Happy Homebirth

1. The best way to make a in informed decision is by.... gaining information. We can so easily believe that we know what something is or something is like based on... minimal understanding. This is common when it comes to homebirth! The immediate feeling is, "What!? That's dangerous!!" Until we realize that... oh, actually... insert facts here. Michelle and her husband decided to go straight to the source. They saw a midwife, asked all of the questions, and suddenly... they have the information they need to make a confident decision and be on the same page. And next,
2. The energy surrounding birth is so important. When in the hospital, Michelle's daughter was quickly removed from her, almost intubated... there was massive commotion and upheaval. This left Michelle feeling shocked and traumatized... and then mere minutes later she's being pushed out of the room and everyone's acting like life is back to normal. How are we supposed to internalize this? Let's compare that to her experience with her son. Her midwife slowly helped her untangle the baby's cord, he was placed immediately with his mother, and then a gentle breath was given to help stimulate him. No trauma. No drama. No upheaval-- Just a calm, loving, supportive energy that encourages the physiological process of birth and bonding. What a difference this makes. Michelle was able to re-enter motherhood feeling more confident, more capable, and more like the mother she was designed to be. How incredible.

1. Mary and I are in total agreement of this: Birth is meant to be one of the most spiritually transformative experiences of a woman's life and the process of pregnancy and birth is meant to prepare her for the work of motherhood. This isn't just a physical experience, it's so much more. Which...is why I put SO much emphasis on recognizing what it means to truly prepare for this event!
2. No matter how many babies you have, each birth is incredibly precious, unique, challenging, transformative and as Mary insinuated-- maybe a little addicting, especially if you love listening to beautiful birth stories!!
3. And finally, I just love the way that Mary uses her calling from the Lord to support others. God has given her SO many different experiences, what a blessing that she can be so relatable to her clients, no matter how it all unfolds.

1. Making difficult decisions in your pregnancy and birth feels... not fun. Setting up boundaries, especially for those of us who feel a need to please others, feels difficult, sometimes even wrong. But here's the thing... it's not wrong. In fact, it's necessary. Miriam began setting boundaries where she needed to at the end of her pregnancy, and continues to do so postpartum. This is one of the key aspects of fully owning our role as a mother. Are we willing to forsake all others for our nuclear family? Truly? It's not easy, but it's what we've been called to do, and when we live our lives this way, I believe we will find more satisfaction in our role.
2. I wanted to mention the fact that Miriam's birth was really different from what she'd expected. 6 hours, nonstop back labor, and a nuchal arm wrapped in an umbilical cord.... this wasn't on a previous podcast episode. But I think the amazing thing about preparing for birth holistically is our ability to look back at our experience with pride. She worked incredibly hard through her labor. She brought her baby from womb to world.... this experience couldn't have been predicted, but it's certainly not any less amazing or valid than any other birth experience. It's incredible. If we can see birth with this sense of open-mindedness, we can appreciate our experience, however unexpected it may be.
3. And finally, isn't it amazing that because Miriam was at home, she didn't get disturbed once her magical golden hour was up. That didn't mean "free rein! anything goes!" No, she was still left to snuggle with her newborn, as she was finally returning from the difficult experience of giving birth. Sometimes it may take us a while to come around, especially after an intense birth like Miriam's. To think that if she would have been elsewhere, she may have been completely interrupted once she was beginning to truly bond is heartbreaking.

1. How amazing was it to hear the way that Blythe's mother's choices regarding birth set her and her brothers up for success? They grew up not feeling fearful about birth, but believing it to be a normal, beautiful event. This is what you're doing for your children right now as you make this decision to. embrace pregnancy and labor as it was physiologically designed to be. How incredible.
2. Blythe struggled. Truly, truly struggled. From conception through the first three years, she had a long, dark road to walk. It included symptoms of psychosis, anxiety and depression, and it was just heavy. If you've been there or if you're there now, I want you to know that you're no less worthy of a human because you're struggling. There can be such grief and shame added from ourselves, which simply compounds the pain. Instead, I would love to share about one of many avenues we can consider to heal. I believe that so much healing can take place when we focus on the nervous system. This can look like many different things, but tapping or Emotional Freedom Technique is one of my favorite ways, and it's got the research to back that it truly works. There are so many incredible practitioners out there, but I have a package that has be created specifically for my listeners and students by two amazing women, Greta Zukoff and Naomi Reyes. Greta has worked with me over the last year healing my relationship with myself, with my childhood, with the deepest parts of my core.... and Naomi specializes in working with pregnant and postpartum mothers. She deals with these exact issues. If you are struggling and you know that you're tired of struggling, just how Blythe began to feel, let's begin to heal. The link to contact them and sign up is available in my bio. I would love for you to take advantage of it.
3. Finally, I want to end with the incredible joy that came with healing for Blythe and her family. Not only was she able to reconnect with Gibson in such a powerful way, but she was also able to experience a pregnancy and birth that were truly marked by joy. And Gibson was able to see and feel that, too. What a gift and what a beautiful reconciliation. If you've experienced a pregnancy or postpartum that reminds you of Blythe... I want you to focus in on that. It does NOT mean that you won't experience joy in the future. Blythe surely did, and how beautifully healing is that.

1. let’s start where we began: What does it mean to have a ‘good’ homebirth? What does it look like, and how does it feel? Do you have to breathe your baby out and be super quiet? Absolutely not. Remember- the way that a birth unfolds, whether it’s loud, quiet, “breathy” or “screamy” it can all be empowering. Or disempowering. So what makes the difference?
2. The decision-maker is what makes the difference. Who was in control? Who held the authority? Truly, the decisions that are made and the exact outcomes matter far less if we recognize that we are in the driver’s seat and our decisions are respected.
3. and finally- you are so strong. Your body is so strong and capable. And at the same time, I see so much beauty in the reliance on something more. On the crying out to the lord and acknowledging that we can’t do this without him. He takes us the rest of the way.

1. Common does not equal normal. Unfortunately, the cascade of interventions offered--forced-- at the hospital under the guise of safety are anything but and so disempowering to the mothers who realize... wait a minute, I didn't need that.... And the vast majority of the time, that's absolutely the case.
2. Jamie realized that this second time around, she was ready to get into the deep work of preparation. As her husband stated, homebirth is a lot of work! And the truth is-- yeah! Taking responsibility after generations of handing over responsibility means that we have to do a lot of additional work. But you know what's so cool? Because Jamie and her husband bared the brunt of the hard work.... their daughters WON'T have to work so hard. They'll grow up in a family that understands and appreciates birth as a natural, beautiful process, and they'll likely feel far more confident and prepared without having to do nearly as much work to ready themselves for birth. What a gift.
3. And finally, your body is amazing. Jamie's body is amazing. It knew exactly what it needed to do to get her daughter unstuck, and despite being tangled up in the cords, she was birth just fine and just beautifully. I love Jamie's beautiful perspective of how her birth was perfect-- rescue breaths and long-holding placenta and all. The beauty of birth is in the variations, and the fact that our bodies are capable of handling them.

𝗜 𝗪𝗮𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝘁𝗼 𝗯𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗕𝗘𝗦𝗧 𝗠𝗼𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗿… 𝗛𝗲𝗿𝗲’𝘀 𝗛𝗼𝘄 𝗛𝗼𝗺𝗲𝗯𝗶𝗿𝘁𝗵 𝗣𝗿𝗲𝗽 𝗛𝗲𝗹𝗽𝗲𝗱!

So often we get lured into this trap of an idea: you can prepare for Birth, but you can’t really prepare for motherhood. It just happens.

‼️SPOILER ALERT‼️ They’re intimately linked.

The problem? Traditional childbirth classes:
➡️ focus on simply avoiding pain. So… if we experience pain… what? Did we fail?
➡️ ignore the fact that childbirth is a rite of passage, and it’s sacred. They focus on just getting through, not appreciating and *gasp* enjoying it.
➡️leave us unprepared for the new version of us we’ll be meeting on the other side. If the whole time we’re just learning to relax (which, relaxation is good!), we aren’t focusing on the aspects that will build confidence in ourselves in birth AND motherhood for the long haul: tapping back into our intuition, setting boundaries (and why we need to!)… what our actual thoughts and opinions even are about birth! Kind of… a big chunk of info.

If you’re anything like me, your desire is to be the absolute best mother that you can be. Here’s the deal. We become that mother when we’re prepared to meet that mother.

When you learn to connect to your primal mother, to soothe and regulate your nervous system, to take charge of your decision making… you better believe you become a force to be reckoned with both in birth and motherhood. And isn’t that what we truly want? To step into these experiences feeling confident and prepared for whatever awaits us?

If this is you, I highly encourage you to apply for our next cohort of the Homebirth Collective, running Jan 2- March 24. It’s not childbirth education- it’s so much more. Perfect timing for mamas who will be about 12-28 weeks pregnant at the beginning of Jan!

The link to apply is in my bio, or send me a DM for more info. ✨

“𝗕𝘂𝘁 𝘄𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗶𝗳 𝗜 𝗳𝗮𝗶𝗹?” - 𝟯 𝗪𝗮𝘆𝘀 𝘁𝗼 𝗢𝘃𝗲𝗿𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗲 𝗬𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗛𝗼𝗺𝗲𝗯𝗶𝗿𝘁𝗵 𝗙𝗲𝗮𝗿𝘀

We’ve got to:
1. Stop letting fear drive the bus (he doesn’t even have his license)
2. Determine who you’re willing to gain your information from.
3. Realize that failure has far led to do with outcomes than it does mindset and surroundings. Are you the hero or the victim?

Listen in to hear a thorough breakdown!

And if you decide that you’re the kind of woman who is ready to kick fear to the curb and break generational chains around birth and motherhood, make sure you apply for The Homebirth Collective today! Our next cohort runs from Jan 2nd-March 24th, and it’s perfect if you’ll be around 12-28 weeks pregnant on 1/1!