Send us a text Claude Racine Valinsky is a former professional dancer and choreographer in Los Angeles who is now a mother who has recovered from postpartum depression and become a thriving mom-preneur. She returns to the show for the third time to share her "gangster mindset" for turning our most difficult moments in life into our greatest opportunity for growth, expansion, fulfillment and success. Claude joined us in episode #28 to share her home birth story and again in episode #72, where she...
Mar 15, 2023•44 min•Season 4Ep. 204
Send us a text Pre-eclampsia impacts more than 5% of pregnancies, is a leading cause of pre-term birth and is increasingly on the rise. When it comes to this difficult diagnosis, we often are told there is nothing we can do other than give birth, usually by induction, sometimes by cesarean. While the etiology of pre-eclampsia is not fully understood and much more research needs to be done, we do know that diet and nutrition play a key role in the development of and/or severity of pre-eclampsia. ...
Mar 08, 2023•47 min•Season 4Ep. 203
Send us a text When Lauren gave birth to her first baby, everything was seemingly perfect. Breastfeeding was going well, and she was totally in love with her baby girl. What she didn't see coming was a series of lifestyle changes including moving that set her up for her previously-managed OCD transforming into bouts of postpartum rage. At 9 months postpartum, when her pediatrician told her that her baby was too small, the regularly occurring outbursts that soon followed were classic for the post...
Mar 01, 2023•35 min•Season 4Ep. 202
Send us a text It's time for our monthly Q&A episode with your Down to Birth Show hosts Cynthia & Trisha. After a quick chat about the brutally cold weather (how unoriginal), we jump right into our listener-submitted questions beginning with: How important or helpful is body-work for tongue-tied babies? Is there ever a legit reason for a cervical check in late pregnancy? When exclusively breastfeeding, when should you introduce a bottle and start saving milk for going back to work? What ...
Feb 22, 2023•44 min•Season 4Ep. 201
Send us a text Active management of the third stage of labor refers to interventions that are taken to speed up the delivery of the placenta and reduce the risk of postpartum hemorrhage. This typically involves the administration of an oxytocic drug like Pitocin or Syntocinon to increase the contraction of the uterus and the use of techniques like fundal pressure and controlled cord traction to guide the placenta out of the uterus. Expectant management, on the other hand, is a more hands-off app...
Feb 15, 2023•52 min•Season 4Ep. 200
Send us a text Anna is a Swedish-practicing midwife who was professionally trained in Australia. Anna discusses her view of birth as a rite of passage and a transformational experience, and she laments the current state of the maternity system, which often leads to birth trauma for women. She talks about the desire to control every aspect of pregnancy and birth, and the importance of relinquishing to the unknown and trusting in the intelligence and expertise of the mother and baby. Anna also sha...
Feb 08, 2023•40 min•Season 4Ep. 199
Send us a text Jessy is a Certified Professional Midwife (CPM) in the state of Utah where breech home birth is against state law. In her second pregnancy, she made three attempts using gentle version techniques to turn her baby, yet her baby turned back to breech every time. Weighing out the risks of breech vaginal home birth versus cesarean, she opted for home birth but kept her baby's breech position to herself and off-the-record. She only hinted to her midwife that her baby was being "stubbor...
Feb 01, 2023•33 min•Season 4Ep. 198
Send us a text We are back with our first Q&A of 2023. We begin today by discussing absurd comments shared with us around natural birth statistics before we jump into our regular Q&As, starting with: How can I prevent another postpartum hemorrhage when I feel like I did everything right the first time but still bled too much? What role does a doula play in a home birth and how does she interact with the home birth midwife? Is it normal to lose your mucus plug at 32 weeks, and will it com...
Jan 25, 2023•44 min•Season 4Ep. 197
Send us a text Sarah Hutchison & Lara Martens are the Dynamic Doulas of London, Ontario. Doula work is a delicate balance of keeping a "soft front and hard back", stepping-in and and not overstepping. The fact is, doula burnout is high, the emotional work can be heavy, and the lifestyle is challenging. But as any doula knows, those who are called to the work can't imagine doing anything else and the rewards of supporting mothers in achieving their birth goals are tremendous. Today's episode ...
Jan 18, 2023•45 min•Season 4Ep. 196
Send us a text If you are considering the birth control pill to fix your period, think again. Did you know the hormones in your pill don't replace the hormones your body naturally makes? Instead, they mask and suppress them. The period you get at the end of your birth control pill pack is not a real period; it's simply a withdraw bleed from synthetic hormones. Your brain, bones, heart, mood, sex drive, motivation, inspiration, and creativity are all influenced by the hormonal cycles of naturally...
Jan 11, 2023•37 min•Season 4Ep. 195
Send us a text When Emma's first baby was one year old, she opened her phone to review her baby's photos and realized she had spent that year completely avoiding looking back at any images from the first three months of her baby's life. It was clear in that moment, she had experienced significant postpartum depression and delayed bonding with her baby, and the photos were a stark reminder of a truth she hadn't been ready to face. Six months later she ruptured her spleen, resulting in a post-trau...
Jan 04, 2023•42 min•Season 4Ep. 194
Send us a text Hello everyone! It is that time of the month, and we are back with our December Q&A. To kick it off, we have a follow-up conversation based on one listener's response to episode #188 on Rhogam. Next, we jump into our questions discussing the actual risks of going past 24 hours or ruptured membranes without contractions and how you can mitigate those risks. We break down why meconium becomes more concerning after 42 weeks gestation and what those actual risks are. One mother wh...
Dec 28, 2022•44 min•Season 3Ep. 193
Send us a text If we could share every single woman's birth story on this podcast we would; but instead, today we are giving you a glimpse into a handful of hospital stories and anecdotes that represent the rhetoric, mistreatment, and disrespect that mothers experience from hospital staff, midwives, OBs and pediatricians. In this episode, you will hear such things as a mother having her call light put on the other side of the room so she couldn't bother the staff with her questions, another moth...
Dec 21, 2022•1 hr 4 min•Season 3Ep. 192
Send us a text Meghan Murray and her husband decided to have one more baby. She'd already experienced beautiful vaginal births with her first two boys and, like so many women, she mentally went through all the things she could do this time around to get things just right. In preparing for her dream birth, Meghan hired new midwives who practiced outside of a hospital setting and seemed perfectly aligned with her wishes. She remained fit, practiced Spinning Babies and learned relaxation techniques...
Dec 14, 2022•42 min•Season 3Ep. 191
Send us a text No matter how beautiful, long, short or difficult your birth experience is, nothing compares to the agony of your brand new baby being whisked out of your arms and admitted to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) or Special Care Nursery (SPC). Mothers in this position often experience less autonomy and authority over the decision-making and informed consent process than they did in their own birth experiences. Today, we share the individual stories of three women whose babies e...
Dec 07, 2022•48 min•Season 3Ep. 190
Send us a text Hello everyone! It is Wednesday, and we are back with our monthly Q&A! In this month's extended Q&As (always ad-free and available to all by subscribing to Down To Birth + on Apple or joining our Patreon community) we discuss an interesting situation reported by one mom regarding her "retained placenta" - or was it? How would you know if it's really a medical situation or a failure to be patient? We also respond to one mom regarding the quality of European versus U.S. form...
Nov 30, 2022•35 min•Season 3Ep. 189
Send us a text In today's episode we discuss the problem with Rh negative blood types and how it impacts future pregnancies. We've invited Courtney, mother of three, and her midwife, Jessica, to discuss her experience as an Rh negative mother who became isoimmunized against her baby, resulting in the need for multiple in-utero blood transfusions to save her baby's life. Typically, women who carry the Rh negative blood type are given a blood product called Rhogam, which protects the mother from d...
Nov 23, 2022•35 min•Season 3Ep. 188
Send us a text Lindsey Meehleis is a midwife in Southern California who practices traditional midwifery and has supported women in home birth over the last nineteen years. We invited her on the podcast today without a specific agenda (a rather unusual twist on our style) and let the conversation take on a life of its own. We discussed what is happening with midwifery today as we pondered, "Where have all the traditional midwives gone, how has midwifery changed with the advent of nurse-midwifery,...
Nov 16, 2022•51 min•Season 3Ep. 187
Send us a text Emma of the naked doula is a mother, instagram phenomenon, artist, and passionate, bold birth educator residing across the pond from us, in England. She uses bright colors, raw imagery and impassioned language to teach her birth philosophy and method. Today, she joins us on the Down to Birth Show to share her secret sauce to your easiest and best birth. She explains five specific strategies that anyone can incorporate into their labor including: Floppy face, floppy fanny, the comb...
Nov 09, 2022•40 min•Season 3Ep. 186
Send us a text When Reyna learned she was pregnant with twins she was told she would need to be induced and get an epidural and that there was no point in staying pregnant beyond thirty-eight weeks. Refusing induction, she went into labor naturally at 39+2. As labor progressed, her obstetrician told her she needed to give birth in the operating room. Without a second thought, Reyna turned and said, "No, I am not giving birth in the OR." Instead, she went into the bathroom, dropped to her hands a...
Nov 02, 2022•39 min•Season 3Ep. 185
Send us a text Hello Friends! It is Wednesday, and Cynthia & Trisha are here with your October Q&A episode. To kick it off, we share a story from a listener who wanted everyone to know how a routine gynecologic exam in her twenties turned into a precarious moment in her VBAC experience. Next, we dive into our questions beginning with the potential association between evening primrose oil in pregnancy, a smelly baby at birth, and early cord clamping--could they all be related? Then, we go...
Oct 26, 2022•41 min•Season 3Ep. 184
Send us a text GBS affects approximately one-third of all pregnant women, and involves widespread use of intravenous antibiotics in labor even though the screening tests are known to be highly imperfect, and some women are at significantly greater risk of GBS colonization than others. Further, there are specific risk factors making some babies far more likely to contract GBS than others. This "universal" approach to GBS management is the very start of our deep and detailed discussion on GBS. Cyn...
Oct 19, 2022•37 min•Season 3Ep. 183
Send us a text Dr. Rachel Reed, PhD, author, midwife, researcher and expert in physiologic birth joins us for the second time on the Down to Birth Show to discuss the differences between physiologic birth and induced labor. She shares with us the different ways in which Pitocin/Syntocin impacts the course of labor, including significant risk to mother and baby, versus our own natural oxytocin. You'll learn the unique risks of Pitocin for first-time moms, and the entirely different set of risks P...
Oct 12, 2022•56 min•Season 3Ep. 182
Send us a text Melissa Pennel was thirty-four years old when she was pregnant for the first time. She already had experienced significant life challenges: She had lost her own mother a few years earlier, plus she was seven years sober. Her pregnancy presented several health scares along the way, such as a two-vessel cord and a perceived hole in the baby's heart, eliciting words like possible "fetal demise" from her providers and the potentiality of "organs not developing normally". Her baby was ...
Oct 05, 2022•44 min•Season 3Ep. 181
Send us a text Hello all! We are back with our monthly Q&A. To kick it off, we have a short conversation on maternal instincts. Next, we discuss how one woman should handle her mother-in-law's request to be called "Mama". Then we review the very few reasons when an induction is absolutely needed, how long you can go with ruptured membranes before inducing labor, followed by a question on familial history and a genetic predisposition to needing a cesarean birth. Another mother calls in to exp...
Sep 28, 2022•45 min•Season 3Ep. 180
Send us a text Infant sleep is one of the most important topics on the mind of every new parent. New parents are left wondering what normal infant sleep looks like, how much their baby needs at each age, and how create easier sleep routines resulting in longer stretches of sleep during day and night. Many of today's parents are afraid that any degree of crying will create negative associations or, worse, teach the child their needs won't be met. In preparation for this episode, we solicited ques...
Sep 21, 2022•45 min•Season 3Ep. 179
Send us a text Hermine Hayes-Klein is a fearless legal advocate for sexual and reproductive rights with a particular passion for defending women’s human rights in childbirth, which, she says, are routinely violated in maternity care systems. You may recall attorney Hermine Hayes-Klein from our previous episodes with her: Episode #138 | Legal Case Study #1: Traumatized at a Major Teaching Hospital While Interns Watched and Learned Episode #153 | Legal Case Study #2: Injured by Obstetrics with Now...
Sep 14, 2022•47 min•Season 3Ep. 178
Send us a text There are over 85,000 chemicals approved for use in personal care products and fewer than 200 of those have been tested for safety. Carly Hartwig is a home-birth mother of one, Instagram influencer @cleanlivingwithcarly, and soon-to-be certified endocrine wellness and fertility counselor. Her passion for clean living grew out of her own hormonal havoc when she was told in her twenties she had the hormonal landscape of a post-menopausal woman. She soon realized the products she was...
Sep 07, 2022•44 min•Season 3Ep. 177
Send us a text Hello! It is the last Wednesday of the month, and you know what that means. We are here with our August Q&A episode. Today, Cynthia & Trisha are discussing weight loss after having a baby--can you lose too much too fast? What tests should be done if you've had multiple miscarriages? Can you give us the scoop on Evening Primrose oil for getting labor started--is it helpful or hurtful? How do I handle my mother-in-law who keeps giving me keepsakes for the baby that I don't w...
Aug 31, 2022•43 min•Season 3Ep. 176
Send us a text Dr. Aumatma is a holistic fertility expert who, through her own hormonal challenges, became impassioned about supporting and optimizing women's cycles and fertility irrespective of age. Today, she shares with us the three most common myths in infertility and fertility management, explains what tests we must do to better understand our hormones, and walks us through the key lifestyle factors, sleep, stress, and diet, and how they impact our fertility and conception. This show is sp...
Aug 24, 2022•35 min•Season 3Ep. 175
