Send us a text In this episode, we have Barbara Harper on the podcast with us. Barbara is a midwife, author, and the founder of WaterBirth International, which she founded exactly 40 years ago. She is a world-expert in birthing and to this day travels the globe educating obstetricians, nurses and midwives on physiologic birth. Few mothers are given the opportunity to birth their placentas in the water, but is it really necessary to move women post-birth into a bed to complete the third stage (pl...
Dec 04, 2024•53 min•Season 5Ep. 294
Send us a text For this November Q&A, please enjoy the full, extended version of one of our top Q&As from season 3, where we discuss: 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, and what does the research show? How do I handle my mother-in-law who keeps giving me keepsakes for the baby that I don't want?...
Nov 27, 2024•1 hr 4 min•Season 5Ep. 293
Send us a text Lisa Hendrickson-Jack is the author of The Fith Vital Sign , a book detailing normal and abnormal parameters around menstruation and fertility and what your menstrual cycle reveals about your health. She refers to her period as "her secretary", who once per month brings her all the unfinished business in her life and plops it down on her desk to deal with. Most of us think of PMS as an annoying, unavoidable side effect of our monthly flow. Lisa challenges us to see it as a dutiful...
Nov 20, 2024•56 min•Season 5Ep. 292
Send us a text At twenty-one years old, Lacey was pregnant with her first child. She was young and healthy and expected everything to go perfectly in her labor and birth. As a result of high blood pressure, she was induced for labor. When her son was born blue and unresponsive with an APGAR score of one, she knew something was off. She held her son for only a minute before he was whisked off to the NICU. Noticing that his ears seemed disproportionally small, her maternal instincts were alert. Fi...
Nov 13, 2024•36 min•Season 5Ep. 291
Send us a text You may remember midwife Lindsey Meehleis from episode #187 in our first off-the-record-style conversation. When we decide to interview Lindsay, we do so without a plan, knowing that whatever is on our minds will be a worthwhile and impactful conversation. In today's conversation, we chat about the problems with modern medicine, how midwifery has evolved over the years, what breech babies can teach us about our emotions, how Lindsey handles pregnancies that go beyond forty-two wee...
Nov 06, 2024•49 min•Season 5Ep. 290
Send us a text Welcome to the October Q&A with Cynthia & Trisha. What's the most absurd thing that you've ever heard said to a woman in labor or to you? Today, we kick it off by sharing your anecdotes and our responses. In our regular episode, we answer: If I am planning a free birth how do I know if I have a placenta previa and what should I do? I am twelve weeks pregnant and have extremely sensitive nipples while breastfeeding my toddler. Will this get better or should I stop breastfee...
Oct 30, 2024•55 min•Season 5Ep. 289
Send us a text Postpartum rage is a form of emotional upheaval that many mothers experience but seldom feel comfortable discussing. Today's episode aims to break the silence and offer a compassionate and supportive look into the real lives of two mothers living with these intense emotions. Corrine lost her own mother the day after her son was born. Angela, a mother of five with number six on the way, lost her sister unexpectedly in a car accident on her way to help Angela with childcare. In toda...
Oct 23, 2024•49 min•Season 5Ep. 288
Send us a text If there is one best place to begin when it comes to optimizing our fertility, it is with food, and who better to bring us the lowdown on what we do and don't need for fertility optimization than Lily Nichols, RDN, the modern-day-author and guru of all things related to food and pregnancy. In today's episode, she delivers crucial information about how our modern food practices, particularly the standard American diet, set us up for sub-optimal fertility and contribute to the most ...
Oct 16, 2024•47 min•Season 5Ep. 287
Send us a text Emotional trauma is stored in the body and can lead to a host of health issues if left unresolved. In this episode, Courtney shares her deeply personal journey of navigating the effects of a controlling and emotionally abusive her mother -- so controlling, in fact, that her demanding mother caused early marital issues for Courtney and her husband. Further, due to being placed on hormonal birth control at a young age, Courtney developed a belief that she couldn’t ovulate or conceiv...
Oct 09, 2024•58 min•Season 5Ep. 286
Send us a text There are few things a mother can do with such a profound impact as meditation, yet it remains one of the hardest habits to incorporate into one's life, let alone the life of an exhausted, busy mother with a new baby in her arms. In today's episode, Kelly Smith, yoga/meditation instructor and podcast host of Mindful in Minutes, explains the benefits of meditating for as little as just ten minutes a day. We also discuss the various forms of meditation (including guided), the most c...
Oct 02, 2024•51 min•Season 5Ep. 285
Send us a text Welcome to the September Q&A episode with Cynthia & Trisha. Today, we begin with discussing the problem of increased reliance on Google searches and googling our way to answers that require deep introspection and self-trust rather than an automated and potentially biased and generalized result. In our first question, Cynthia & Trisha debate one woman's question on whether or not she should stay with a midwife she does not feel emotionally connected to or fire her late ...
Sep 25, 2024•54 min•Season 5Ep. 284
Send us a text Welcome to our second 'Breastfeeding Q&A' episode with Trisha & Cynthia. We open with an inspiring success story of a mother whose baby did not start breastfeeding for the first time until around five months of age. Additionally, we answer the following questions: I tried everything to increase my supply and stumped every lactation consultant I met with; is this going to happen to me again and what could have been the cause of my low milk supply? I have low milk supply and...
Sep 18, 2024•41 min•Season 5Ep. 283
Send us a text "Hi I’m Olivia. I was a patient of Dr. Javaid Perwaiz, so, I don’t trust you." Each time Olivia met with a new medical provider, she prefaced her introduction with the above statement. Olivia was a patient of Dr. Perwaiz for many years before he was sentenced to 59 years in prison after a jury convicted him on 52 counts of health care fraud arising from performing medically unnecessary procedures including irreversible hysterectomies. Eventually, Olivia found a team of providers w...
Sep 11, 2024•49 min•Season 5Ep. 282
Send us a text Taylor Westenberger celebrated her baby shower at 33 weeks pregnant with her first baby. Little did she know, two days later she would go into labor and give birth to a 4.5 pound baby boy. Her birth experience, while generally smooth, involved the absence of her husband due to Covid protocols and an unconsented episiotomy. She was encouraged to breastfeed in the NICU, but when it came to taking her baby home she was warned about the dangers of co-sleeping and told horror stories o...
Sep 04, 2024•41 min•Season 5Ep. 281
Send us a text Welcome to the August Q&A episode with Cynthia and Trisha. Today, we start by discussing various experiences in which mothers feel a visceral response to a family member, friend, or provider crossing a boundary with their baby--think kissing your baby without permission. In our first question of the episode, we invite Carly Hartwig from @cleanlivingwithcarly, to explain how to understand our fertile window and ovulation through assessing your cervical mucus. Next, Cynthia prov...
Aug 28, 2024•52 min•Season 5Ep. 280
Send us a text If you've ever felt that your husband is falling short or if you are a dad looking to be more available to your wife, this episode is for you. Today, we chat with Dan Doty, the co-founder of Fatherhood Ready and a passionate advocate for expectant dads. As a father of three, Dan brings his unique perspective on building a men's organization focused on emotional growth, exploration, and connection. His journey from wilderness guide to fatherhood expert was shaped by his transformat...
Aug 21, 2024•46 min•Season 5Ep. 279
Send us a text Were you billed erroneously for your birth, or charged for something frivolous like "skin to skin contact" or "out of hospital birth"? Did you receive an exorbitant hospital bill for services you may not have asked for or even incurred? Are you worried that your hospital bills are going to go unpaid? Did you want to leave Against Medical Advice (AMA) but were told your insurance would not pay for your services? In today's episode, we invite Sue Chamberlain, a medical billing profe...
Aug 14, 2024•47 min•Season 5Ep. 278
Send us a text Hyperemesis Gravidarum (HG) is not morning sickness, but rather a potentially life-threatening complication of pregnancy that may cause weight loss, malnutrition, dehydration, disability due to severe nausea and/or vomiting and can cause long-term health issues for mother and baby, including death. Today, we are joined by Kimber W. MacGibbon, executive director of the HER foundation, and Ashton Paige Clark, a wife and mother who experienced HG in five pregnancies. Together, they s...
Aug 07, 2024•49 min•Season 5Ep. 277
Send us a text Welcome back to the July Q&A with Cynthia & Trisha. Today we kick off the episode with one mother's story of her transition from OB to midwife to an unintentional free birth her 9 pound, 4 oz baby born at home in her bathroom and then the premium medical bill she received from her OB for "extra counseling time." Next, we jump into our questions starting with: Do twin moms need extra medical help to get their labor going because the mother's uterus is more stretched out? Wh...
Jul 31, 2024•43 min•Season 5Ep. 276
Send us a text Dr. Joel Gator Warsh is a classically trained integrative pediatrician with a holistic health practice in California. His approach to care puts parents at the center of the decision-making process. In today's episode, we discuss the key questions parents should ask when interviewing a pediatrician (and yes, you should interview numerous pediatricians before choosing the best fit for your family), including: How to talk about the vaccine schedule; The benefits and risks of Vitamin ...
Jul 24, 2024•51 min•Season 5Ep. 275
Send us a text The importance of healthy oral function is essential not only for infant feeding but also for a person's entire life. Poorly shaped palates, low resting tongue posture, restricted tongues, and mouth breathing are all common signs of oral restrictions or tension that can begin in the womb and influence one's health from infancy through adulthood. In today's episode, Jeannie Nelson, a speech and language pathologist from Breathe Eat Sleep Talk joins us to explain what myofunctional ...
Jul 17, 2024•41 min•Season 5Ep. 274
Send us a text In last week's episode (#272) you met legendary midwife-author Nancy Wainer. Well she's back today for Part II, where she joins us in a Q&A-style episode to answer our listeners' questions. Nancy experienced the first planned VBAC in the United States and she coined the acronym itself in her first book, Silent Knife, published in 1983. She has over 40 years of birth experience and has supported women through some incredible births that almost certainly would have resulted in s...
Jul 10, 2024•35 min•Season 5Ep. 273
Send us a text This episode has been a long time coming and is finally here! Meet Nancy Wainer, the legendary woman who began the Vaginal Birth After Cesarean (VBAC) movement. Not only did Nancy coin the term VBAC, but she is the first on record in the United States to experience a planned VBAC. Nancy has been a midwife, fierce birth advocate, author, mentor, and teacher to thousands and thousands of women, mothers, and birth professionals over the last forty-plus years. Today, we are honored to...
Jul 03, 2024•51 min•Season 5Ep. 272
Send us a text Welcome to the June Q&A with Cynthia and Trisha! Today, we start the episode with all the romantic, hilarious, and random ways our community met their spouses, and we finish the episode with one woman's question to us: "If you were a dog, what kind would you be?" -- you'll hear us reach out to a friend on the spot to answer that question for us. In the regular version of this episode, we answer the following questions: Help! I am losing trust in my body after having experience...
Jun 26, 2024•41 min•Season 5Ep. 271
Send us a text Can you imagine giving birth without ever "checking on" your baby? Without a test, an ultrasound, a need for reassurance from others that your baby is okay? And, what does it mean to cross the threshold from Maiden to Mother? How does a woman step into her wiser feminine self, relinquishing her controlled, organized, masculine energy and need for control in birth? What is required of a woman to feel so safe in her body that she can release hypervigilance and surrender fully to the...
Jun 19, 2024•35 min•Season 5Ep. 270
Send us a text Dr. Lizzie Kieffer is a doctorate of physical therapy with a specialty practice in women's pelvic floor health. She joins us today to let us in on the little-known secret to protecting, relaxing, strengthening, and restoring your pelvic floor. She teaches us three simple techniques you can initiate immediately after birth to optimize pelvic floor recovery, how, when and why to do kegel exercises, what it means to have diastasis recti, and explains the differences in pelvic floor c...
Jun 12, 2024•41 min•Season 5Ep. 269
Send us a text Dr. Trillitye Paullin is a molecular biologist and founder of Free to Feed , a consultation service for navigating infant food reactivity in breastfeeding dyads. Today, Dr. Trill joins us with one of her clients, Chelsea, a first-time mom who found Trill and our podcast and reached out to help spread the research around newborn food reactivity. Trill shares her ground-breaking research into why and how a mother's diet causes allergic responses in babies in the form of bloody stool...
Jun 05, 2024•51 min•Season 5Ep. 268
Send us a text Hello everyone! Cynthia and Trisha are back with the May Q&A episode. Today, we kick it off with an enlightening discussion on the worst parenting advice you have ever received--here's to all the things we never need to hear as mothers! Next, we hear one woman's beautiful take on her cesarean scar. Then, we dive into your awesome questions beginning with: What is the likelihood that if I had pre-eclampsia and gestational diabetes in my first pregnancy that I will have it again...
May 29, 2024•41 min•Season 5Ep. 267
Send us a text Today's episode is a four-way conversation between us and a mother and daughter who are living in France. Nicola Thompson is a former L&D nurse of 30 years who worked in the U.S., and is now working in France as a traditional birth attendant, full-spectrum doula and IBCLC. Sasha Sharif, her daughter, is a mother of two with a third on the way. Sasha explains the impact her mother's life's work has had on her, and how that wisdom ultimately guided her away from birthing in the ...
May 22, 2024•45 min•Season 5Ep. 266
Send us a text Tiffany and Kelly of Beautiful One Midwifery are a midwife team in California who both began their birth work as doulas. As a result, they designed their practice from a hands-off, hands-out approach--meaning, the woman is the focal point of all decision-making making, and interventions are only utilized with her absolute permission and desire. Not only does this model require a woman to take radical responsibility for her birth, but it also gives her body and mind the space to gi...
May 15, 2024•47 min•Season 5Ep. 265
