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Pregnant people get bombarded with all sorts of advice: a lot of it unsolicited, outdated, or just plain wrong.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.
Exploring Your Options of Where to Give Birth
Adriana Lozada goes through the pros and cons of three places where you can give birth: a hospital, a birth center, and at home, and what you should consider when making an informed decision. Powered by RedCircle Listen directly through our website...
What You Need to Know About Birth Models (Birth What?)
Medical anthropologist Robbie Davis-Floyd talks with Adriana about the technocratic, humanistic and holistic birth models. She explains why we’ve gotten so obsessed with machines and numbers, why we need more midwives, how some OBs are making positive change by...
![[Birth Stories] How Flexibility Helped Her Flow through Relentless Contractions](https://birthful.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Sarah-Winward-milky-goddess-Birthful-Podcast-e1551285392279.jpg)
[Birth Stories] How Flexibility Helped Her Flow through Relentless Contractions
Sarah Winward’s story starts with some lovely swing dancing in the living room, and stomping through deep snow with her dog, then gets really intense, having Sarah ask herself over and over “Where is the break?! There’s supposed to be a break. Where is the break?!”...
What Cultural Ideals Will Shape Your Birth Experience?
Author and childbirth educator Britta Bushnell describes eight deeply-entrenched cultural ideals that can unconsciously— and even negatively— impact the course of your labor and how you parent. She and Adriana share how to reframe these beliefs to uplift realistic...
![[Birth Stories] Wonderful Waterbirth with Strong Fetal Ejection Reflex](https://birthful.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/headshot-400x250.jpeg)
[Birth Stories] Wonderful Waterbirth with Strong Fetal Ejection Reflex
Michelle Onaka shares the ups and downs along the way toward having her child, including her fertility journey, then completely gutting their house during pregnancy, and following that up with a fabulous waterbirth. She shares with Adriana how immediate postpartum...
![[Birth Stories] Prodromal… and Fantastic?!](https://birthful.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/Criselda-family-400x250.jpg)
[Birth Stories] Prodromal… and Fantastic?!
Criselda shares with Adriana the details of her three-day-long birth, which she describes as amazing and transformative. It also truly illustrates how birth is not linear, as it can easily go from prodromal to precipitous! Find out what helped her get through the...
![[Birth Stories] Homebirth After Two Cesareans, With Castor Oil and a Location Twist](https://birthful.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/Alison-Spath-scaled-e1692153153921-400x250.jpg)
[Birth Stories] Homebirth After Two Cesareans, With Castor Oil and a Location Twist
Alison Spath shares with Adriana the many twists and turns included in her path toward a planned homebirth after two cesareans (HBA2C), including getting things started with castor oil, having to hold at bay the fear-based opinions of random obstetricians, celebrating...
![[Birth Story] Birth: Not as Bad as Hiking the Machu Picchu Trail](https://birthful.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/Shelley-Wiley-headshot-scaled-e1691546387982-400x250.jpg)
[Birth Story] Birth: Not as Bad as Hiking the Machu Picchu Trail
Shelley Wylie shares with Adriana how marvelous it can be to see your partner really have your back and tell the nurse to wait until your contraction is over, how birth is not as horrendous as the Machu Picchu trail, and how you can absolutely have a lovely birth,...
![[Birth Stories] A Glorious Vaginal Birth After Cesarean](https://birthful.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/09-untitled-9.jpg)
[Birth Stories] A Glorious Vaginal Birth After Cesarean
Kally McConnell shares her glorious VBAC story, along with all the things she did differently from her first birth, how it all started with a literal bang when her bag of waters broke, and how there was no time for the tub. She also shares with Adriana the insights...
![[Birth Stories] Giving Birth to Twins as a Disabled Person](https://birthful.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/Dani-headshot-400x250.jpeg)
[Birth Stories] Giving Birth to Twins as a Disabled Person
Dani Izzie, a disability advocate who is quadriplegic, tells Adriana how her years of navigating the medical system, connecting with a community that understands her, building a supportive team, and her deep understanding of her body helped her through the birth of...
How to Set Up Your Childcare Options to Include Community Care
Great childcare— so, a solution that you can afford, has availability, works with your schedule, and can provide loving and safe care for your child— can be hard to find! Most often than not, you will have to concede some trade-offs. Leslie Borrell explains the...
Milk Your Lactation Benefits!
Some people say that nursing your baby is "free"— and while there certainly are unique cost savings associated with feeding human milk, there can be expenses associated with it, too. How can you maximize your lactation-related benefits? And what does the law have to...
How to Organize Truly Helpful Postpartum Support From Your Friends and Family
Michelle Peterson shares with Adriana a fantastic framework for setting up your postpartum village of support that spreads the responsibility over many people (seven to be exact) so that you are well-resourced beyond the first few weeks of postpartum. She explains how...
Why You Deserve Professional Postpartum Support (And How to Afford It!)
When it comes to postpartum, EVERYONE needs support. And even after accepting that you WILL need the help, it can be tricky figuring out how to ask for it, especially when most of our friends and family members don’t really know how to help (nor have the time!)....
Working with HR to Maximize Your Employee Benefits for Postpartum
Understanding your parental leave benefits— with all its overwhelming fine print— can be a daunting task! To make the process easier, human resource professional extraordinaire Katy Dahl shares with Adriana how to approach the process so that you can not only maximize...
![[Birth Story] How She Was Surprised by Both Birth and Postpartum, but in Opposite Ways!](https://birthful.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Ivy-Tumlinson-family-400x250.jpg)
[Birth Story] How She Was Surprised by Both Birth and Postpartum, but in Opposite Ways!
Ivy Tumlinson shares with Adriana the overwhelming challenges of her postpartum experience after being overjoyed by her fast and furious unmedicated hospital birth. She explains the lactation issues that lead her to exclusively pump and the difficulties in healing her...
What You Need To Plan Your Parental Leave
Perinatal health consultant Arianna Taboada goes through the ins and outs of paid and unpaid parental leave in the United States. She shares with Adriana Lozada how to be realistic about your options for the best possible return to work for you and your family, while...
![[Birth Stories] How She Confidently and Calmly Gave Birth in a Moving Car](https://birthful.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Carbirth3months-scaled-e1685490524675-400x250.jpg)
[Birth Stories] How She Confidently and Calmly Gave Birth in a Moving Car
Laura Loos has had two non-medicated vaginal births, with her second one happening so super fast, that it involved birthing while in a moving car! She shares with Adriana how connecting with her inner voice and trusting the abundant preparation she had done during...
How Your Baby Helps During the Birthing Process
Babies use a set of coordinated movements and specific reflexes that allow them to participate in the birthing process. Adriana Lozada explains how this fascinating process works, and how it helps get them earthside. Powered by RedCircle Listen...
![[Birth Stories] How She Reframed Birth Toward Pleasure and Let Her Power Flow](https://birthful.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/Maya-Ehnat-Birthful-Podcast.jpg)
[Birth Stories] How She Reframed Birth Toward Pleasure and Let Her Power Flow
Maya Ehnat was brought up to be comfortable with birth, and so from the get-go, her language and approach weren’t fear-based. Beyond that, much of the preparation she did during pregnancy was guided by a desire to minimize trauma and bring heaps of pleasure and joy...
How to Bring More Pleasure and Joy Into Your Birth (And Why It Makes a Difference!)
If you want to minimize sensations of pain and even move them into pleasure, this episode is for you! Debra Pascali-Bonaro and Adriana explore how you can bring more pleasure and joy into your birth, and why doing so can help you not only have a better experience, but...
![[Birth Story] How Harnessing Her Birth Hormones Allowed Her to Forgo an Induction](https://birthful.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/Danellia-Arechiga-headshot-scaled-e1683085519708-400x250.jpeg)
[Birth Story] How Harnessing Her Birth Hormones Allowed Her to Forgo an Induction
When Danellia Arechiga became a gestational surrogate, she felt strongly about having an unmedicated birth at a birth center. Even as her labor plan derailed into an induction, she pushed for few interventions and worked with her physiology, ultimately experiencing...
Helping Your Mammalian Body (and Baby!) Have an Easier and More Connected Birth
During labor, you want contractions that are longer, stronger, and closer together. But why? Dr. Sarah Buckley and Adriana take a deep dive into the amazing and fascinating hormonal dance that happens during the birthing process, and how interventions such as...
![[Birth Story] How Her Goals of “No Epidural and No Whining” Helped Her Befriend the Labor Pain](https://birthful.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/IMG_8025-1-400x250.jpg)
[Birth Story] How Her Goals of “No Epidural and No Whining” Helped Her Befriend the Labor Pain
Celeste and Claudiu Bancos share their perspectives of their son’s birth (who chimes in too!), often surprising each other with moments the other didn’t remember or knew about. Ultimately, Celeste achieved her birth goals of not whining and avoiding getting an...