Big Birth Junkie
Birth. It is everywhere. Literally. Every day with each birth there are new stories to be told, wisdom to be shared and knowledge to be learned. Elizabeth Bachner sees birth in a unique way: As life lessons that help us grow as spiritual beings having human experiences. Childbirth is her prose, her jam, and her calling. We are your safe space for the sharing of those experiences from all different perspectives and many walks of life. Through curious conversation and storytelling, there is always something new to learn about how amazing we are as humans in body, mind, and spirit!. BBJ is packed with practical advice and helpful tips. We will discuss not only the joys and triumphs, but we go there - towards the challenges to learn how they were navigated so you can learn how resilient and strong we are. We talk with the pregnant person, their partner(s), the doula, midwives, OBs, and grandparents - anyone who was part of the birth! We will cover it all - pregnancy, childbirth and the postpartum period. Join us to not only listen and be inspired but to feed your mind, open your heart and let your inner Birth Junkie out!!
Episodes
This is a fun podcast for me because I have been on (literally) the whole journey with Jeni and Monique. I supported them with their conception and then they chose to birth with the GraceFull Midwives to have an unmedicated out of hospital birth. Their plans changed when they found out their child was breech; but, we are very lucky in Los Angeles because we have an amazing doctor in town who will sup...
Becky is an active and healthy person, so she assumed pregnancy and birth would come easily to her. Instead, she was met with many complications and challenges that forced her to slow down and take it easy as she was on modified bed rest and medicated until she made it to 36 weeks.
Becky experienced prodromal labor and daily contractions for the last 8 weeks of her pregnancy. When her son was finally born at 39 weeks, he came very ...
“There are all different normals”. That basically sums up the 3 very different pregnancies, births and post partum period for Jamie Batten. We cover a lot of ground on this epic (in length) podcast: induction, pitocin, epidural, bed rest, early labor, OP (Back Labor), formula feeding, cutting of the cord on the perinium, reastfeeding for 2 years, hyperemisis, placenta previa, birth center, waterbirth...
Amy lives in Utah with her husband and is the mother of 3 children (all under the age of 3!). The first two were born in the hospital and both were pitocin inductions with an epidural - the first at the suggestion of her doctor the second at her request. Looking back Amy realized there was trauma and a lot of feelings that were not validated, which lead her to do her research and start to becoming in...
Faith is the eldest of 10 children, 7 of whom were born at home. When she became pregnant with her daughter Kiss, she had an idea of what to expect, but it did not prepare her fully for her own homebirth journey. We chat about birthing babies in Oklahoma as a midwife, expectations vs reality in birth and what it is like to grow up where low-risk births at home are normalized.
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This is not only the story of an unexpected diagnosis of IUGR and the need for a hospital induction but also how Jessica's past history influenced her current thinking. Jessica was holding on to a lot of shame and polarised thinking that showed up to be healed so she could step fully into the role of motherhood.
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Danielle's journey to becoming a mother taught her things she never expected. She left her home in Miami to move to Los Angeles and found a new strength she did not know she had for the unmedicated birth of her daughter Samaya at GraceFull's Birthing Center.
That is where she thought the lessons would end, but they kept going. Becoming a mother brought a new drive to heal herself.
Sera and Adam took the time to talk with me about what it is like birthing overseas as foreigners in a foreign land.
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Sera Bonds is a midwife, doula, activist and Founder of Circle of Health International (COHI). You can currently find her in Austin, TX where works as a @Car...
Tessa always knew she wanted a homebirth and it took some time for Chase to get on board with the process, but once he got educated and started to understand the difference between low and high risk pregnancy he was 100% on commited.
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Jana and Mark Roemer share their story of love, burning man and a father’s healing through the journey of parenting their son Freddie. We do a deep dive into conception, a homebirth, postpartum challenges and the healing traumas. "Having a little boy allowed me to parent the little boy in myself." This episode is filled with a lot of wisdom!
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For more information to go: GraceFull or follow us: @gracefullbirth or our guest...
Melissa Hemphill is a BIRTHFIT Coach Director, and Air Force Officer, Biology Instructor, CrossFit Coach, Mind Body Nutrition Coach, wife, and mom to 3 children (with a 4th born on 1/14/19). She shares with us the stories of her conceptions, births and insightful musings around birth while being in the military.
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This is the first time that Amy has shared her birth journey and is doing so in front of a live audience in Miami. Amy teaches yoga and prepared for a homebirth that led to a hospital transport and a cesarean section.
Please stick around for the BONUS: Behind the Scenes (we recorded this bit after the live episode) where we talk in detail about the discussion that is not happening - but needs to happen - about how strong ab muscles...
For more information to go: GraceFull or follow us: @gracefullbirth or our guest: @HelloMyTribe
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A man, a woman, a white picket fence and 2.3 children is the fantasy that I was raised on and has been long gone in many cultures for a while. Families come in all shapes and sizes and this family is one of my favorites. Hudson has 2 moms and 2 dads: Cara his biological mommy, Jim his biological daddy, Dawn his Momma, and Paul his, well, his Paul!
This is a st...
Jenny Silva is a local doula who holds within her in the ancient wisdom passed down to her by her ancestors. It was an honor to share sacred space (or what I like to call ceremony) with her and her mother, Maria Silva, inside the Judy Chicago Birth Stories exhibition in Pasadena, CA in September of 2018.
In this episode we go deep into quite a few places around...
After embracing an unplanned pregnancy Arista Ilona moved forward preparing for her dream homebirth. After she transported to a hospital she had an unexpected c-section. Leading up to motherhood, Arista Ilona endured years of emotional trauma, a lack of self-love, judgment, and depression. Her birthing journey transformed into a profound healing journey in which she shares her wisdom as a mother, men...
This is a special podacst for me because you really get a peak into my world and listen to what happens when a group of doulas and birth junkies get together to listen to a birth story and share wisdom. In sharing the stories of both of Sam’s kids we delve into a lot of wisdom around water breaking, the fear of going past 42 weeks, homebirthing, doula support, what happen when a birth goes REALLY fas...
This is a story of renewed faith. It is about believing in one's body and asking for support.
Despite being told by traditional OBs that there was only a 13% chance of having a homebirth after her first cesarean, Jennica chose to invest in herself financially, mentally, physically and emotionally to make make sure she had what she needed to safely birth her seco...
Lauren Archer, who you may know as the vagina behind the policy changes for IG and FB around showing vaginal births, shares her journey into becoming a mother that has quite a few twists and turns before she learns the ultimate lesson, “Your body won’t give you anything you can’t handle.”
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Today we are talking with We are going to talk with one half of the podcast & blog The Mother Loving Future and GraceFull Mama Amber Lestrange. We recorded this podcast live at an event with did with Hatch Collection and covered a lot of ground. We chat about her “sexy” conception for her first child, her home waterbirth at her Venice cottage, her view on her postpartum journey and what she would cha...
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