We’re jump starting our Birthful Stories by talking with Melissa Divaris Thompson about her two very different Cesarean birth experiences. Melissa describes her first experience as traumatic. By contrast, she felt really empowered during her second birth. So what makes them so very different? Check it out!
To listen here, click the play button on the player above, or click the button below to listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or Google Play.
What we talked about:
- Doing everything to prepare for an unmedicated vaginal birth
- Induction and a cascade of interventions
- Pain vs. misery
- Pitocin to “blast baby out”
- Feeling shut out of the process
- Breastfeeding difficulties and separation
- Postpartum anxiety
- “Doing only the things that make me feel good”
- Actively processing the previous experience
- When bloody show is not so good
- Using your BRAIN for informed decisions
- Treated with compassion even in the face of an emergency
- The importance of building trust with your provider
Melissa and baby, after a Cesarean Birth
Related resources and useful links*:
- Birthing From Within website, and book
- Brené Brown’s website and books
- Radical Acceptance: Awakening the Love That Heals Fear and Shame, by Tara Brach
- HonestMamas.com
- International Cesarean Awareness Network
- The Cascade of Intervention, from Childbirth Connection
- Placental abruption, from the Mayo Clinic
Melissa and baby, after a Cesarean Birth, tired and happy
Related Birthful episodes:
- Healing Your Birth Story, with Pam England
- Birth Principles: Better than a Birth Plan, with Jessie Harrold
- The Identity Shift of Becoming a Mom, with Sophie McEntee
- Epidurals & Breastfeeding, with Dianne Cassidy
- Family-Centered Cesareans, with Dr. Pamela Berens
- Choosing Your Care Provider, with Robin Elise Weiss
Courtesy of Melissa Divaris Thompson
About Melissa Divaris Thompson
Melissa Divaris Thompson is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist with a private practice in New York City helping adults and couples in their 20’s and 30’s find their authentic voices and create more joy in their lives. Melissa has a deep respect and trust for the unfolding that occurs for each client during the process of psychotherapy. She co-founded Honest Mamas which is a podcast and an online resource supporting mothers emotionally and spiritually on the motherhood journey.
Learn more at www.embracingjoy.com & www.honestmamas.com
All photos used with permission, courtesy of Melissa Divaris Thompson
Title music: “Vibe Ace” by Kevin MacLeod, from the Free Music Archive / CC BY (edited for length).
Sponsorship music: “Air Hockey Saloon” by Chris Zabriskie, from the Free Music Archive / CC BY (edited for length).
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