, which was acomplete pivot in both of our
lives.
Um, and it's kind of funny cuzit happened around the same
time, like within six months orso of each other, again, not
knowing each other, which iskind of sweet.

Natalie (02:37):
That's

I w like, there's so many parallels to our
story, including as we get tothe end of midwifery school is
when we first really startedwanting to touch base with each
other.
We just knew each other asdoulas in the community who are
also student midwives.
And anyone out there who's astudent midwife, like your life
is the most chaotic, craziestthing during this time.

(03:02):
In the worst way.
Not in a great way.
It's an absolute worst way.
And, um, and Kelly and I justfelt brave enough in one
interaction to kind of open upabout the taboo of saying how
hard it is to be a studentmidwife.
Like it's just not, it's nottalked about enough or it wasn't
back then for sure.

(03:24):
And we both just felt braveenough to say, I don't know if
like this is the actual path, ifthis is the type of sacrifice
that it means for my family, myhealth, my mental health, my
relationships, everything.
And that's how we ended uppartnering together because we
both felt like we wanted tocreate something different out

(03:46):
of our own birth experiences.
Um, that kind of pushed us intobirth work, but also out of just
wanting midwifery to lookdifferently for us as we, you
know, came into.

Natalie (03:58):
That's amazing.
Yeah, I think you guys are likethe only ones who I've ever seen
talk about sustainable midwiferyon, well, on social media.
But in general, and I know it'schallenging cuz most midwives
work by themselves and they'reon-call like a hundred percent
of the time.
So Yeah.
How did you, how did you createthis sustainable framework?

(04:20):
How did you start with that?

I mean, it's, it's born out of exactly what
you said, right?
We, what we witnessed and kindof grew up in midwifery in was a
solo midwife with a busypractice and carrying a large
load on their back, and, whichis.
you know, not necessarily in andof itself a bad thing, but we
were just recognizing that pacewas not sustainable for having

(04:45):
young children, forhomeschooling young children.
All of the pieces in our liveswere not set up to support that
kind of lifestyle.
And so, you know, we really wereintentional as we decided to get
into practice about how tosupport each other, how to take
turns on certain things, how tonot overwhelm ourselves with too

(05:10):
many clients at once in terms ofnot only just.
The lifestyle that that means,but also the care that we can
really intentionally providewith a smaller amount of
clientele.
And I mean, you know, just doulawork in gen and doula work,
birth work, um, being on call isits own thing.
So whether or not you're out ofbirth, just the fact of being on

(05:32):
call for it is, um, is quite abit of responsibility and
heaviness too, of always havingan exit plan and all of that.
And so that's, uh, just kind ofpropelled us into recognizing
that this really does matterboth for ourselves, our
families, and our clients too.

Natalie (05:48):
Yeah.
And it's doable.
It's actually achievable.
So are you guys on call rightnow or are you off call?
What's the status?

We are on call.
Yeah, we, um, but we're on callfor a friend of ours, and so it
doesn't feel quite the same asbeing on call for a client.
It's the same amount ofresponsibility we have to do the
same amount of work.
Um, but it's a different kind ofjoy to be looking forward to
being at your friend's sidewhile she has a baby.

(06:17):
So we just came off of like athree month off call break, um,
which was a huge part of oursustainability plan.

Natalie (06:26):
Yeah.
Yeah.
So you build in time that you'reaway from birth work.
You guys actually close yourcalendar, right?
And don't accept people

We did.
And, you know, boundaries can behard.
Things to not only set, but thenalso keep, and so having to say
no to some things that.
they're not bad things, right?
They're not, uh, saying no togood things in a lot of ways.
Um, but recognizing that your noalso means a yes to something
else that's really also good orpotentially better in that

(06:58):
season.
That, um, made it worth it.
But it grew me a lot in mydiscomfort of saying no, cuz I'm
very much a people pleaser.
So creating boundaries aroundthis work in particular, uh, has
been a helpful growth point forme personally.

Natalie (07:16):
That's a

Yeah.
And I'm not a people pleaser,but I love to have control of
all of the little details.
So as we go into this year, notreally knowing what it's going
to be and just surrendering alot of pieces to the process of
pulling back a little bit, we'rein a new space of.

Natalie (07:35):
Amazing.
That's the same word that I usedto describe my life and my
business in this last week.
I feel like this year it's ayear of growth.
It's a good thing.
Um,

Yeah, and growth can be uncomfortable, but
that doesn't mean it's bad,

Natalie (07:48):
no, I think it's a good thing.
Yeah.
Um, so if everybody can't moveto San Diego and choose you guys
then what would you recommend?
I had someone on Instagram askme what, what to ask you guys.
How would you select a midwifeand how do you know the home
birth midwife is the right onefor you specifically?

that's quite the, you know, that is the
question, right?
of how to figure out because,um, at least, I mean, here in
San Diego there are a lot ofchoices and a lot of different
personalities and differentpractice styles.
Um, so I know that that is truein a lot of other places.
Sometimes there's not a lot ofoptions, um, in your area.

(08:33):
So that kind of throws a bit ofa wrench into some things.
But, um, one of the biggestpieces is.
creating your own vision of howyou want to be supported, things
that are important specificallyto you, and then seeking out
answers from different careproviders as you're interviewing

(08:54):
or you are researching whatthose options kind of look like
to find somebody that not onlyaligns clinically, but that you
can feel comfortable andconfident asking those questions
with or too, and, um, you know,putting yourself out there a
little bit to be okay with, youknow, just somebody just putting

(09:15):
yourself out there right.
Of saying like, I might say noto this.
How does that make you feel um,or, you know, researching kind
of what those types of optionsare.
Um, one of the big things thatwe also recommend is reaching
out to, like childbirtheducators in the area or doulas
in the area to ask theirfeedback on some of the local

(09:37):
options.
too, cuz those are usually like,you know, direct feedback of I
worked with this person, hereare my thoughts.
I think that our, I think thatby the time women make the
decision that they want to havea midwife and they want to have
a home birth, most women arealready partway through the

(09:57):
pregnancy that they're makingthis choice for.
So potentially they've, um,already began care with another
care provider, maybe an OB or ahospital-based midwife, and
they're like realizing alongthat journey, oh, I don't think
this is leading to where I wantto go, or what I'm learning in

(10:19):
this pregnancy about my birthpreferences is turning out that
I need to make a differentdecision about how that is gonna
become a reality for me.
And so I think that we should beencouraging women to.
Be thinking about some of thesepieces before they even get
pregnant, because it's almostimpossible to discern as you're

(10:42):
pregnant and emotionally andmentally and physically.
Everything is just reallyculminating and coming to a
head, and you need, you need acare provider.
So, um, thinking about thedifferent ways that midwifery
care is given and the birthpreferences that you have in
relation to different midwiferystyles.

(11:04):
I think that concept almostblows most women's minds because
they can't believe that thesmall little niche of.
Midwives who would serve womenin a home birth setting could be
so vastly different and havesuch a vastly different approach
to care.
Um, and so as you arepotentially working through some

(11:25):
of those pieces, learning aboutbirth, learning about
physiological processes,learning about the things that
are gonna be offered to you incare and whether or not that
aligns with your choices goinginto your interview process
already, knowing that there's acertain type of care that you
want from a particular midwifewould be amazing.

(11:48):
Oh, that would be life changing.
Yes.
Because for sure, a lot ofwomen, um, have a, have a
perfectly fine experience withtheir home birth midwife, but
potentially get to the end ofthat care journey and.
Well, that wasn't just, thatwasn't quite what I had
expected.
And if I had known, whichsometimes you just can't know
until you do it yourself.
Right.
But if I had known that thismidwife was gonna feel so

(12:11):
strongly about this particularthing or Right, et cetera, et
cetera, then I would, I wouldhave liked to make a different
decision.
It's one of my favorite piecesof having a social media account
also, is when we share stuffabout our practice.
And not saying that we are the,uh, gold standard by any means,
but sharing the way that wepersonally clinically assess

(12:33):
things or the way that we managecertain situations.
It is amazing to me how manyresponses we get of, uh,
anywhere from people who havehad home births to hospital
births who are like, wow,that's, so, other than anything
I have heard before, even thewomen who have had multiple home

(12:53):
births with either the same ordifferent midwives.
Um, and so it's cool to be ableto put it out there of like, uh,
it's not a one size fits all.
And certainly there would bepeople who would not be, who
wouldn't like care from us forwhatever reason.
Right?
And so that's the, that's thejoy of, um, individualized care.

Natalie (13:13):
So are there any concrete examples you could
give?
I know there's a lot of facetsand components that go into
birth, but if someone weretrying to make a decision and
they're weighing it based onmaybe three to five main things,
could you put together a list?
Is that a really tough question?

I think the number one thing that women as
the consumer of their midwiferycare should be aware of is, are
you going to a person who is anexpert in the type of.
Birth that you want to have isthat their specialty?

(13:53):
To give the type of experiencethat you're hoping for.
And that's gonna change andevolve through the pregnancy as
you, as you sort that out.
Um, but if you wanna have acompletely hands off
physiological, just watchingover, I just want someone there
to watch in case somethinghappens that I know that they'll
jump in.
Or if I need help, I know thatsomeone will be right there.

(14:15):
But otherwise I don't want a lotof direction that's completely
different from somebody who, um,is feeling a little bit
intimidated about their ownability to give birth.
Actually, does want somebodythere performing a lot of
routine clinical reassurances,right?
Like so knowing that the type ofbirth you wanna have, that you

(14:37):
have the right care provider forthat.
But also I think sometimes aswomen, we don't give enough
credit to our intuition and howwe feel in the presence of other
people.
And so I would say that's a hugething.
You can get a, you can get awhole range of different kinds
of midwives, interview them, andthey're all gonna have basically

(14:58):
the same package, especially ina community, right?
We all end up kind of offeringvery, um, competitive services.
But, um, in an interviewprocess, you're potentially
going to hear the same exactanswers to the questions that
you ask.
Because if, if you don't have awhole lot of information on how

(15:20):
hemorrhages could be handled andevery midwife says that they
just do handle hemorrhages,like, oh yes, we come prepared
to handle a hemorrhage, then youare potentially satisfied with
that answer.
Um, but if you are able toconnect with the way.
That somebody answers and theattention they give and the
honor that they provide for theplace where you're at in your

(15:43):
journey and, and what you'retrying to figure out and
acknowledge all the differentchallenges that are inside of a
prenatal and care, um,relationship, and that settles
you in your soul.
That is a, I think that's animportant thing to pay attention
to rather than how thingspotentially look on paper.

(16:04):
Yeah, absolutely.
And I think, I mean, just givenwhat, like, it goes along with
what your whole podcast isabout, right?
Providing resources and so, uh,the focus on, in like true
informed decision making consentand refusal, uh, I think is just
so paramount to a woman'sexperience no matter where she

(16:27):
decides to give birth, no matterwhere she needs to give birth.
And, um, that is something that,Many people, I think, assume a
lot of midwives offer that's notalways necessarily the case,
depending on certain things.
And so being able to haveconversations about, um, actual
true choice can be kind of mindblowing.

(16:51):
Um, and I mean that's somethingthat's like near and dear to our
hearts too, um, is just thatfocus on getting the information
into your hands and then youdecide what you want to do with
it because you're actually theexpert in your own body and in
your family.
Like what a big message that is,especially when you're pregnant

(17:13):
for the first time.
Like to be given thatencouragement and wisdom of
like, no, you, you're competentto make your own decisions with
this information.
It's a lot of responsibility,but it's, it's really impactful.

Natalie (17:29):
I think informed consent and decision making is
becoming a bigger topic.
I've seen a lot of peopletalking about it, which is
really exciting and good.
Um, but I also hear that whenpeople ask questions to their
providers or their whateverpractitioner, regardless, you
know, if it's birth or not, theyget only the benefits of a
certain procedure orintervention or change in their

(17:53):
care, rather than the fullspectrum of here are the actual
risks, this is the percentage,all of that.
So, are there any resources thatyou guys would recommend to
someone who's starting outasking these questions?
Um, do they have to kind of gowith their heart and feel is
this provider giving me the fullstory, or is there a way to vet

(18:16):
that?

I, I personally feel, well, there's a bit of
intuition there, right?
If the answer you feel like,ooh, I would, I would like to
consent to that thing becausehow nice you made that sound.
Sometimes that's a bit of a redflag, right?
You're basically being informedto consent to something.
And so rather than actuallyhaving true informed, you know,

(18:38):
decision making, and so beingable to even ask, like, put your
provider on blast for their ownstatistics of what that looks
like in their practice, everyprovider should have at least a
ballpark of it.
Um, it's, it's an important partof our practice every year to go
through and be like, how manypeople actually said yes to GBS

(19:01):
testing or gestational diabetes?
What did people choose for thatto be able to.
What are we offering?
What are people accepting?
What are they declining?
Um, just to keep ourselves as,um, honest in the process as
well.
But everything should come withev no matter what.
Even doing nothing comes withits own benefits and its own

(19:22):
risks, right?
And so having somebody actuallyshare with you, okay, well this
is a risk.
Okay, well what does that riskactually look like?
Right?

Natalie (19:32):
Mm.

unfortunately, especially, I mean, it's
especially notable in hospitalsjust because that's the kind of
down the, uh, conveyor belt ofoptions there.
But being able to actually askthoughtful questions is a skill
that needs to be built up, um,along the way.

(19:53):
And like Tiff was saying too,choosing to birth in a space
that actually, and with a personwho actually is the, uh, expert
in what you're hoping for, givesyou a, I think, a better shot
at.
true informed decision making.

Natalie (20:09):
Yeah.

Yeah.
And like we can find research topretty much back up any position
that we would like to.
And so I love the concept ofevidence-based care and I think
that that's a standard thatproviders need to be held to.
And there's an overwhelmingamount of evidence that, um,
supports for or againstprocedures or other care

(20:30):
offerings, but even.
Even with that concept, which isour responsibility as providers
to provide evidence-basedinformation, it's not the
responsibility of the consumerto make a decision based off of
evidence.
There's lots of reasons thatpeople make decisions, and it's
not always scientific, likewe're talking about growing your

(20:53):
family and a physiologicalprocess in your body.
Like there's just, there's somany pieces of that, and so it
would be really easy to say, ohyeah, well jump over here.
They do a really good job atsyndicating the research on this
topic, which is true.
There's plenty of places thatyou know do that or ask your

(21:13):
care provider.
I would like to see some of theevidence that supports your
position on that.
Here's some that I found.
Can we have a discussion aboutit since yours?
Yours is, um, supporting thisidea, mind, supporting this
idea.
You're not the boss of my, mybirth or my decision.
It's actually me.

(21:33):
But I did hire you for yourexpertise.
So please let's you know, let'sput, give me some more
information besides justevidence.
What do you see in yourpractice?
What do you prefer?
Can you admit to having aparticular bias in an area?
We have to do that all the time.
We have to constantly say, well,the reason that this ends up

(21:54):
being a big part of our care isbecause we had a situation that
went like this, and we wouldlike to not repeat that.
However, it is still, you know,like, and so someone who is
willing to have some humilityinside of what we actually do
have control over as the careprovider.
But I think it's the dialogue.
I think women should be lookingfor the dialogue with their care
provider while they're trying tosort out, do they have, do they

(22:19):
have somebody who's gonna helpthem make a truly informed
choice?

Natalie (22:22):
I think that's really rare, and I think that would
surprise a lot of people to eventhink about approaching a
conversation like that withtheir provider.
But it's so necessary.
We, they're not experts on everysingle aspect of everything.
And it is, you're hiring them.
They work for you so you canhire and fire at will That's

(22:43):
what I always encourage people,like, even if you're 40 weeks,
sure.
Change providers if you need.
That might be a little bit of a,a challenge and comes with its
own issues, but yeah.
You're, you're the boss of yourown birth and pregnancy and
Yeah.
So it's, it's refreshing to hearproviders saying this and
encouraging people to have theseactual conversations with, with

(23:05):
their own practitioners.
Um,

And how sad is it that like it is relatively
rare, um, and that somebody'smind might be blown to be like,
oh, I can actually.

Natalie (23:15):
mm-hmm.

uh, have a dialogue about this.
I can actually ask questions.
I can actually, actuallypotentially even push back a
little bit.
Um, it's just unfortunate whereour maternity care system is,
that that is rare.

Natalie (23:29):
Yeah.
Do you guys see that changing?
Do you feel like the trend is,it's changing to more true
informed consent?

Yeah.
I, I mean, we have the benefitof course, in our own circles
because it ends up being reallyfar on one side of the spectrum
of, you know, the type offamilies that we usually
interact with.
But, um, I think that sometimeswe, in in birth workers
conversations around better carefor women, we sort of paint the

(24:00):
care provider or usually thehospital-based care provider as
the villain of like, well,they're just trying to follow
all these rules and they're justtrying to make it easy and fast
for themselves and they're just,Brushing me off or whatever.
And many of those things areabsolutely true, but it is not

(24:21):
your care provider'sresponsibility to provide you
with the birth experience thatyou want.
That is, whether it's a homebirth midwife or an obstetrician
who only does cesareans, it isnot their responsibility.
It is the woman'sresponsibility.
And I see a really cleartrajectory from bringing birth

(24:44):
out of the home into thehospital.
where women just let go of theirpower in that particular
situation.
And the reason, I think, part ofthe reason that we have the care
model in the hospital that we donow is not just because doctors
wanna control everything andturn everybody into little

(25:05):
birthing robots, it's becauseit's because they have been
forced to take responsibilityfor something that was never
theirs.
And so they're taking care ofthese hundreds and hundreds of
women who are like, well, Idon't know.
You went to medical school, youtell me what to do, or, I didn't
follow any of the advice thatyou gave me.
So now you do have to have thisintervention.

(25:26):
So now we take the smallpercentage of women who actually
want responsibility, they wantto take that back, but we have a
care model that doesn't supportit that way.
We don't have that, thatrelationship piece.
So we have plenty of times thatwe have families in our own
practice.
Who want us to just be a, alittle medical model that's nice

(25:49):
to them.
And says sweet things, but we'renot a medical model.
So when we say, actually you dohave to make this decision for
yourself, we can't do it foryou.
Or there isn't, there isn't aright decision here.
It really is just for you guysto discuss and kind of figure
out yourself.
Um, it can make them really,really uncomfortable and not

(26:11):
like midwifery care because ofthat, because they, they're more
comfortable giving away thatresponsibility to somebody else.

Natalie (26:19):
Wow.
That's like a golden nugget thatyou could cut out and post
everywhere.

Tiffany's full of them.
There's more, there's more tocome.
Just wait.

Natalie (26:30):
good.
Good.
Okay.
I wanted to move into some ofthe other Instagram questions
that I had.
Um, specifically someone whoknows that they want a home
birth, but the dad is a littleunsure.
So if you guys have anyrecommendations on how to quell
the dad's worries onspecifically emergencies that

(26:51):
may lead to a hospital transfer,

Yes.
That's probably one of the topquestions that we get asked in
consultations specifically fromdads.
They're like, wha how much isthis gonna cost me?
and, uh, what about my wife'ssafety and my baby?
Right?
And so really being able to stepback and talk about midwifery
care as, um, proactive andpreventative care from the

(27:16):
get-go.
It's not just about the birth.
It is this relationship thatwe're building for months that's
individualized to thisparticular family, to this
particular woman, her particularsymptoms.
Going in depth on her particularlab work.
All of those pieces comingtogether to help nourish her
body, well support her body wellthroughout the entire

(27:38):
experience.
And then providing informationabout, okay, in this next stage
of pregnancy, here's what we'regonna be focusing on.
Okay, we're getting towards thebirth.
Let's talk about some of thosecomplications even more.
Let's talk about the fact that,you know, yes, of course things
can happen.
And that is one of the gifts ofbeing trained as home birth

(28:01):
midwives is that we're so, um,we're so aware of what normal is
that if anything pings out ofthis little normal sphere, we're
immediately like, well, that'snot quite right.
What can we do to help bringthat back int back into this
little normal sphere?
Or maybe that thing pings outthere and it stays that way and
we communicate, okay, hey, likethis thing is happening.

(28:24):
let's give it some time.
See you, you know, let's trythese things, but see what else.
Um, you know, the story tells usin this birth, um, and
potentially other things startping and we're like, okay, we
need to have an actualconversation about, uh, needing
to get some extra resourceshere.
And that's the most often, um,reason for transfer is not like

(28:48):
a immediate out of nowhere.
It's sort of a story being toldof like, this is not the right
place.
It's usually a first time momwith a really, really long
labor.
Everything's just kind ofpointing to like some
therapeutic rest would be sogreat.
Um, but there of course arethings that can happen, you
know, more out of the blue or.

(29:09):
you know, that are a bit moreimmediate in nature.
And we as home birth midwivesare incredibly skilled in
bringing those things back tonormal, whether with our hands,
with, um, kind of naturaloptions like herbs and things
like that, or with medications,with neonatal resuscitation,
with resolving shoulderdystocias.
There are major things that canhappen that I personally, having

(29:33):
seen those things managed bothat home and in a hospital, um,
resonate much more with thephysiological nature that
midwives assess the situationwith and feel like, um, the
statistics point to it being,uh, a, an acceptable and safe

(29:54):
way to manage those things athome.
Well, and it also kind of, Thewomen are usually the ones who
are in the relationship, aremoving the midwifery search or
the ideal birth vision forward.
And so as much as you can bringyour partner along on that

(30:15):
process, um, the better.
Especially if they're havingsome strong feelings about it.
Most dads are just lackinginformation, so it's out of
ignorance that they have thisconcept of it being a really
dangerous situation or they justwanna know, like, do you have a

(30:35):
plan if something bad happens?
Because we're not here topretend like nothing bad ever
happens that there aren't anyrisks to home birth, right?
But we wanna create, uh, asetting for women to birth.
knowing what the risks are athome, and they're choosing those
risks over the risks of birthingin a facility.

(30:57):
And so making sure it kind ofgoes back, it just kinda goes
back to relationship andresponsibility again.
Right.
And sometimes that takes anentire pregnancy for a dad to
kind of wrap his head aroundlike, this is, this is your
baby, this is, this is yourresponsibility.
If there's information that youdon't have that you need to get
familiar with, that's yourresponsibility also.
Um, but again, being able to,being able to talk it out and,

(31:20):
and being able to see where thecare provider has limitations.
We've been asked questionsbefore, like, well, what would
you do if such and suchhappened?
And we're like, I mean, we wouldbe, we would be in bad shape if
that happened at a home birth.
Like that would be a really,really difficult thing to
process.
We would do everything we couldto stabilize our client, but we

(31:41):
would call 9 1 1 and hope thatthey're coming as quickly as
possible in order.
I mean, that would be a trueemergency and the, the parents
have to sit with that answer.
That's true.
Like that is the truth of theanswer.
But people don't ask the samequestions of their ob.
Nobody comes up.
No one comes into, I mean, what,who is the, tell me the last

(32:05):
time somebody said, we'reinterviewing obese right now,
like they've made space in orderto try to pr, right.
Um, and then you go to yourfirst appointment and you're
like, well, this is kind of atrial.
I'm happy to have my firstprenatal care with you, but I
actually have some questions totry to determine if you're a
good fit for me or not.
Um, the things that women wouldwalk into a midwifery interview

(32:28):
with and ask a potential midwifeversus what they would feel
comfortable asking their doctor,you just would never see those
parallels.
You would not have the sameconversation.
Um, and so I would challenge theconsumer to have a baseline of
no matter where you're choosingto give birth, hold your care

(32:50):
provider to the same standard.
and feel like you can go into anO'S office and say, what are
your limitations?
You're, he, we're here inside ofthis facility where we have a
quick response to emergencies,but bad things still happen
there too.
And how, and how are you goingto keep me safe inside of that?
Right.
You're gonna end up with thesame exact answer.

(33:13):
Yeah.
If something really bad happens.
We're, we're s sol we're workingreally hard to try to stabilize
everything.
Um, and so there's just a,there's a certain amount of
inherent risk in all of life,but especially birth.
And I think people are reallyuncomfortable with that.
Um, when they don't haveinformation about it or when

(33:35):
they're not used to taking, whenthey're not used to taking
risks.
Absolutely.
There's, there's no actualcompletely a hundred percent
safe birth.
There's nothing in life that's ahundred percent risk free.
Right.
And so, uh, weighing thoserisks, On your two hands,
deciding the pros, cons, andwhat actually in, you know, is

(33:58):
in line with your family'svision for your birth, uh, how
you want to be treated.
All of those, like, it's gonnajust be a different answer for
everybody.
I will say though, we talkedabout this on Instagram, I don't
know, many months ago, andsomebody messaged us to say, I'm
newly pregnant.
And I called the three obs thatare in my insurance company and

(34:21):
one of them, only one said thatshe could come in for a 10
minute consultation to ask allof the questions that she
needed.
The rest of them wouldn't evenlet, they were like, you can,
you know, come in and have yourfirst appointment.
But she was like, well, I'mgonna take the 10 minutes I'm
just gonna go for it and see,and of, I had never actually

(34:42):
heard back from her, but, I waslike, that is wild to me.
Um, how just the two models arejust so insanely different and I
feel like midwifery provides atransparency that unfortunately
where the majority of women arebirthing just do, just doesn't

(35:03):
have this doesn't happen there.

Natalie (35:05):
Yeah, I think it's a case too, when you were saying
like birth is being taken out ofhomes or was a long time ago and
it's been in the hospital for solong, all of the media
representations of birth, all ofeverybody's grandmothers and
mother's stories of birth caninfluence.
I think more so sometimes thedads, because they, that's what

(35:25):
they.
they hear, oh my gosh, thishappened.
I was so thankful I was in thehospital because X, Y, and Z and
I was close to this, you know,emergency help.
But bringing it back into thehome is like a foreign concept,
which it, it shouldn't be,obviously that's more
physiological, right?
But I think it's, it's a scarything.
And the same, you guys probablyfeel this way about

(35:46):
breastfeeding.
We've covered it up for so longthat it's like foreign to even
see a boob or see a babybreastfeeding.
And so, so many women don't knowwhat they're doing or don't feel
like they're capable enough ofbreastfeeding their babies
because they haven't seen it.
They haven't seen it, theexample of it to them throughout
their life.
I dunno if you would agree withthat or not.

Yeah, we, we have, we have taken something
that is completely foundationalto family life, and we've made
it unfamiliar 50% of ourpopulation as women are going to
or have the ability to bemothers and to go through
pregnancy and birth, and theyarrive to this chapter in their

(36:31):
lives and they're completelyunfamiliar with something.
every woman before them has hadto do, right.
Yeah.
And for sure with breastfeedingwhen, even now still, but
especially when my girls werereally young, my daughters, um,
anytime we would ever seebreastfeeding, I would point it

(36:51):
out to them so that they couldsee and notice.
And when my friends were over atmy house breastfeeding their
babies, I'm like, if you don'tmind uncovering yourself just so
my daughters can see, like, havesome exposure to breastfeeding.
Um, it just is, it's such a nodto how unfamiliar this really
important concrete part of ourlives is in our society right

(37:14):
now.
and that's one of my favoritethings too.
I feel like I have so manyfavorite things, but, uh, this
is generat.
It's like changes generations,right?
Mm-hmm.
exposure to these types ofthings.
Seeing your sibling born at homeor hearing your own birth story
of being born at home, beingsurrounded by something that is
so normal.
It's so normal.

(37:36):
Um, whether it's birth orbreastfeeding, um, pregnancy,
all of it that, um, it reallycan change the way that our kids
and their f right move forwardas into adulthood.
And that, I feel like is wherewe're gonna start to really see
some consumer change as homebirth and midwifery care.

(37:57):
And all of that becomes more ofa, more of a thing right now.
Or at least it's like having itsmoment these last couple years,
especially coming back andseeing a resurgence of.
Women making differentdecisions.
I'm excited to see what thatgeneration of kids, you know,
grows up into.
As long as we keep conversationslike this going,

Natalie (38:18):
Yeah.
Well, I'm a prime example.
I'll tell you, I was at my twoyounger siblings births.
They were in the hospital, but Iwas there and I was four years
old for one and six years oldfor the other.
And look how I turned outbasically, you know, So I think
it was, I'm so, so thankful formy mom to bring both my older
brother and I into that becausewe had an idea of where babies

(38:39):
actually come from and the workthat it takes to get them here.
And then she breastfed also, andI was able to see that.
We called it milking the baby.
When you're done milking thebaby, can you do this with me?
So that is like a prime exampleof, you know, I'm familiar and
comfortable with talking aboutbirth and I know what it takes

(39:01):
and yeah, because I, I thinkit's really truly, cuz I saw it
when I was young, so,

Yeah.
A lot of our clients have thatquestion about like, should my
child be at the birth?
Especially when they're choosinghome birth and they're like,
well, it's easy cuz they'reeither asleep next in the next
room or just around.
And of course everybody'sdecision is gonna be different
depending on needs and desiresand, uh, a child's, uh, ability
to be able to manage some ofthose pieces that come along

(39:29):
with it.
But most of the time, the olderkids are still, like, their
behavior is even better than itnormally is, right?
They're just kind of like lockedin and it's, it's oftentimes
they're more, they more just getbored, right?
They're like, okay, mom's makingthe same noise.
Like, I'm just gonna wait forthe baby, I guess longer.
But how capable they are of likebearing witness to it and what

(39:52):
an impact it really has on them.
It's pretty rad.

Natalie (39:55):
Awesome.
Awesome.
Okay.
Going into some more nittygritty questions.
How do you prevent tearingduring delivery?
What are some strategies,

There's a lot of strategies out there that
women can consume, Um, it reallydepends on what the women's
desires are because, Again, backto the evidence.
If we start there, if we startwith evidence, we have evidence
that there are things you can doto prevent tearing, and we have
evidence that a hands offapproach actually, um, prevents

(40:31):
more tears.
And so now we have these twobodies of evidence that conflict
with each other, which isactually really beautiful place
for us clinically because itprovides a lot of freedom for
our clients to truly make achoice, um, for what they want.
The, the evidence that we havefor natural births in an

(40:54):
environment where the woman canfollow her own instincts and
move into positions that shewants to, and, um, really allow
for the biofeedback of thepushing phase to kind of guide
her and a supportive careprovider and environment that
allows that.

(41:15):
to happen, you know, for her tokind of be able to take charge.
Um, a hands off approachgenerally has better outcomes
for moms.
So anyone listening to this thatis planning on having a
different kind of experience,the numbers are gonna mean
something different for somebodywho is on an epidural, you know,

(41:36):
on their, on their back in thehospital bed.
So that's an importantdistinction as we look at the,
the outcomes that come out ofdifferent providers providing
support.
But the woman needs to say whatkind of support she would like
to have.
And of course, anybody who is atof birth wants there to be the

(42:02):
best outcome for the mom, right?
Um, and so anytime that we havethe ability to see where we can
get hands-on in order topreserve.
Tissue, we're going to do it nomatter what unless we start to
do it.
And she says no.
Um, but we tend to have a morehands off approach because it

(42:22):
kind of just supports the ethosof our care, which is you don't
need somebody's hands in yourvagina in order to ha for any of
this to unfold well, um, unlessshe wants it.
So I would say the, the biggestthing is first time moms who are
just terrified because theydon't know and they've heard

(42:43):
stories and they just think thattheir perineum, um, giving way
is going to be the absoluteworst thing that could possibly
happen to them.
And they have a lot of feararound it.
So we really work on it from apsychological perspective of
like, well, let's talk aboutthis really normal part of what

(43:04):
your vagina is able to do.
And, uh, come at it from kind ofprocessing the fear of it.
And then we have anothercategory of moms who have had
another birth in a, in adifferent setting usually, and
really have had a prettyterrible tear and healing
experience.
And we'll do the same thing.

(43:25):
We'll process all of thatthrough with them and try to
pick out like was it, was ityour position?
Was it the force of the babycoming out?
Is it your anatomy?
Is it right?
And like, let's just see how wecan try to support that tissue
the best.
But if those moms say, I'm gonnafeel so much more mentally
secure.
If you are just holding myperineum the entire time that

(43:47):
I'm pushing, then we get to say,absolutely you have all the
information and that is stillwhat your request is.
Even though it's not ourpreference.
Imagine that not our preference,but you have the information and
you are making the request forthe type of experience you want
to have.
That's the opportunity that wehave to provide women, um, in

(44:08):
that, in that place.
But in general, physiologicalbirth, that's hands off where
the mom gets to moveintuitively, push intuitively,
and ask for help when she feelslike she needs it.
With watchfully observant careproviders, that is what is going
to give her the greatest outcomewith her perineum.
Yeah, and to just make a littleside note too, there's no, um,

(44:34):
Does not mean anything aboutyour particular birth.
If you tear or you don't tear,or if you breathe your baby out
or you're put, right?
Like if you're listening to yourbody and your body says, I
actually do need to get thistissue out of the way completely
to get this baby out.
Um, then we can also say, well,your body needed to do that.

(44:57):
Right?
And that's not necessarily asign of that something went
wrong or that it was bad or, um,like just in and of itself.
And so I think that's helpfuljust to be reminded of that.
Like sometimes vaginas andperineums, sometimes they tear
and uh, and we can alsonormalize that piece of it as

(45:17):
well.

Natalie (45:18):
that's a really refreshing perspective.
I don't think I've heard anybodysay that before.
So thank you for saying it, Um,

some pearls of wisdom too.

Natalie (45:27):
you do next Instagram question, how do you afford a
home birth?
How do you access that if youdon't feel like you have the
money or the resources to payfor it?

That is probably one of the biggest
barriers to home birth, and Iwish it wasn't that way.
I wish money was not a like, Anissue in terms of actually
accessing the type of care thatyou would like.
Um, generally speaking though,especially when you're looking
into getting pregnant, um,there's a couple things just to

(46:03):
kind of be thinking about,including just shifting your
budgeting and paying over time.
Right.
Uh, just basically assessingthis is really important to me.
And if there was something elsein our home that needed work on
or in our car that Right.
We would just, we, we'd need tokind of figure it out.
Right.
And so, um, potentiallyassigning just the value that it

(46:27):
is worth it to invest in it, itis worth it.
Poten, I mean, I'm not a big fanof debt, but it's a potentially
worth it to go, you know, checkout a credit card situation or
whatever.
Um, I also recognize thatthere's a lot of insurance
companies that.
May be like on the surface, saythat they don't cover certain

(46:48):
things, but actually will giveyou, um, a bit of coverage at
the very least.
And so there are some piecesthat become a little bit more
affordable or a little moreaccessible with that, depending
on the type of insurance youhave.
One of our favorite things, um,that we've had many clients work
through our health shares.
And so those are not technicallyinsurance companies, but they're

(47:12):
like kind of a health collectivethat I think all of them view
pregnancy as a preexistingcondition.
So you would want to get on itbefore you get pregnant, but the
amount, I mean, they'll coveryour home birth in full.
We've had clients get theirsupplements covered,
chiropractic care, acupuncture,all types of things.
Um, that's shared within thislittle collective that that in

(47:35):
and of itself is a worthy thingto.
Look into if you're thinkingabout getting pregnant or you
think that, um, home birth maybe of interest to you.
And it's unfortunate thatinsurance companies don't
recognize how much money wesave.
Like we save them so much money.
Um, but also the change is gonnacome from consumers.

(47:55):
So if they're like laterinsurance company, I'm going to
this health share, you know, uh,potentially we're gonna start
seeing some shift in that maybe.
Well, and like I recognize thatinsurance is a huge part of the
health economy in our country inmany countries, our who's go, so

(48:18):
who's gonna be the boss of yourbirth then?
Like you, you already decidedthat you didn't want your OB to
be the boss of your birth.
So are, is your insurancecompany gonna be the boss of
your birth?
And I hate to compare it tosomething that, um, is just very
different cuz there's, there'snot a lot that you can compare
the cost of your birth to, it'sjust, it's weightier than

(48:42):
probably anything else.
But how did you figure out howto pay for all your other stuff?
Right?
How did you, and we're nottalking about tens of thousands
of dollars here.
We're talking about like, Ithink the country average is
like about$5,000 for the entirepackage of home birth midwifery.

(49:02):
And I recognize that there areabsolutely people out there who
cannot swing it.
They just will not, no matterwhat, be able to find a way to
pay$5,000 for their birth.
But most women can, most womencan borrow money, most women
can, um, budget for it.
Most women can sell some stuff,pick up odd jobs, cancel their

(49:25):
cable.
Um, how did you pay, how, howdid you put a down payment on
your house?
who paid for your wedding, youprobably didn't, you probably
didn't fund your$20,000 wedding,right?
Um, so look at your, look atyour resources, get creative
with your resources, but alsobarter trade.

(49:46):
Um, ask your midwife for apayment plan.
Midwives get burned on financesa lot.
And so, um, not a lot of themare, are able or feel like they
have the capacity to be reallygenerous.
But we will let people pay offtheir fee with us for up to six
months postpartum.
And so again, it kind of comesback to that consumer demand of

(50:07):
like, if we can create morefinancial space for clients in
order to, um, make it happenfinancially, like we want to be
a part of that too.
And then also recognizing thatyou're pay, you're paying for
your midwife to.

(50:28):
Show up that day, you're payingfor her to be available and to
potentially provide emergencycare on that day, right?
She might be at your house forfour hours at your birth.
She might be there for fourdays.
And there's a certain amount ofvalue that we can assign to this
person that we have asked to bethere with you, right?

(50:50):
Um, and, um, just appreciatingthe level of care that you get
from home birth midwifery.
It's not apples to apples.
You're not getting the sameaccess that you would with a
hospital-based provider.
You're not getting the samerelationship, you're not getting
the same attention to detail.
Um, And so it's, it's prettydifficult to compare one thing

(51:13):
to another, even though we're haeven though it's like the same,
we're we're, it's the samething, right?
We're trying to have a babyinside that space.
But I love my, probably myfavorite financial option for
women is that is a cost sharing,like a medical share.
Um, and I know that that doesn'twork for a lot of women who are
discovering while they'repregnant, that they want to have
a home birth, but also that,that would be an encouragement

(51:37):
to women who are planning aheadin all the spaces.
This is absolutely a worthwhilething to be planning ahead for.
I mean, little girls are pickingout the names that they're going
to name, you know, like theirbabies.
We start dreaming of how ourweddings are going to be.
The moment that we kind of likesomeone that we're dating, we're

(51:58):
like, okay, let's, let's startplanning the wedding.
Um, and so it, it would be okayto put a lot of weight into
planning your birth beforeyou're even pregnant.
So,

Natalie (52:07):
Yeah.
Yeah, it just makes sense.
It makes a lot of sense.
oh, this is what I was gonna askyou.
what does your, what does yourpostpartum care system look
like?
How does that differ from maybethe average?
And what do you guys, what doyou guys offer.

we love talking about postpartum care because
this is yet another way thatwomen and families have been
drastically shortchanged in ourmaternity care system, uh,
especially here.
So we provide six weeks ofin-home, uh, postpartum care,

(52:47):
and within that six weeks, we'recoming to our client's house.
On average, about of an houreach time, six different times.
Within the first week, we're atour client's homes three times,
right?
The next day, a couple daysafter that, we're there on week
one, just to ensure.
Um, adequate healing.
Breastfeeding is gettingestablished.

(53:09):
There's so much that goes on inthat first week especially, but
we're back there the followingweek and a couple weeks after
that and a couple weeks afterthat to just assess how are you,
how are you nourishing yourself?
Where are you at, emotionally,mentally, spiritually?
How is this transition intofamily looking?

(53:29):
Um, how is your pelvic floor?
How is your bleeding?
There's so many pieces thathappen between.
Most commonly when women getsent home from the hospital,
right, 24 or 48 hours later andhave one appointment six weeks
later, there's a crazy amount oflife that happens in there.
There's a crazy amount of thingsthat can go sideways during that
time also.

(53:50):
Um, and so we love being ableto, you know, be as present as
we possibly can in that space.
We make ourselves reallyavailable to those early
postpartum clients.
But something else that wasreally valuable to us was, um,
creating an, creating anextended postpartum option for
our clients that allows us, orallows them to come in, uh,

(54:15):
every three months.
So month, 3, 6, 9, 12, even ifthere's nothing clinically going
on, just to connect, chat, catchup, share their excitement about
their baby's milestones.
Uh, we talk a lot about sexbreastfeeding, all kinds of
things, um, that go on, youknow, within that first year of

(54:35):
becoming a parent.
It is not, no matter how manykids you've had, it's always
such a huge transition.
And so that's been a reallysweet part for us to be able to
walk through more than a year.
Right.
Of caring for a client andwitnessing all that
transformation, providing all ofthat support that just is kind

(54:56):
of nowhere to be found in anyother care space.
And like a lot of moms will hearthat and, oh, that sounds so
nice.
Oh, I wish that my midwife woulddo that.
and yeah, it should sound reallynice because it's like the bare
minimum of what people couldpossibly need.
We take care of the women in ourpractices and we're like, this

(55:19):
is not enough.
we're, this is not enough.
They need, they, everybody isalways gonna need more
postpartum support.
Right.
Um, but it goes back to thatconsumer demand, women taking
responsibility for the type ofcare that they want to have.
And maybe there's nobody in yourarea, maybe there's no home
birth midwives who are wonderfulin every other space that are
willing to offer an extendedpostpartum care plan.

(55:42):
But then we have to start askingfor that.
We have to say, I heard aboutthis other model with these
wacky midwives in Nia that I'mreally interested and I think a
lot of women would be interestedin that too.
And so we start talking about itmore and it's the, the mother
herself who says, I this isneeded.
I would implore other careproviders to, to provide this

(56:04):
service for us as women.

Natalie (56:06):
Yeah.
Yeah.
It almost makes me cry, likethinking about the amount of
postpartum care that youprovide, and that's like, so
significantly more than what isgenerally offered, like that 1,
1 6 week appointment where thedoc says, cool, you're good to
go, have sex, like, move,exercise, run, do what?
Which kills me talking aboutpelvic floor.

(56:28):
But yeah, it's, it's sodesperately needed, so thank you
for providing that to women.
That just, it makes me very,very happy.

We love being able to provide it.
And we think that, just likeTiffany was saying, the more
people who hear about somethinglike that, when you realize, oh,
that's a, that's an option, um,I feel like your brain kind of
opens to the fact of like, I'm,I'm worthy of care and support
in this space Also.

Natalie (56:57):
Yeah, totally.
Okay, so I have kind of a bigquestion.
What would you recommend ifsomeone wants to do more
research, if they wanna learnall the things, what are your
books, resources, guides,everything you recommend,
accounts to follow?
What would you give someonewho's like, I want to learn

(57:17):
more?

That is a big question that where do you
start?
But that's okay cuz we can havea big answer for that.
Yeah.
I mean, I, I personally as a momstarted by watching birth videos
and realizing.
There's differences here, uh, itseems like some women have just

(57:41):
like this different environment,this different ex.
That's interesting.
I'd like to learn, uh, moreabout that.
It just brings up, um, not onlybeing able to witness labor and
birth, but being able to witnesshow some women are coping with
it and some care providersmanage some things.
And it just ticked off a bunchof questions that made me think

(58:02):
or made me just learn more, mademe want to learn more, made me
curious.
And that, um, was reallyhelpful.
I don't, I didn't have ins, uh,Instagram was a thing, but
probably, I don't know, at my,when I was pregnant with my
first, but um, that really was ahuge help to me just to see
birth, having never been to one.
And then that led me down therabbit hole of, oh, that account

(58:26):
suggested this Ina May Gaskinbook.
That was really insightful forme.
Oh, she talks a lot about homebirth.
Let me check out, you know, thiswebsite that talks about it.
And so it sort of was a bit of arabbit trail for me.
I think that's a, a ge, like foranybody, that's a pretty general
place to start.
Yeah.
Observing birth yourself innormalizing the observation of

(58:51):
it and having that visual inyour head for what's possible.
I think one of the things thatmidwifery really does well is
low risk.
Birth in low risk pregnancy andnot just for the mom who just
happens to be able to barelyavoid being a ticking time bomb,

(59:12):
right?
The way that the medical caresystem would sometimes treat
women.
Um, but that we can keep womenlow risk because of the ways
that we can intervene on adeeper like root cause level.
And one of the most powerfulways that we can do that is with
nutrition.
So no matter where you're givingbirth, you can have some control

(59:32):
over staying low risk, whichjust gives you so many more
options being having a low riskpregnancy and birth.
Um, our favorite resource forthat for pregnant women is Lily
Nichols, her Real Food ForPregnancy, her Instagram
account.
She does webinars all the time,and she has a book on
gestational diabetes and she hasa really great metabolically

(59:56):
sound, real food.
Perspective on nutrition.
And so that would be a greatplace, um, for women to put a
lot of their attention no matterwhere they're at in their
childbearing cycle.

Natalie (01:00:11):
Yeah,

Kelly & Tiffany (01:00:11):
Yeah, her, her account has been incredibly
helpful.
Her books we gave to all of ourclients just because we were
like, this is important, andeverything that we suggest to
you as we bring nutrition up inevery single appointment will
kind of, uh, that's sort of thecrux of it.
We love having, um, I mean, wehave a love hate with social
media but in general, lovehaving a, a place where we can

(01:00:36):
go and post information, postblog, you know, uh, posts.
We can share silly reels of usdoing something silly, but
actually educate and we have hadso many people.
Comment on those or dms of like,I actually didn't know that was
possible.
Or, oh, I thought I got delayedcord clamping and I'm learning

(01:00:57):
more about that from this reelthat you posted that this is
here my que here's my question,or here's what I wanna do
differently next time.
And it's exciting to us to beable to have a space where we're
doing what midwifery likes todo, which is normalize birth and
entertain a bit at the sametime, but also just educate.

(01:01:18):
And so not to like pumpourselves, but

Natalie (01:01:21):
Please do.
Yeah, that's why you're

enjoyable space.
It's an enjoyable space to, tobe, there are plenty of birth,
um, and midwifery accounts outthere that usually end.
we usually end up sharing too inour staff.
Yeah.
One of our favorite resourcestoo, for moms that are just in
that space of trying tonormalize a home birth decision

(01:01:45):
is the podcast Happy Home Birthwith Caitlin Fusco.
She does such a great job atcovering a wide variety of
topics, from birth stories todifferent types of midwifery
care, to all of the ins and outsof planning a home birth.
And so that's a, that's awonderful resource for people to

(01:02:07):
go get more information aboutthat type of care.
Another resource that we sharereally often is evidence-based
birth.
Um, they do a really good job atsyndicating research in a way
that is mostly unbiased.
They're able to really just saylike, we looked at all of it for

(01:02:28):
you.
Here's the summary.
And so for somebody who is notinterested in going and diving
into all of that themselves,which would be 95% of us

Natalie (01:02:38):
Yeah,

uh, it's a trusted source for research
based information that presentsit in a way that allows the
consumer to see what types ofconversations to bring back to
their care providers.

Natalie (01:02:53):
Awesome.
Awesome.
And your guys' podcast as well,

thank you for that extra little pump

Natalie (01:02:59):
Yes, of course.

we started a podcast a a few years ago and we
really had a focus on women'shealth in general.
And again, just normalizingstuff about women and our
bodies, periods, pregnancy,birth, and it's been sweet to
see it kind of grow recently anduh, be able to again, have a
space where we touch on some,you know, just varying topics,

(01:03:24):
but that end up, uh, resonatingso much with women cuz they're
like, oh actually I hadn't heardthat before, or I never talked
to about, about that to anybody,or, I was, didn't even know that
was a thing I could ask my careprovider about or whatever.
So it's a, it's a cool spot tobe able to.

Natalie (01:03:43):
Awesome.
And you guys are very funny too.
I'll tell you, I like your senseof humor, I listen to your
podcast and I laugh, so

our goal has been reached.
Then

Natalie (01:03:56):
Yeah.
I'd say, um, okay.
I have two questions that I askevery single guest at the end of
every podcast.
So the first one being, what isyour number one piece of advice?
What do you want every singleperson to know?

that is a big one also.
Um, mine would be, I mean, justsurrounding this, you know,
conversation in general is that,uh, fertility, pregnancy, labor,
birth, breastfeeding, all ofthese things are normal natural

(01:04:33):
processes that your body wantsto partake in.
And.
Learning about them is a worthyendeavor.
Uh, supporting your body andwhat it wants to do already is a
worthy endeavor.
Yeah, and I'll piggyback off ofthat concept a little bit and
share that pregnancy or evenbefore you get pregnant and

(01:04:57):
planning pregnancy, those areyour very first opportunities to
practice parenting.
And I don't think women oftensee the beginning of this
journey as priming you for that,but you are going to be
parenting this child for therest of its life and.
These are parenting decisionsand you're formulating your

(01:05:21):
parenting philosophy and you'remaking choices that are going to
have sometimes pretty bigimpacts, and you're working
together with your partner andyou're choosing who you want in
your support circle and all ofthose.
All of those things matter asyou kind of practice and prepare
for the ultimate parenting.

Natalie (01:05:42):
Yeah.
I think a lot of people don'trealize that birth sets them up
for the traject trajectory thatthey want to go on or need to go
on, and it's a keystonecomponent to life in general and
parenting and all of thechoices.
So, yeah.
That's huge.
Um, okay.

(01:06:03):
Second question, this one ismore, it should be easier to
answer probably.
What is your favorite currentwellness habit that you
incorporate into your own dailylife?

We love talking about this one,

Natalie (01:06:17):
I can tell

Um, currently, well, I have a, uh, I have a
few, so actually that feels kindof hard to

Natalie (01:06:23):
Okay.
I mean, you can, you can

I know what tips is gonna be, so I'll choose
a different one.
Well, I think I know what yoursis gonna be, uh, per, well this
is a longstanding one for me.
Uh, seed cycling.
That has been a really helpfulrhythm that I have gotten into
over the last couple years tosupport my body and support

(01:06:45):
healthier, happier periods anddecrease all kinds of symptoms
and things like that.
So I'm on, I'm on the.
Seed cycling train.
That's the one I wanna sharebecause maybe your audience
hasn't actually heard of it.
And so that will send y y'alloff on a rabbit hole of your own

Natalie (01:07:01):
do you have a resource on your website for seed
cycling?

Yes, we do.
So in our shop, we have a wholefree resources tab that you can
go in and check in all of ourfreebies.
One of them is a seed cyclingebook guide that has all of the
information of how to do it, whyto do it, benefits, frequently
asked questions, all kinds ofstuff, and it's free.

Natalie (01:07:25):
Lovely.
Okay,

Okay.
In mine, I, I have to say too, Ijust

Natalie (01:07:31):
That's fine.

I think the, I think one of the most important
disciplines that I am reallyleaning into in this season is
movement and just regularlymoving my body.
I find that to just be such achallenging thing to sustain.
So I'm working so hard on someof those habits, but, That's
kind of boring.

(01:07:53):
So I have a second one that ismuch more exciting and equally
wonderful, um, which is myinfrared sauna bag.

Natalie (01:08:01):
Oh,

That has been the biggest game changer of all.
Coming from someone who's like,that's one of the stupidest
things I have ever heard of togetting in it constantly.
There's so many beautifulbenefits and I feel so, so good.
After it.
Kelly influenced me on socialmedia with it and just her own

(01:08:26):
experience with loving it.
She had, she had hers for like ayear, probably before I was
like, gosh, man, I can't passthis up.
And I do not regret it.
I do not regret my Sauna Bagpurchase.
It's been one of the greatesttools that I've been able to
utilize in taking care ofmyself.

Natalie (01:08:45):
That is next on my list.
So do you have one?
Do you guys both have the onesyou lie down in or the ones you
sit and like, okay.

Yeah.
We have the lay down, likesleeping bag style one.
The one that we chose is fromhigher dose and like have been
so happy with, um, what theyhave created.
Uh, there's nothing like layingdown and being like, I'm just
gonna, you know, watch anepisode of The Crown or
something and I'm just sweating.
It feels so good.

(01:09:14):
Yeah.
Yeah.
It rolls up so we can stash itin a cupboard or under our beds.
The, I, I like the idea of thetent one.
Mm-hmm.
except for, I cannot tell youhow many times I fall asleep in
my bag.

Natalie (01:09:27):
yeah,

And so I'm so like laying down, who doesn't
love laying down?
Mm-hmm.
Oh, that's one of my favoriteactivities, which is why the
exercise discipline is sochallenging sometimes.
Uh, but tr truly it is, it'sincredibly convenient.
It was one of the mostaffordable options when we were
looking at the specs of allthings that were out there and

(01:09:48):
we have a affiliate link forpeople to get 10% off.
We can share that with, with youor with your listeners if they
wanna check it

Natalie (01:09:55):
Okay.
Awesome.
I will put it in the show noteswith all of the other
recommendations you guys had.
Can you once again tell us whoyou are, where we can find you
online, what you offer, and whatyour podcast is called?

Yes, we can.
So, uh, we are Kelly and Tiffanyfrom Beautiful One Midwifery,
which is a home birth practicein San Diego where our website
is@beautifulonemidwifery.com.
There is, uh, lots of blog postsbacklogged on there, lots of,
um, stuff in our shop that isavailable.

(01:10:31):
Most of it is readilydownloadable.
All kinds of protocols and, uh,guides and all kinds of stuff of
content that we've created overthe years.
And access to our podcast there,which is at home with Kelly and
Tiffany.
Um, and you can find us, Imentioned our Instagram also, we
are at Beautiful One midwiferyon there.

(01:10:51):
I think that's about it.

Natalie (01:10:53):
Yeah, I think so.
And when you open your practicedoors again, you post that on
your website, is that correct?
So if somebody was new book tohire you, they'd find that
there.
Lovely, lovely.
Well, thank you guys so much forspending your time and energy
with me today.
I'm sure our listeners willappreciate it.

Thanks so much for having us.
Thanks, Natalie.

Natalie (01:11:20):
My top takeaway from my conversation with Kelly and
Tiffany is that the process ofplanning for your birth
experience is really the startof your parenting journey, and
you get to make the decisionsfor how you want that to look.
I love how their model of homebirth midwifery, honors all the
physiological processes awoman's body goes through and
approaches any interventions andofferings with the perspective

(01:11:42):
that birth and everything thatcomes with it is normal.
Kelly and Tiffany graciously areoffering all of my listeners a
free guide to resilient birth.
You can find a link to that aswell as all of the other
resources they mentioned andtheir social channels in the
show notes for this episode.
Please remember that what youhear on this podcast is not
medical advice, but remember toalways do your own research and

(01:12:05):
talk to your provider beforemaking important decisions about
your health.
If you found this podcasthelpful, please consider leaving
a five star review in yourfavorite podcast app.
Thanks so much for listening.
I'll catch you next.

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}25. Taking Responsibility for Your Birth with Kelly and Tiffany of Beautiful One Midwifery

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25. Taking Responsibility for Your Birth with Kelly and Tiffany of Beautiful One Midwifery

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