All Episodes - Birthful

All Birthful Episodes

Pregnant people get bombarded with all sorts of advice: a lot of it unsolicited, outdated, or just plain wrong. In Birthful, working doula and former journalist Adriana Lozada talks pregnancy, birth, and postpartum with top experts and new parents.

Every episode distills the overload of pregnancy information down to the most relevant and useful stuff.

9 Most Badass Birth Moments (From Adriana’s Doula Career)

Adriana celebrates a decade of podcasting by sharing some of the most badass moments she’s witnessed as a doula, including an unassisted waterbirth at the hospital, a uniquely calm and undisturbed physiological birth (in the hospital lobby!), and more moments where...

[Birth Stories] Triumphant Vaginal Birth Of Twins Despite Preeclampsia And Triggering Interventions

Michelle Rose describes her birth as that of her dreams, despite having a two-and-a-half-day-long induction for preeclampsia with a low platelet count, enduring a magnesium drip, a non-working epidural, a horrific vaginal check, hemorrhaging badly enough to require a...

[Birth Stories] Four Days After Her Water Broke and Still No Labor – Now What?!

What do you do when your water breaks and FOUR days later, there’s little sign of labor? For Sivan Dirks this meant almost drinking a castor oil smoothie! Instead, she leaned into the holistic and intuitive tools she’d gathered over her previous – and varied! – birth...

[Birth Stories] Celebrating Our 10 Years With Adriana’s Birth Story!

What better way to celebrate this incredible 10-year milestone than by having Adriana share her own birth story? But there’s a twist… actually more than one! First, it’s Adriana’s daughter, Persephone (Seph), doing the interviewing. They’ll be sharing the evolving...

[Birth Stories] Weaving Together Four Unmedicated Births To Reveal Her Authentic Self

One of the biggest surprises for Ujarak Appadoo when she first got pregnant was that she would need to prepare or adjust for living in a pregnant body and giving birth. She’d figure she’d just carry on doing life as she’d seen her peers do, and that everything would...

[Birth Stories] A Scheduled Surgical Birth And A Home VBAC: Both Based On Her Intuition

Even though five doctors had cleared Jessica Pinney for a vaginal delivery with her rare placental conditions of vasa previa and velamentous cord insertion, she listened to her intuition and decided to have a planned surgical birth for her first child. For her next...

[Birth Stories] Knowing All Was Well Despite Seven Hours Of Pushing

Even though Tabitha DeLorio had a long pushing stage (and we’re talking six to seven hours long!), at no point was she discouraged that something was wrong. She shares with Adriana how the trust she had in her body and her team, their loving support, and constant...

[Birth Stories] Getting Baby To Flip From Breech With An ECV For A Flowing Vaginal Birth

What happens when a baby suddenly turns breech at 36 weeks? For Kaitlin Moore, this meant a hard pivot and lots of research to weigh her options between trying to get her baby to flip back or having a surgical birth. She shares the difficulties of finding the right...

[Birth Stories] Fast Homebirths And Liminal Spaces With A Pregnant Funeral Director

If birth and death are liminal bookends to our human experience, what conversations emerge as a pregnant funeral director is attended by a grieving midwife? Anna Walsh shares the story of her two fast births, and how she felt safe, heard, and respected as she...

[Birth Stories] Creating A Beautiful Birth Experience Despite Five Days Of Interventions

Can a chaotic labor with a myriad of interventions for preeclampsia and several failed epidurals be a positive experience? Olivia Styons shares with Adriana the hard pivots she and her team had to make and how crucial it was for her to speak up for her needs – from...

[Birth Stories] An Intentionally Unassisted Birth After Three Hospital Births

Doula and perinatal dance instructor Kemeera Nimahat has given birth four times and is the self-proclaimed queen of ignoring early labor. She shares with Adriana how tuning into her intuition has been pivotal in deciding where and with whom to give birth (she switched...

[Birth Stories] Can You Even Prepare For Baby Hiccuping While Crowning?!

Danielle Fetty-Lovell has been through a lot in her births! But probably the most unexpected moment was when her first daughter had the hiccups while she was crowning for a really long time (making it both comical and excruciating). She shares with Adriana how being...

[Birth Stories] An Unexpectedly Unassisted Blissful Breech Birth

Toni Shama’s first birth asked for movement, and her third birth asked for much vocalization. Her second birth, however, asked for tons of intimacy with her husband. She shares with Adriana how when they fueled that passion, labor became so fast they barely had a...

[Birth Stories] When Place-Of-Birth Policies Keep You Thinking Instead Of Birthing

Emily Salahuddin set out to have an unmedicated birth at a birth center, but trying to remain within the risk boundaries of that facility turned into an all-consuming mind game, bringing with it an onslaught of non-medical interventions. Ironically, it was after being...

[Birth Stories] Two (Non-Epidural) Inductions: With And Without The Fetal Ejection Reflex

Given that Pitocin contractions can be so intense, most people who have inductions also tend to have epidurals – but not Meredith Finch! Listen as she shares with Adriana how her preparation, flexibility, the crucial support from her husband and her doula, and a...

[Birth Stories] From Traumatic Cesarean To Healing (And Fast!) VBAC

What’s more stressful: a panic attack right before a surgical birth that takes your breath away and leaves you with memory gaps, or your baby’s shoulders getting stuck on the pubic bone after the head is out and needing a manual placental extraction? For today’s birth...

Connecting With Your Baby In Utero Through Song

Figuring out a newborn’s needs can be tricky, and sometimes a baby will cry no matter what you do. Wouldn’t it be great to have a tool to help you automatically soothe your child? One that also reduces your stress? Join Adriana in this In Memoriam episode, as she...

[Birth Stories] How Birth Took Her To Her Edge When She Least Expected It

A former Labor and Delivery Nurse and childbirth educator, Vanessa Janek thought she knew what to expect from birth. Going into it, she was a bit leery of transition… but nothing could really prepare her for the exhaustion, fear, and overwhelm she felt when...

Insider Tips From A Labor And Delivery Nurse

Even though you may not have met them before, labor and delivery nurses are an essential part of your hospital birth team. In this episode, Registered L&D Nurse Mandy Irby talks with Adriana about why nurses may love and hate birth plans, how to navigate triage,...

[Birth Stories] When The Curveballs Come Before And After The Birth

Mandy Alexander got pregnant at 40, having had bariatric surgery seven years before that. During what she describes as her "bariatric-geriatric" pregnancy, she worked through her fear of childbirth and ended up with the unmedicated and collaborative birth experience...

How Will You Show Up At Your Birth?

Here’s the thing about preparing for birth: you can read all the books, take all the classes, listen to all the podcasts, set up a dream birth team, but no amount of preparation will get the birthing done for you. Shalome Stone tells Adriana why pregnancy is the ideal...

[Birth Stories] The Power Of Having A Strong Advocate When Her Plans Derailed

What does a self-described Type A do when her birth plan derails? Tara Langsdorf (who finished her second master’s degree and took a promotion managing a team of 25 while pregnant!) shares with Adriana how leaning on the structures and support she’d set up during...

How Your Birth Plan Impacts Your Birth Experience

Certified Nurse-Midwife Dr. Stephanie Mitchell shares with Adriana a few tools from her step-by-step guide to building a birth plan, and discusses why getting your plan together – and onboarding everyone on your birth team – can help ensure you are respected and heard...

[Birth Stories] How She Prepared Differently To Avoid Another Managed Birth

Danielle Ford has had two very distinct births, with her first happening with minimal preparation and many interventions. It wasn’t until getting pregnant ten years later that she realized she carried a lot of trauma from birth number one. She shares with Adriana how...

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Sign up to get access to all my freebies to help you prepare for birth and life with a newborn! You’ll also get updates from me from time to time.

We won’t send you spam. Unsubscribe at any time.

All Birthful Episodes

9 Most Badass Birth Moments (From Adriana’s Doula Career)

[Birth Stories] Triumphant Vaginal Birth Of Twins Despite Preeclampsia And Triggering Interventions

[Birth Stories] Four Days After Her Water Broke and Still No Labor – Now What?!

[Birth Stories] Weaving Together Four Unmedicated Births To Reveal Her Authentic Self

[Birth Stories] A Scheduled Surgical Birth And A Home VBAC: Both Based On Her Intuition

[Birth Stories] Knowing All Was Well Despite Seven Hours Of Pushing

[Birth Stories] Getting Baby To Flip From Breech With An ECV For A Flowing Vaginal Birth

[Birth Stories] Fast Homebirths And Liminal Spaces With A Pregnant Funeral Director

[Birth Stories] Creating A Beautiful Birth Experience Despite Five Days Of Interventions

[Birth Stories] An Intentionally Unassisted Birth After Three Hospital Births

[Birth Stories] Can You Even Prepare For Baby Hiccuping While Crowning?!

[Birth Stories] An Unexpectedly Unassisted Blissful Breech Birth

[Birth Stories] When Place-Of-Birth Policies Keep You Thinking Instead Of Birthing

[Birth Stories] Two (Non-Epidural) Inductions: With And Without The Fetal Ejection Reflex

[Birth Stories] From Traumatic Cesarean To Healing (And Fast!) VBAC

Connecting With Your Baby In Utero Through Song

[Birth Stories] How Birth Took Her To Her Edge When She Least Expected It

Insider Tips From A Labor And Delivery Nurse

[Birth Stories] When The Curveballs Come Before And After The Birth

How Will You Show Up At Your Birth?

[Birth Stories] The Power Of Having A Strong Advocate When Her Plans Derailed

How Your Birth Plan Impacts Your Birth Experience

[Birth Stories] How She Prepared Differently To Avoid Another Managed Birth

Get Birthful!

Get Birthful!

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