All Episodes

August 16, 2022 85 mins
Melissa had her first baby in 2016. Overall things went well, but she did end up with a second degree tear. After this birth, Melissa had a procedure called a sphincterotomy. She was told any future births would need to be a cesarean or she would risk further tearing and may end up needing a colostomy bag. Melissa had accepted this, but when she became pregnant with her second, she wanted to explore all of her options.

Melissa went on to have 3 more vaginal births without tearing! Listen to hear how she advocated for herself and how her 4th birth experience was different while having a doula. She also shares her experience being readmitted 3 days later with postpartum preeclampsia and shares some of her favorite postpartum resources.
Mark as Played

Advertise With Us

Popular Podcasts

Stuff You Should Know
Dateline NBC

Dateline NBC

Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Special Summer Offer: Exclusively on Apple Podcasts, try our Dateline Premium subscription completely free for one month! With Dateline Premium, you get every episode ad-free plus exclusive bonus content.

On Purpose with Jay Shetty

On Purpose with Jay Shetty

I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!

Music, radio and podcasts, all free. Listen online or download the iHeart App.

Connect

© 2025 iHeartMedia, Inc.