Down to Birth

Birth doula and mother of two Carson Meyer joins us to share the story of her second home birth and the very different emotions that came with approaching birth after such a positive first experience.

Carson talks about the anxiety she carried in the final weeks of pregnancy, the problem with predicting when labor will begin, and her persistent worry that her midwife might not make it to the birth. We also discuss what it means to feel safe enough to be completely uninhibited in labor, why some women are quiet while others are intensely vocal, and...

Welcome to the August Q&A! Today we kick things off with your answers to the question, “What’s one thing that happened during your birth that no one prepared you for?” From 53-hour labors and projectile vomiting to postpartum shakes, swollen labia, running out of hot water during a home birth, and yes, pooping in labor, you had a lot to say.

Then we get into your questions. One mother experienced nearly identical prodromal labors with both of her babies, never dilating beyond five centimeters before ultimately having two C-sections. She wants to know why prodromal labor...

Clothing is one of the most overlooked sources of chemical exposure in modern life, and it sits on our skin all day, every day, literally from birth until death.

In this episode, we’re talking with Hannah Dunning, The Clean Clothing Chick, about what no one is regulating, no one is disclosing, and very few are questioning: the chemicals in our clothes and textiles. Many of these chemicals are believed to act like estrogen in the body, binding to receptors and interfering with normal signaling. And no, your skin isn’t the impenetrable barrier you may think it i...

More than twenty years ago, Henci Goer's renowned book, The Thinking Woman's Guide to a Better Birth, profoundly shaped Cynthia's understanding of pregnancy and birth, setting her on the path that eventually led to her own natural births and a career in birth education and client advocacy. In this special conversation, we sit down with the author herself, now one of the most influential voices in evidence-based maternity care.

Today, we discuss Henci's newest book, Taking Charge of Your Birth, along with evidence-based maternity care, physiologic birth, induction, cesarean prevention, and informed decision-making. Henci explains why "physiologic...

When complications arise during pregnancy or birth, many women assume their birth plans are over. But does it have to be that way?

In this episode, we're joined by Catey, a mother of four whose pregnancies and births included severe preeclampsia, inductions, postpartum hemorrhages, postpartum depression, thyroid disease, infertility, and a hospital transfer. Despite these serious complications, every one of her births was planned under the care of certified nurse-midwives.

Catey shares how her midwives navigated medical emergencies while preserving shared decision-making, how they helped preserve the aspects of birth that mattered most to her...

Heads up, all! If you'd like to learn more about our parenting conversation, join our Patreon event: Parenting without Reward & Punishment

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This week’s Q&A begins with a conversation that struck a chord with our community: why mothers need creativity, hobbies, and joy, and sharing inspiring stories from postpartum women who rediscovered parts of themselves through music, art, and new passions.

We also dive into an impassioned discussion about parenting values, including the things we all swore we’d never do as parents (and now do regularly), co-sleeping, screen time, bribes, eating todd...

In today's episode, we invited back Thaddeus Owen and Heidi Syme of DreamWalkerz, this time focusing on electromagnetic fields (EMFs), wireless technology, and the growing questions many families have about how modern environments can affect health.

We discuss the difference between naturally occurring and man-made electromagnetic fields, the research that has fueled concern about wireless technologies, and why this topic has become increasingly relevant as our homes fill with Wi-Fi networks, smartphones, Bluetooth devices, smart appliances, and baby monitors.

Thaddeus and Heidi share their perspective on practical ways families can reduce exposure without becoming overwhelmed...

Welcome to our July Breastfeeding Q&A episode! We open with a conversation about what surprised women most about breastfeeding (for better or worse) after all the things they'd heard from others, from pain and emotional shifts to supply, pumping, and expectations that didn’t match reality.

Additionally, we answer the following questions:

I’m pregnant and still breastfeeding my toddler. What should I know about tandem nursing, and how do I prioritize a newborn without creating oversupply?

My newborn had low blood sugar readings in the hospital and we were encouraged to use...

In today’s episode, we talk with Carly and Rachel of Kale Blossom about environmental toxins, what matters when it comes to everyday exposure, and how mothers can make thoughtful changes without getting pulled into fear-based messaging.

The conversation around “low-tox living” can quickly become overwhelming, especially during pregnancy and early motherhood, when concern for your baby is understandably high. We wanted to cut through the noise and ask a more useful question: where does reducing exposure meaningfully matter, and where are women being sold anxiety?

We talk about some of the highest-impact places to focus...

In today’s episode, Cassidy Peck shares a birth story shaped by large fibroids, a late IUGR diagnosis, low amniotic fluid, and a postpartum emergency that nearly cost her life.

After years of debilitating periods and a delayed fibroid diagnosis, Cassidy conceived naturally and planned a home birth with an experienced midwife. Her pregnancy was largely uncomplicated until late third trimester, when concerns about fetal growth and fluid levels led to induction at 37 weeks.

What followed was an unmedicated induction, the vaginal birth of her 4 lb 6 oz daughter, and then a catastrophic postpartum hemorrhage caused by...

In today's episode we reference the following resources:

Should I be induced? Evidence on the ARRIVE Trial

Planning Your Successful VBAC

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Welcome to the June Q&A! In today's episode, we begin with a listener who has some things to say about the term VBAC. 

Our questions begin with one from a new mother whose enthusiastic in-laws are eager to babysit her exclusively breastfed baby. The conversation is less about breastfeeding and more about expectations, trust and boundaries.

Next, we answer one we've never been asked: "What d...

Most parents have heard that breastfeeding is beneficial. What far fewer understand is why those first feedings matter so much, what colostrum does beyond nutrition, and how early feeding choices shape the gut microbiome, immune system, and long-term health.

Today, we’re joined by Dr. Rhonda Trust, PhD, registered dietitian, professor of health communication, and longtime breastfeeding educator, for a conversation about newborn gut health, colostrum, skin-to-skin contact, formula supplementation, and the larger systems influencing infant feeding decisions.

We talk about what happens when babies receive formula in the hospital before breastfeeding is established, why nu...

In today’s episode, we take on a question many women think about but don’t always say out loud: should your mother be at your birth?

We share listener voicemails from women who made very different choices. Some had their mothers in the room, some kept them close by but not present for the birth, and others chose not to include them at all.

It’s a candid, interesting conversation that gets into what shapes that decision and why it can feel more complicated than you might expect, even in close, supportive relationships.

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In today's episode, we sat with Ontario couple Jessica and Aaron, who share the birth story of their first child. Jessica's pregnancy included several key decision points, including whether to accept RhoGAM and how to approach care and manage the expectations of their loved ones as they moved well past their due date -- nearly 3 weeks past!

They describe how they evaluated risk, navigated recommendations, and remained aligned as a couple under increasing pressure, while working with a midwifery team that respected informed consent.

This episode examines how risk is framed in pregnancy, how provider–pa...

Happy Spring! And welcome to the May Q&A!

We start with a listener email we loved, followed by a discussion on creativity and why it matters, especially in the early years of motherhood when it can feel completely out of reach.

Then we get into your questions.

We talk about postpartum hemorrhage and how it’s defined, including whether 500 cc of blood loss is truly cause for concern, and the use of Pitocin and Cytotec in that context, particularly for VBAC mothers. We also revisit RhoGAM and walk through when it may or...

In today's episode, Kristina shares her breech birth story following a long journey marked by cycle irregularities, miscarriage, and difficulty conceiving. At 40 weeks, she learned that her baby was breech and was scheduled for a C-section, despite having been told throughout pregnancy that the baby was head down.

Unwilling to move forward with surgery, Kristina sought out an alternative and ultimately found a physician in Connecticut willing to support a hospital-based vaginal breech birth. She describes the pressure she faced from both her care team and loved ones, the process of transferring care late in pregnancy, and...

In today’s episode, Cynthia and Trisha are joined once again by Nancy Wainer, award-winning author, longtime home birth midwife, and the woman who coined the term VBAC in her 1980s book Silent Knife. With decades of experience supporting women through vaginal birth after cesarean, Nancy brings clarity to a conversation that is shaped by fear, false information, and shifting medical standards.

This episode is part free-flowing conversation and part Q&A, where we take listener questions and explore them in depth. We cover topics including delayed postpartum hemorrhage after cesarean, uterine rupture, scar thickness, “uterine windows,” closel...

In today's episode, we speak with Stephanie about her stillborn daughter, Penelope, who arrived at 39 weeks and 6 days. After two healthy births and a completely uneventful third pregnancy, Stephanie found herself facing the unthinkable: an awareness of no fetal movement, confirmed by a silent Doppler and finally a hospital ultrasound. What followed was labor induction, birth, and the impossibility of leaving the hospital without her baby, riding home with her innocently cheerful toddlers in the car.

Next came shock and denial, pleading with God, managing her milk coming in, and experiencing an isolation so extreme that even...

Welcome to the April Q&A with Cynthia and Trisha! Today, we begin with a conversation about one of the most personal questions women face: is there a best age to have children? We talk about the pressures around timing, fertility, career, and spacing, and why this is one of those decisions that depends entirely on the individual woman, her life, and what feels right to her.

Next, we get into your questions, starting with a mother who experienced a very fast labor and wants to know if precipitous birth can be prevented and how to better...

Today, we talk with Tiffany Belanger of @cosleepy about some of the challenges that may arise for co-sleeping families, whether you're trying to reduce night feeds, prepare for another baby, or simply want your bed back. We discuss how these transitions often unfold, including moving a child into a crib or floor bed, and why the experience can look completely different from one family to the next, depending on lifestyle, a child’s temperament, and the parents' mental and emotional states, like guilt, anxiety, exhaustion or embarrassment.

This is a free-flowing, honest conversation, not a set of ru...

We are back with another breastfeeding-only Q&A episode. In today's conversation, we respond to several listener questions related to nursing, sleep, and fertility after breastfeeding. One mother who is co-sleeping with her 15-month-old, who wakes three to five times per night to nurse, asks how she can help her toddler sleep longer stretches without abruptly stopping breastfeeding. Another listener with a 4.5-month-old who has never taken a bottle is planning to attend a bachelorette party when her baby will be about nine months old and asks how best to prepare. We also hear from a mother who recently...

In today's episode, one of Trisha's clients, Holly, shares the story of two very different births and two equally different breastfeeding experiences, and what shifted between them.

Her first labor began spontaneously but ended with a vacuum delivery, and the demoralizing message that her “pushes weren’t productive.”  Breastfeeding was just as difficult, leading to a year of mostly exclusive pumping and undiagnosed postpartum anxiety. 

Four years later, she approached birth with real preparation, a clear plan, and a timely transfer of care to a midwife who immediately changed the tone of her birth experience.

Thi...

Water birth has long been controversial, but more recently, a wave of claims has emerged from the natural birth community that water birth is dangerous for babies and disruptive to the physiologic process of birth. In this episode, we sit down with midwife Barbara Harper, the world's leading expert on water birth and founder of Waterbirth International, to explain the preponderance of evidence supporting the safety of water birth and to dispel circulating fallacies.

We talk about the idea that babies can aspirate water, whether the diving reflex can fail, and the claim that water immersion interferes...

Welcome to the March Q&A!

We begin today’s episode with a conversation about the strange, intrusive, and sometimes downright insulting comments women receive in public while pregnant. We also share a listener story about a home birth that took an unexpected turn when a woman’s mother, meant to support her during labor, ended up creating some chaos after drinking too much wine.

Next, we address feeling unusually irritable toward an older child during pregnancy, what to consider after experiencing shoulder dystocia in two previous births, and whether an intact bag of waters coul...

In this episode, Abby shares her VBAC birth story following an emergency cesarean. Determined to experience a vaginal birth, she prepared carefully while navigating limited provider options in Alabama. What unfolded during labor and delivery underscores how provider behavior, rather than maternal physiology, often determines birth outcomes. Abby describes how a manual vaginal extraction caused a nearly catastrophic fourth-degree tear, requiring three subsequent surgeries in the months that followed and significantly disrupting her early postpartum period with her newborn.

We ask Abby whether she has considered legal action against the doctor and hospital, and we explore how...

When Trisha was pregnant with her second baby, she read Gentle Birth, Gentle Mothering — a book that completely reframed how she understood labor, and to this day remains her favorite book on pregnancy. Trisha's second birth unfolded in just three hours, a stark contrast to her first. That book was written by Dr. Sarah J. Buckley, and we've long dreamed of getting her on the show. That day has finally come!

Dr. Buckley is a New Zealand–trained family physician and leading researcher on the hormonal physiology of childbirth, and today she walks us through the science of o...

Six seasons later, we are revisiting one of our first episodes of this podcast: Using evidence-based care to plan your birth. 

Much of what happens in labor is presented as standard, routine, or unavoidable—but that doesn’t mean it’s evidence-based. Birth care hasn’t become more complex because women need more intervention. It’s become more complex because intervention has become the default. If you’ve ever wondered whether what’s happening in labor is truly backed by research—or simply “standard protocol”—this episode is for you.

In this conversation, we get back to the basics, exa...

Welcome to the February Q&A!  We begin with a brief reflection on a mother's need to find time for play (not with her children but for herself) and creativity during early parenthood, before diving into your questions. Today’s episode addresses a common pattern in maternity care: past birth experiences being used by providers to justify predetermined interventions in subsequent pregnancies.

One listener asked, do women need to get out of the tub for fetal heart rate decels, and is this based on policy or physiology? Is Pitocin given after heavy bleeding in a prior birth jus...

In today's episode, mother of two, Samantha Collignon, joins us to share two very different birth experiences separated by thirteen years. She gave birth to her first baby at 18 with minimal support and limited understanding of her options. At 31, married and deeply informed, she approached birth with education, confidence, and a strong sense of autonomy, resulting in a profoundly different and blissful birth experience.

Samantha reflects on how age and life stage shaped the way she was perceived by medical providers, shares how IVF factored into decision-making during her second pregnancy, and why an induced labor can...

In this episode, we talk to Moran of @2lifedoula, a doula whose journey into birth work was born from her own harrowing transition into motherhood. Moran candidly shares the story of her first birth—a clinical, disconnected experience where lack of preparation and resurfaced childhood trauma led to a "full-blown panic attack" and postpartum depression.

Knowing that wasn't how birth was meant to be, Moran transformed her approach for her subsequent birth, ultimately having a euphoric, spontaneous home birth. This transformation sparked her 14-year career as a doula and inspired her new book, Before You Give Birth, wr...

Tearing is one of the most common fears around birth—and one of the most misunderstood. In this episode, we talk about what really causes tearing, what the research shows, and what you can do to reduce your risk. We cover perineal massage, positions for birth, breathing and pacing, water birth, warm compresses, and what makes recovery smoother.

Through the episode, we review our followers' real-life "tearing" stories, and provide our commentary, which includes labial tears, scar tissue, pelvic floor recovery, over-stitching and unnecessary repairs, how beliefs and fear affect pushing, poor suturing techniques, the harm caused by...

Welcome to our first monthly Q&A episode of Season 7!

In today's episode, we discuss why C-sections are sometimes framed as “prevention,” how fear around tearing, fetal monitoring, or cord concerns impacts clinical decision-making, and why breaking the bag of waters is still routine practice despite clear risks and limited benefit. We explain what delayed cord clamping looks like during a cesarean and why vague language like “misplaced cord insertion” can unknowingly lead to unnecessary intervention. Additionally, we talk about nursing while pregnant, early breastfeeding challenges, frozen breastmilk, feeding to sleep, and other common postpartum concerns. Lastly, Barbara...

In this episode, Jessica shares the breastfeeding journey she never expected. After a smooth birth at a birth center, feeding quickly became complicated: flat nipples, an early nipple shield, a missed first feeding window, a significant tongue tie, and a baby who grew increasingly sleepy and underweight. What followed was weeks of pumping, weighted feeds, donor milk, tongue-tie revision, and the ongoing effort to understand why breastfeeding wasn’t working despite doing everything “right.”

Jessica describes the emotional strain of those early weeks, from feeling inadequate to questioning her own anatomy, and the constant fear she was lettin...

In today’s breastfeeding Q&A, we take calls from mothers facing the challenges that often arise well beyond the newborn phase. We begin with a question about nursing an eighteen-month-old who lifts his mother’s shirt the moment she sits down, and what healthy boundaries can look like when a toddler is still deeply attached to nursing. From there, we address concerns about forceful letdowns, oversupply, pumping routines, and the role of pacifiers when feeding becomes overstimulating for the baby. We also take a call from a mother with a three-week-old who experiences gas and discomfort at the brea...

Dr. Morgan MacDermott, NMD, a naturopathic medical doctor specializing in perinatal and postpartum health, joins us to explore why postpartum isn’t simply a recovery period—it’s a complete physiological and emotional transformation. We discuss why American culture celebrates productivity instead of rest, and the critical role of the  “5-5-5 rule."

As the conversation unfolds, we move into the realities of early motherhood—how high-achieving women struggle with loss of control, the connection between personality type and postpartum mood disorders, and why relying on intuition matters more than parenting scripts, tracking apps, or “doing it right.” We al...

Welcome to our end-of-year Q&A episode! Settle in with your favorite drink and listen as we play listener voicemails from around the world. You'll hear us reflect on six years of podcasting together, while we share voicemails, questions, and stories as we close out the season and prepare for the new year.

We begin by addressing one of our posts that sparked an unexpectedly intense reaction online, and then get into an impassioned conversation on why postpartum life is never 50/50. We also share a personal client story about placenta previa, late-pregnancy ultrasounds, and an unnecessary cesarean...

In today's episode, we reconnect with Sarah and Lara of Dynamic Doulas, who last joined us in Episode 196: The Toughest Part of Being a Doula. Three years later, we tackle the conversation that is in fact the toughest part of being a doula: Supporting women through the loss of a baby at birth. 

Sarah and Lara return to talk to us about their recent experiences including when a baby dies or faces a severe adverse outcome. We move beyond business and birth plans and into the realities most childbirth education never mentions.

We talk about a...

Pregnant women often carry fears about breastfeeding long before their babies arrive — fears of pain, low supply, clogged ducts, or not knowing when to feed. After all, if breastfeeding is so natural, why do we keep hearing how hard it is? In this episode, Cynthia asks Trisha to address the most common concerns from the women in our community. We discuss why these fears are so prevalent, what’s actually normal, and how much of breastfeeding success depends on preparation, support, and confidence—not just luck. 

If you are worried whether your body will make enough milk, how to...

Midwife and mother of two, Sophia Henderson, host of the Born Wild podcast, joins us to tell the story of her children’s births – and how a chiropractor may have saved her newborn daughter’s life.

In her first pregnancy, Sophia navigated weeks of unexplained bleeding, chose home birth as a student midwife, and after giving birth learned her son had no anal opening and would ultimately be diagnosed with VACTERL association. She describes what it means to care for a medically complex baby, how quickly those diagnoses unfold after birth, and how that first year reshaped her un...

Welcome to the November Q&A! Today, we start with a topic that always stirs strong feelings—birth partners. From the gestures that truly helped to the ones that fell short, we chat about your experiences of your partner's support, presence, connection or not.

Next, we respond to an emotional call for help from a sleep-deprived and emotionally exhausted mother whose husband threatens to call the cops on her for how she handled an overwhelming moment with her toddler. 

Today's episode includes a special guest appearance from Nancy Wainer, world-renowned midwife and the woman who coi...