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

Birth Partners, Birth Stories, C-sections, golden hour, homebirth, hormones, Hospital, Labor & Birth, Podcast, TBPodcast, VBAC

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] An Unexpectedly Unassisted Blissful Breech Birth

Birth Partners, Birth Stories, homebirth, Labor & Birth, Podcast, TBPodcast

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

Birth Choices, Birth Partners, Birth Stories, Hospital, Interventions, Labor & Birth, Podcast, TBPodcast

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

Birth Partners, Birth Stories, Doulas, Hospital, Interventions, Labor & Birth, Podcast, TBPodcast

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] How Harnessing Her Birth Hormones Allowed Her To Forgo An Induction

Birth Choices, Birth Partners, Birth Plan, Birth Stories, Fertility, Hospital, Interventions, Labor & Birth, Podcast, Pregnancy, Stories

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...

[Birth Stories] Why a Birth Team Was Key in Overcoming Her Fears

Birth Choices, Birth Partners, Birth Plan, Birth Stories, Labor & Birth, Podcast, Pregnancy, Stories

Kristina Colangelo visualized a flowing birth, but the reality caught her by surprise. Fortunately, her dad, mom, doula, and midwife supported her through a long labor due to a posterior baby, prolonged hyperemesis gravidarum, and the fear of tearing. She tells...