Alexa’s first birth was attended by a medically minded midwife at home, who rushed her through the third stage of labor. What happened during this part of the birth experience left her traumatized and affected the critical bonding period between Alexa and her baby. In the aftermath, she experienced post-partum anxiety (you will hear us discuss the connection between Pitocin and post-natal mood disorders).

Alexa says that “Birth trauma affects the motherhood journey so much.”

Five months postpartum she conceived again. That baby was born again at home, but with just her husband and son there. This was her healing birth.

In addition to being an author, Alexa leads writing workshops, host women’s circles, and offers workshops on freebirth as well as cloth diapering.

Alexa’s website is www.mamafreebirth.com. You can find her on Instagram is @mama.freebirth.

Find Alexa’s book Motherhood Disenchanted here.

If you love the show, I would greatly appreciate a review on Spotify or Apple Podcasts!

Follow us on Instagram @healingbirth

Do you have a birth story you’d like to share on the podcast, or would like to otherwise connect? I love to hear from you! Send me a note at contactus@healingbirth.net

Check out the website for lots of other birth related offerings and personalized support: www.healingbirth.net

Intro / outro music: Dreams by Markvard

Transition music: Snowfall by Vendredi

Olivia shares the story of the conception and family birth of her fourth child, whose labor was just seven minutes long!

You can listen to Olivia’s first appearance on this podcast, from season one, here.

Follow Olivia on Instagram @discovermother

If you love the show, I would greatly appreciate a review on Spotify or Apple Podcasts!

Follow me on Instagram @healingbirth

Do you have a birth story you’d like to share on the podcast, or would like to otherwise connect? I love to hear from you! Send me a note at contactus@healingbirth.net

Check out the website for lots of other birth related offerings, and personalized support: www.healingbirth.net

Intro / outro music: Dreams by Markvard

Heather’s first baby was born via a traumatic cesarean after a grueling, two-day induction. She was told by the surgeon that her anatomy was such that she could never birth vaginally. That, plus the trauma of the induction experience, led her to choose an elective cesarean for her second baby, which at least offered her a degree of control.

Serendipitously, one day at work, Heather found birth podcasts (like this one!) where other women shared their stories of free birthing - taking back their power from a system that says we need their interventions, their drugs, and surgeries in order to give birth. A lightbulb clicked on for her. She consciously conceived her third baby, and birthed her at home.

In doing so, she birthed a new version of herself.

If you love the show, I would greatly appreciate a review on Spotify or Apple Podcasts!

Follow me on Instagram @healingbirth

Do you have a birth story you’d like to share on the podcast, or would like to otherwise connect? I love to hear from you! Send me a note at contactus@healingbirth.net

Check out the website for lots of other birth related offerings, and personalized support: www.healingbirth.net

Intro / outro music: Dreams by Markvard

Mindy was a social worker, working in the labor and delivery ward of a hospital, when she became pregnant with her first child. She planned a home birth with a midwife with that first baby, but at 40 weeks and 4 days her midwife abandoned her care, leaving her with no other choice than to deliver at the hospital where she worked.

Because she knew the nurses and staff so well, she was able to navigate that birth experience without trauma - but the betrayal and grief of her midwife abandoning her stayed. It was a deep, sister wound, possibly with echos from other lifetimes.

During her second pregnancy, she did a lot of work to heal the pain from that first experience. She had a beautiful, healing home birth with that baby, but credits both experiences as catalysts for the work she does now.

Mindy does amazing work helping other women reawaken their inner wisdom, access their power, and heal + elevate their legacy! Her website is https://effloresce.net/

Find Mindy on Instagram @effloresce_coaching

If you love the show, I would greatly appreciate a review on Spotify or Apple Podcasts!

Follow me on Instagram @healingbirth

Do you have a birth story you’d like to share on the podcast, or would like to otherwise connect? I love to hear from you! Send me a note at contactus@healingbirth.net

Check out the website for lots of other birth related offerings, and personalized support: www.healingbirth.net

Intro / outro music: Dreams by Markvard

Transition music: Letting Go by Hotham

Brandy was raised on a farm, and witnessed plenty of animal births. But despite seeing first hand that mammalian birth works best when left undisturbed, when she was pregnant herself, she handed over all decision making and authority to an obstetrician, who ultimately convinced her to have an induction, which ended in a c-section.

She returned to that system again with her second baby and did achieve a VBAC in the hospital, but also experienced medical rape.

By the time she was pregnant with her third child, she felt confident enough to fire her doctor, and have her baby at home, which she did!

Her fourth pregnancy offered her an even deeper opportunity to trust herself, when she recognized some red flags with her midwife.

Brandy is now a holistic doula and birth keeper. You can find her on social media @wildandfreebirthwellness

Brandy’s website: www.wildandfreebirth.com

Brandy’s course: The Labor BluePrint

If you love the show, I would greatly appreciate a review on Spotify or Apple Podcasts!

Follow me on Instagram @healingbirth

Do you have a birth story you’d like to share on the podcast, or would like to otherwise connect? I love to hear from you! Send me a note at contactus@healingbirth.net

Check out the website for lots of other birth related offerings, and personalized support: www.healingbirth.net

Intro / outro music: Dreams by Markvard

Transition music: Oceanic Space by Aryll

Kawena, an indigenous Brazilian, was traveling the world nomadically when she fell in love, and became pregnant. She knew that she would return home to her ancestral land to birth freely on her family’s farm. This is an especially radical act of reclamation in Brazil, where birth has been completely taken over by the medical industrial complex. Not only does Brazil have one of the highest c-section rates in the world, it is illegal there to birth alone.

Kawena roared her baby out at 43 weeks, her powerful voice echoing back to her across the canyon where generations of her family have lived. With her mother and aunt present, she says that this birth experience healed generations of birth trauma for her matrilineal lineage. Kawena also discovered that certain indigenous birth practices, long forgotten in her family, came to her quite naturally.

If you love the show, I would greatly appreciate a review on Spotify or Apple Podcasts!

Follow me on Instagram @healingbirth

Do you have a birth story you’d like to share on the podcast, or would like to otherwise connect? I love to hear from you! Send me a note at contactus@healingbirth.net

Check out the website for lots of other birth related offerings, and personalized support: www.healingbirth.net

Intro / outro music: Dreams by Markvard

Transition music: Letting Go by Hotham

During the delivery of her first child, Kayla’s care team believed that she experienced a shoulder dystocia, which led to violent, and rushed efforts to get her baby out as fast they could. This left Kayla with a fourth degree tear, a NICU stay for her baby, and lots of trauma to process in her postpartum time.

It wasn’t until she was considering having a second baby and was interviewing home birth midwives, that she realized the diagnosis of a dystocia in her first birth was probably inaccurate, and her baby simply needed a little more time to emerge.

Armed now with the knowledge that her body didn’t dysfunction in any way, Kayla chose to have a home birth with her second child, and had a beautiful, healing birth experience.

If you love the show, I would greatly appreciate a review on Spotify or Apple Podcasts!

Follow me on Instagram @healingbirth

Do you have a birth story you’d like to share on the podcast, or would like to otherwise connect? I love to hear from you! Send me a note at contactus@healingbirth.net

Check out the website for lots of other birth related offerings, and personalized support: www.healingbirth.net

Intro / outro music: Dreams by Markvard

Transition music: Take me Back by Strength to Last

Julie shares the sweet and beautiful story of finding love, experiencing pregnancy with ease, and having her baby at home, at the age of 41.

Follow Julie @eatingwithbabies

If you love the show, I would greatly appreciate a review on Spotify or Apple Podcasts!

Follow me on Instagram @healingbirth

Do you have a birth story you’d like to share on the podcast, or would like to otherwise connect? I love to hear from you! Send me a note at contactus@healingbirth.net

Check out the website for lots of other birth related offerings, and personalized support: www.healingbirth.net

Intro / outro music: Dreams by Markvard

Transition music: Sky by Hotham