*Trigger Warning* In this episode, we will be discussing first trimester pregnancy loss, navigating conception with secondary infertility, and navigating pregnancy after loss. If you find that these topics are sensitive for you, please proceed with caution or skip this episode of our podcast! Tarrah is a senior manager in the technology industry, mom of two (soon to be three), military spouse, and avid health and fitness advocate. Tarrah started working out with MamasteFit in 2019, right around ...
Jul 26, 2023•54 min•Ep. 21
Mary shares her two birth stories and the differences in pain management techniques. Her first birth was an induction at 41 weeks with an epidural leading to a vaginal birth. Her second was unmedicated after spontaneous labor, where she received IV pain relief. We discuss what Mary wished she knew about IV pain relief and the effects that it can have on baby, the concerns with IV pain relief too close to delivery, as well as a little bit about epidurals during this birth story episode. In this e...
Jul 21, 2023•33 min
In today's episode, we will be interviewing Dr. Puja Shah, about epidurals and spinals, two pain management techniques for labor and birth, and how her own Cesarean birth has shaped how she approaches her career as an anesthesiologist. Dr. Shah is a double board certified anesthesiologist and interventional pain management specialist based out of New York City. Approaching wellness from the inside out, she uses her intensive medical training and deep understanding of the mind/body connection to ...
Jul 19, 2023•1 hr 1 min•Ep. 20
Listen as Rebecca shares her unmedicated hospital birth where she had a Trisomy 21 diagnosis (more commonly known as Down's Syndrome) after having genetic screening and then diagnostic testing done. Find out how she navigated not just having that high risk pregnancy due to her diagnosis, but also finding a supportive provider who would support all of her birthing desires. Follow Rebecca's personal journey/account on Instagram @alittleextraviv Down Syndrome Support | DSDN Down Syndrome Diagnosis ...
Jul 14, 2023•27 min
Dr. Amelie is a pediatric physical therapist who specializes in gross motor development and wellness. She has worked in all areas of pediatric health, from hospitals to outpatient clinics, as well as home visits. Her own experience as a first time mom brought to light just how little education and support parents are given with regards to developmental milestones, gross motor skills, and essentially what the heck to do with a baby! Her goal in starting Grasping Gross Motor was to create a space ...
Jul 12, 2023•1 hr 5 min•Ep. 19
Birth Story 9: Christina: Unmedicated Induction Hospital Birth Christina shares her unmedicated hospital induction birth with Gina as her doula! Christina was induced towards the end of her pregnancy due to some suspected complications, but thanks to her prenatal and birth education from MamasteFit, went to her induction confident that she could still have a positive birth experience. Want to share your birth story on our podcast? Submit your birth story on our website! Prepare for ...
Jul 07, 2023•41 min
In this episode, we will be talking all about induction. What is it? Why and when is it recommended? What is involved with an induction of labor? What are some of the risks and benefits? We will also be discussing some common fears that people have associated with being induced, including Gina's own personal experience from her first birth! In this episode: What is Induction? What are some natural induction methods? What are the medical induction methods? Common reasons for induction What are th...
Jul 05, 2023•51 min•Ep. 18
Birth Story 8: Ashley's Home Births One of Gina's doula clients, Ashley, will be sharing her two home birth stories. Ashley shares how her first birth was a precipitous labor, which left her feeling like she didn't get to enjoy her birth and felt out of control. Due to COVID fears and protocols, Ashley and her husband made a last minute switch to a home birth with Gina and a midwife. Her second birth, was planned to be a home birth from the start, was much slower, and she was able to experience ...
Jun 30, 2023•29 min
Episode 17: Birth Partner Support: Barron's Story of Supporting Gina in Birth Gina’s birth partner and husband, Barron, shares his perspective on their three pregnancies and births! They discuss how Barron was able to support Gina during their births and tips for birth partners on how to advocate for, and provide comfort to, their partners during birth. In this episode: Navigating their first pregnancy long distance due to the Army Hiring a doula and taking a childbirth education course Their fi...
Jun 28, 2023•51 min•Ep. 17
Birth Story 7: Raquel: Vaginal Breech Birth (HBAC) Join us as Raquel shares her birth story! In this episode, Raquel shares her home-birth after Cesarean (HBAC) with a planned vaginal breech birth, attended by Dr Stu of Birthing Instincts. Raquel shares her four birth stories. Her very first one was a scheduled C-section due to breech positioning when she was 19 years old. Her next baby was head down, but she also scheduled another C-section. Her third was another scheduled C-section due to bree...
Jun 23, 2023•28 min
Episode 16: Breech Birth with Dr. Stu Fischbein In this episode, we will chat with Dr. Stuart Fischbein of Birthing Instincts and Vaginal Rebirth about his experience transitioning from an obstetrician in a hospital setting to a private practice supporting home births. We will discuss how breech positioning should be treated as a variation of normal vaginal birth, but finding skilled and like-minded providers has become less and less common in the United States. In this episode, we discuss: Dr. ...
Jun 21, 2023•1 hr 11 min•Ep. 16
Birth Story 6: Madeleine: Induction for Hypertension with an Unmedicated Hospital Birth Join us as Madeleine shares her birth story! In today's birth story, Madeleine will be sharing her story which involves an induction due to hypertension, leading to an unmedicated hospital birth. She developed gestational hypertension towards the end of her pregnancy, which required a medical induction. Roxanne explains gestational hypertension, how it is diagnosed, and why it can be a serious complication of...
Jun 16, 2023•24 min
Episode 15: Pushing: Understanding the Second Stage of Labor In this episode, we discuss the second stage of labor: pushing! You may feel afraid or worried about how pushing will go; it's not something we do or witness very often, so there is a lot of unknown with it! In this episode, we discuss: Our personal fears with pushing before we had our first babies! Overcoming the fear of pooping and tearing Ways to minimize tearing Pushing strategies to make your pushes more effective What to expect i...
Jun 14, 2023•56 min•Season 2Ep. 15
Birth Story 5: Annie's Birth Story: Breech Positioning, Successful ECV, and Complications Leading to A Positive C-Section Join us as Annie shares her birth story! In today's birth story, Annie will be sharing her story of how she planned for an unmedicated, vaginal birth at a midwife-run birth center, but ended up being transferred to a hospital and ultimately needing a C-section. In her third trimester, Annie found out her baby was breech, had a successful ECV, developed some complications towa...
Jun 09, 2023•27 min
Episode 14: Tongue Ties: Fad or Fact with Dr. Jordan Hubbard, Functional Dentist In this episode, we interview Dr. Jordan Hubbard, a dentist in Southern Pines, North Carolina, on tongue ties and their impact on not only breastfeeding but long-term airway health and the implications for our overall health! Casey Backus, physical therapist and yoga teacher, shares her expertise on myofascial connections and lines and the relationship our tongue has to our overall mobility and movement mechanics! I...
Jun 07, 2023•47 min•Season 2Ep. 14
Birth Story 4: Mackenzie's Birth Story: Breech, ECV, and Prenatal Transfer of Care from a Freestanding Birth Center to Hospital Birth Join us as Mackenzie shares her birth story! Mackenzie was planning a birth at a freestanding birth center, but found out that her baby was breech! The birth center could not support a breech vaginal birth, so Mackenzie transferred care to a local hospital in hopes that an ECV would flip baby head down. And it worked! Mackenzie transferred back to her birth center...
Jun 02, 2023•36 min
Episode 13: Breastfeeding Journeys: Exclusive Breastfeeding, Pumping, and Struggles with Nursing with Gina, Roxanne, and guests Casey and Jordan! In this episode, we share our personal breastfeeding journeys, both the joy and struggles as we learned how to nurse our babies. All four of us exclusively breastfed for at least the first year of life (and for three of us over 2+ years), but each had our own struggles and approaches. Gina, Roxanne, and Casey breastfeed beyond the first year, and all s...
May 31, 2023•44 min•Season 2Ep. 2
Birth Story 3: Laura's Birth Stories: Unmedicated Hospital Births with PROM and an OP Baby Join us as Laura shares her two birth stories, that Gina luckily was able to support as a doula! Laura and Gina met through mutual friends after Laura started doing the MamasteFit Prenatal Programming. Laura hired Gina as her birth doula for both of her births, and discusses how MamasteFit has positively shaped her perinatal journey. Laura's first birth was a fast unmedicated hospital birth, and we anticip...
May 26, 2023•53 min
Episode 12: Postpartum Return to Fitness: Birth to Return to Lifting Progression In this episode, we will be discussing how to approach your postpartum recovery from day 1 after birth to getting back to lifting weights. We share how to approach your early postpartum recovery, and how important it is to take it slow and honor the process. When we do TOO much too soon, we could prolong our healing process. We break down how to begin to return to lifting weights and progressions to consider as you ...
May 24, 2023•55 min
Birth Story 2: Jordan's Birth Story: Breech, Successful ECV, and Labored C-Section Birth In this episode, Jordan shares her birth story of her first baby! Jordan discovered her baby was breech during the third trimester, after planning an unmedicated hospital birth. She did ALL the things, but baby did not flip headdown, so opted to try for ECV! The ECV was successful and she went into spontaneous labor! After laboring for several hours, stalling at 8cm, she decided to meet her baby with a cesar...
May 19, 2023•28 min
Episode 11: Casey's Birth Stories: Unplanned C-Sections and Healing After Birth. Join us as Casey Backus, one of our founding members shares her infertility story and journey to motherhood and the birth stories of her sons. Casey's first birth started with a 37-week induction due to preeclampsia, a prenatal complication, that ended in an unplanned cesarean birth. Casey prepared for her second pregnancy for a VBAC, a vaginal birth after a cesarean, but found herself in a similar situation at the ...
May 17, 2023•28 min•Season 2Ep. 11
Birth Story 1: Danielle's Two Birth Stories: Unmedicated Hospital Birth and Home Birth to Scheduled Cesarean with Placenta Previa Danielle, one of the founding members of MamasteFit gym and doula client, shares her two birth stories that have inspired her to enter birth work after retiring from the US Air Force. Danielle shares how she advocated for her care and birth during her first pregnancy when she was considered a "geriatric pregnancy" and had an unmedicated hospital birth after being pres...
May 12, 2023•39 min•Ep. 1
Episode 10: Gina’s Third Birth: Home Birth of Sophie During Hurricane Ian Listen as Gina shares about her third birth, second home birth, during Hurricane Ian in October 2022! Gina shares about her pregnancy, and being “overdue,” finally going into labor at 41+2. Third births are commonly considered to be the “wild card” birth, where anything can happen! Gina also shares about the emotions in early postpartum, and navigating the possibility of Sophie being her final baby. Read Sophie’s birth sto...
May 10, 2023•41 min•Season 1Ep. 10
Episode 9: Pelvic Floor Prep for Birth with Hayley Kava, Pelvic Floor Physical Therapist In this episode, we are chatting with Hayley Kava, pelvic floor physical therapist, about how we can prepare our pelvic floor for birth! Spoiler alert, doing kegels are not included in our recommended birth preparation exercises. We can learn how to RELAX and RELEASE the pelvic floor as we prepare for birth and ensure we can open each level of our pelvis. In this episode we discuss: Do kegels prepare the pel...
May 03, 2023•39 min•Season 1Ep. 9
Episode 8: Roxanne's Second Birth Story: The Birth of Colin in a Freestanding Birth Center. Roxanne shares her second birth story, where she gave birth in a freestanding birth center in Monterey California. Roxanne's second pregnancy started out eventful with bleeding towards the end of her first trimester, which resolved in the second trimester with no further complications! Roxanne and her family moved across the country in her third trimester, and she transferred care to a local freestanding ...
Apr 26, 2023•35 min
Episode 7: Processing Your Birth Story with Dr. Alyssa Berlin, Perinatal Psychologist. In this episode, we chat with Dr. Berlin, a perinatal psychologist, on how we can begin to approach processing our birth story if it was not the positive experience we had been preparing for. In this episode: How we do begin to process our birth story Dual emotions can coexist: you can absolutely love your baby and also grieve your birth experience How each member of the team may have had a different experienc...
Apr 19, 2023•45 min
Episode 6: Gina's Second Birth Story: The Birth of Eoghan In this episode, Gina shares her second birth story, a home birth story during the COVID pandemic ! Gina was originally planning to give birth in a military hospital, but after the pandemic stopped all her in-person prenatal care (only virtual was offered until 36 weeks), she and her husband switched to home birth with a midwife. Read Eoghan's Birth Story here. In this episode: Preparing for a second pregnancy Two pregnancy losses in the ...
Apr 12, 2023•37 min•Season 1Ep. 6
Episode 5: Pelvic Pain: Overcoming Pelvic Pain During Pregnancy. You do NOT need to be in pain during pregnancy! There is a common misconception that pelvic pain is something that needs to be suffered through during pregnancy, and the only solution is birth. This is NOT true!! There is a LOT we can do to overcome pelvic pain during pregnancy. In this episode we will be discussing: Common causes of pelvic pain: https://mamastefit.com/2-causes-of-pelvic-girdle-pain/ Exercises to try to resolve pel...
Apr 05, 2023•35 min•Season 1Ep. 5
Episode 4: Roxanne's First Birth Story! Roxanne's first birth was an unmedicated birth in a military hospital. MamasteFit had supported her first pregnancy, and we had learned so much since Gina's birth that we were able to support a much more positive experience for Roxanne. Roxanne shares her positive birth story and what contributed to her positive experience. Read Lily's Birth Story In the episode: Cervical Exams: What Does Dilation Even Mean? Membrane Sweeps: Natural Induction Method Stages...
Mar 29, 2023•53 min•Season 1Ep. 4
Physically preparing for birth is more than just doing a lot of squats and prenatal yoga. Learn how incorporating internal rotation into your prenatal workouts may be more beneficial for labor prep and preventing labor stalls! In this episode, we break down: 3 things that you should include in your prenatal fitness program 3 pelvic levels and how to open the pelvis for birth Plus exercises that can prep you to open your pelvis for birth Learn about the pelvic levels: https://mamastefit.com/3-pel...
Mar 22, 2023•41 min•Season 1Ep. 3
