War Stories from the Womb: Recent Episodes
Paulette Kamenecka
Pregnancy is a stress test for a woman’s body, and for a regrettably large share of women this test is a challenge. We’ll hear women’s incredible stories--in their own words-- about their experiences with pregnancy and birth and revel in their ultimate triumph. We’ll hear about the mountains many have climbed to create a family, and be inspired by their strength and resilience.
In today's episode I speak with a woman who worked in the field of mother and infant health before she became pregnant.
She shares the challenges she encountered in her birth--going from a planned birth center birth to a C section, what she might have done differently in that process,
and how she managed that challenge.
She also shares what led her to become a holistic sleep consultant, a story continued into the next episode.
In today's episode I finish my conversation with Shri.
She shares her experience of birth, and the things that made postpartum a challenge--in particular Covid and the isolation it involved
She shares the ayurvedic approach to both the preconception period, and to postpartum to help restore balance in the body
including topics on:
movement
stress management
food/herbs in the postpartum
We pick up where we left off last week, with lessons Shri learned from her experience of a stroke before she got pregnant.
To find More from Shri:
you can check out her website: https://vivabyshri.cohere.live/about
Her Instagram : https://www.instagram.com/vivabyshri/
and her Facebook Page : https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61554924608066
In today's episode I speak with a woman who had her whole life turned around by an unexpected health crisis when she was in her early thirties.
She shares
what she did to reclaim her health
how it influenced her fertility and pregnancy journey
the wisdom she gained in this effort to regain her health and her life
insights from the ayurvedic approach to life
What follows is the first part of our conversation
You can find Shri at her:
Website : https://vivabyshri.cohere.live/about
Instagram : https://www.instagram.com/vivabyshri/
Facebook Page : https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61554924608066
This is the THIRD and last part of Amy's story.
In this episode she talks about
* the importance of accurate ultrasound in utero
-
her experience of navigating a surgery on her newborn
-
the challenges they encounter in the hospital
-
her son's amazing recovery.
This is a beautiful story of overcoming, and what she learned in the process. We pick up where we left off last week. Amy is talking about an organization that works to draw attention to the important work of sonographers--in particular focused on congenital heart issues
In today's episode we hear part 2 (of 3) of Amy's story--she talks about her induction and her experience becoming the parent of a baby with a significant heart condition, the operation that saved his life, and tips for parents who might find themselves the new minders of a fetus with a congenital heart defect.
I also include the insights of a doctor who performs fetal cardiac ultrasound to understand that technology better.
And the last thing I'll add in the interest of transparency, is that like Amy, my partner and I had a child with a significant congenital heart defect that required emergency surgery when she was born, so a lot of what she says really resonates with my experience.
We pick up where we left off last week. Amy is learning about her future son's congenital heart defect from her doctor.
In today's episode I speak with a woman who talks about her experience:
growing her family as part of a same sex couple
her experience with miscarriage and how that changed the way she approached her next pregnancy
issues with breastfeeding when her supply didn't match her newborn's demand
problems with thawed and refrozen sperm
* and IUI surprise (not common for same sex couples)
What follows is the first part or our conversation.,
This week we hear the rest of Jelena's story:
-
How she manages a postpartum period marked by the mental and emotional struggles of her partner and a new baby.
-
Her use of Montessori Parenting
We pick up where we left off last week. Jelena was sharing that her partner was really impacted by the birth of the child and how he came to parenting with things that might have increased his risk for developing something like postpartum depression as well.
In today's episode I speak with a woman who enjoyed a completely healthy pregnancy...until she didn't-- when cholestasis shows up.
Cholestasis of pregnancy, I learned this week, is an issue with the liver that sometimes arrives in the second or third trimester.
We hear about how it's managed outside the hospital, and some of the surprises that awaited her in the postpartum.
What follows is the first part of our conversation.
Today I finish my conversation with Dr. Brandy Cummings, who has an advanced degree in clinical nutrition.
We talk about
*all the challenges of her first birth in the hospital in contrast to her home birth and what it taught her
*how both experiences led her to her mission to change the standard of care for birthing people, including some specific ideas about eating in postpartum.
We pick up where we left off last week. Brandy is in the hospital, in the pushing phase of labor with her first child.
In today's episode I interview a woman who was in graduate school studying nutrition during her first sustained pregnancy; she experiences a lot of lapses in care, both for the miscarriage that precedes her first pregnancy, for the first trimester, and more during her first labor; but she learns a great deal about herself and the process.
She shares:
What she thinks first trimester care should look like
The concept of "Trimester Zero" and the panatal period
* What she wishes she'd done differently
You Can find Brandy's company, Pivotal Origins, here
Evidence Based Reasons for Never Ending Symptoms
Today I finish my conversation with Charlotte. We talk about her next two births, one which involved an issue with the placenta, the second of which was a precipitous labor--contractions and birth within an hour--and how those experiences taught her to accept the help on offer from her community.
In this episode my guest talks about a host of challenges she managed during her pregnancy including PCOS, miscarriage, an unexpected appendicitis that leads to a preterm birth.
Through it all, she perseveres, learning something from each challenge:
the benefits of preparation
the benefits of hospital care
* the limits of her own control over pregnancy
and takes these ideas into her reproductive future.
I also include the insights of a fantastic OB. What follows is the first part of our conversation.
Today's guest is a well known author who wrote a book called Eleven Hours which follows the labor experience of a pregnant woman and her nurse.
It's beautifully written and we discuss the author's own experience and how that did and did not impact her approach to the beautiful novel she wrote.
One thing to note: we reference the old name of the podcast, War Stories from the Womb a few times..if you didn't know the show by that name, that's what we are talking about.
Find Pamela Erens here: https://www.pamelaerens.com/
Eleven Hours
Last week Jennifer talked about the different emotions she experienced when she unexpectedly got pregnant.
That crowd of differing emotions follows her through the birth and into postpartum.
Her experience is one that many of us can relate to and giving voice to all the different aspects of the sometimes wonderful/sometimes painful or boring aspects of the transition from being an individual to someone's mother is powerful.
We pick up where we left off last week, Jennifer has given birth after 5 hours of pushing and is on her way to a surgical suite for a post delivery surgery.
Perineal Tears
https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/21212-vaginal-tears-during-childbirth
https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/labor-and-delivery/in-depth/vaginal-tears/art-20546855
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK559068/
You can Find Jennifer here: https://jennifererwincoaching.com/
Today's guest shares her experience of an unintended pregnancy.
With almost every pregnancy women are expected to narrow range of reactions, from excited to ecstatic.
But stepping into pregnancy is such an enormous change that the limits to what we are expected to feel doesn't make sense.
In the first part of our conversation we talk how today's guest managed the mass of feelings that probably many of us feel in making this transition.
Living Compassion
https://centerformsc.org/
https://www.cnvc.org/
Unintended Pregnancy/JAMA
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2797874
You can find more about Jennifer and her work here: https://jennifererwincoaching.com/
This week I finish my conversation with Becky.
She's a fertility mindset coach using hypnosis to help women who are struggling with their fertility, a technique she was drawn to learn after it helped her get pregnant after six years of infertility.
At first blush, this may sound woo woo (Becky's term), but when you dig into some of the details, it's understandable how mindset could affect physiology.
We pick up where we left off last week. Becky has decided to pursue an alternative route to fertility after trying all the conventional methods available to her for the previous six years.
Mind body connectionEnhancing Healing through guided Imagery
Stress & repoductionStress puts Doubly Whammy on Reproductive System, Fertility
Blocking Hormone Could Eliminate Stress Induced Infertility
Stress increases putative gonadotropin inhibitory hormone and decreases luteinizing hormone in in male rats
Find Becky at https://www.lilyandbeefertility.com/
In today's episode I talk with a woman about her very intentional trek through infertility--not intentional in that she was looking for it, but in the ways she managed all the OB, fertility and surgical issues that arose for her. She talks about the importance of educating yourself and advocating for yourself. These are both lessons learned when the absence of both education and advocacy had real consequences for her. She shares both what didn't work and what ultimately did work (spoiler: it was hypnosis), and how it has changed her life. What follows is the first part of our conversation.
Chances of Getting pregnant in a cycle
https://www.fertstert.org/article/S0015-0282(16)62849-2/fulltext
https://www.acog.org/womens-health/experts-and-stories/the-latest/trying-to-get-pregnant-heres-when-to-have-sex
What's Endometriosis?
https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/endometriosis/symptoms-causes/syc-20354656
Hydrosalpinx
https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/24437-hydrosalpinx
https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/320677#infertility
Hypnosis for Health
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/2515690X17748744
https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0156911
https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/1567722/1/Barry%20et%20al%202017%20Relaxation%20%2526%20androgens%20in%20PCOS%20published%20in%20CH%2526IT.pdf
Podcast with Dr. David Spiegel (hypnosis)
In today's episode we hear the rest of Emily's story.
She shares how she ultimately managed her first birth--a home birth that became a hospital birth, and tells us about the art her experience inspired, and how it's helping other women who unexpectedly experience a C section.
We also hear briefly from Dr. Young, the OB/scientist who is working to better understand and measure uterine contractions.
We pick up where we left off last week, Emily has been brought to the hospital and has to figure out whether to bring her doula or midwife to the hospital birth during covid.
Rebozo
https://www.verywellfamily.com/using-a-rebozo-in-pregnancy-and-birth-4111140#:~:text=Using%20a%20rebozo%20wrapped%20around,you%20and%20holds%20the%20ends.
You can find Emily's project, Our Cesarean Scars, here: https://www.ourcesareanscars.org/
In today's episode I talk with a woman whose pregnancy was straight forward, and who was aimed at a home birth with a midwife.
She talks about why she decided on a home birth
How the home birth was progressing and her strategies for managing it
What sent her to the hospital
the ways that she managed the unexpected progress of her labor.
We also here from an OB/scientist who is working to decipher how the uterus creates contractions and how these contractions can be measured. What follows is the first part of our conversation.
Today we'll take a bit of a dive into the mechanics of how a uterus contracts.
This is actually really important because drawing meaning from patterns of uterine contractions is how many doctors and midwives manage labor.
I'm talking with Dr. Roger Young today, an OB scientist who studies, among other things, the details of how a uterus contracts.
Dr Young's paper on Uterine contractions (with illustration):
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0002937822008602#fig1
Today I finish my conversation with Caitlin, the registered dietician who focuses on women's fertility issues.
She shares the rest of her story about managing the challenges of PCOS.
She addresses changes she made to:
her diet
her exercise
her mindset
her ability to manage stress
and how these changes led to three children (and stay tuned, maybe more?)...we pick up where we left off last week, Caitlin is about to share the very specific things that she did to overcome her diagnosis.
Today's guest shares her journey through infertility generated by Poly cycstic ovarian syndrome.
She is a clinical dietitian and talks about things to consider when taking birth control.
She gives a number of tips on what you can do to improve your fertility, but note: this is not medical advice. What follows is the first part of our conversation.
possible side effects of hormonal birth control:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9842494/#:~:text=The%20most%20common%20side%20effect,some%20point%20in%20their%20life.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0889159123003331?via%3Dihub
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10347535/#:~:text=Hormone%2Dbased%20contraception%20disrupts%20hormonal%20balance%2C%20creating%20artificial%20states%20of%20anovulation%20and%20threatening%20women's%20health.
https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/endocrinology/articles/10.3389/fendo.2020.00603/full
To find Caitlin's podcast, Food Freedom & Fertility, click here
In today's episode:
I finish my conversation with Jess.
We talk about :
how her research prior to the third postpartum set her up for a significantly better experience.
She describes concepts like constructive rest and matrescence
practical tips on how much physical work should be done in the early weeks
* a useful time line to set your expectations
we pick up where we left off last week, where jess is reflecting on all the advocacy she did on her daughter's behalf and how that might be applied to her own experience in a future pregnancy
What can you do naturally to induce labor (spoiler: not much)
https://www.webmd.com/baby/does-pineapple-induce-labor
https://www.nct.org.uk/pregnancy/your-pregnancy-week-week/third-trimester/can-i-make-myself-go-labour-myths-or-truths
Find Jess at:
https://www.instagram.com/motherme.io/
I talk to a woman who shares the story of her transformative births:
in particular :
how the postpartum and aftermath of the second birth changed the way she viewed herself and her career.
Its an impactful and inspirational story that I think many of us can relate to. What follows is the first part of our conversation.
hyperemesis and anxiety
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14767058.2022.2089550
https://obgyn.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/1471-0528.14180
affect of fetal sex on pregnancy outcome
https://bsd.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s13293-020-00299-3
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-75969-8
https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fped.2017.00144/full
to find Jess's company: https://www.instagram.com/motherme.io/
Today we'll talk with Dr. Carl Weiner, MD, MBA
He has been working on developing testing that can PREDICT PREMATURITY and EARLY ONSET PREECLAMPSIA as early as 12 weeks into the pregnancy.
*If it is detected, WHAT can be done?
*What are his hopes for the FUTURE of PREGNANCY
You can find Dr. Weiner here: https://www.creighton.edu/campus-directory/weiner-carl-p
In this week's episode we hear the rest of Hannah's story:
*we hear about the premature birth of her son
- how she manages his care during his long stay in the NICU
and
*how he's doing now.
We also hear more from Dr. Weiner, who is working on a test that can predict both prematurity and early onset preeclampsia to try to prevent these issues from arising in a pregnancy.
We pick up where we left off last week; Hannah has checked into the hospital at 23 weeks five days because she's having contractions and doesn't know if this is the birth or Braxton Hicks..
In today's episode I speak with a woman who was very much caught off guard by a condition called PPROM--preterm premature rupture of membranes when she was 22 weeks along.
She talks about how she managed all the twists and turns of her experience, and despite all the hard things that happened, many things made her feel lucky.
We also hear from an OB/scientist who is working on a test that can be used to predict premature birth, among other things, long before it arrives.
JAMA article about NICU policy
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2815359
Find Dr. Carl Weiner's work here: https://www.creighton.edu/campus-directory/weiner-carl-p
In today's episode we hear the rest of Corinne's story.
In particular:
What she learned in her repeated trips to the ER
What she took away from the challenging things she experienced.
*What she'd do differently next time
.We'll also hear from Dr. Chapa, a clinical assistant professor of obstetrics & gynecology at Texas A&M College of medicine, who shares some of his expertise about pregnancy and hypertension.
You can find his podcast, Clinical Pearls, here
In today's episode :
we hear the story of a first time mother who has a by the book pregnancy which slides off the tracks in delivery and postpartum.
In this first part of our conversation, she shares:
- how she and her husband managed the uncertainty that seemed to come without much warning.
We'll also hear from a fantastic OB (Dr. Hector Chapa) who gives a wider medical context to this story and helps us understand gestational hypertension that appears after delivery.
Catch Dr. Chapa's podcast, Clinical pearls here
In today's episode, I finish my conversation with Angie.
She's a mindset coach and worked in early interventions from birth to three.
we talk about parenting the son that she initially fostered and then adopted;
how her training and experience led to a new approach, both in her own life and her work.
She talks about **how important mindset is and how to manage our mindset
You can find Angie here:** https://www.connectedparentswithangie.com/
In today's episode I speak with a MINDSET COACH about her experience with pregnancy and with fostering and then adopting a child. She talks about what she learned with respect to colic and tongue tie and some of the challenges she met in this process and how she, someone trained in early interventions from birth to three, ultimately had to change the way she approached parenting. What follows is the first part of our conversation.
Trends in home and birth center births, 2004-2017
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8827343/#:~:text=(AABC%2C%202021)
Definitions of Preterm Birth
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK11386/
Tongue Tie
https://www.healthline.com/health/dental-and-oral-health/tongue-tie-in-adults#9
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10167863/
his week I finish my conversation with Suzzie. She shares:
how the second birth felt like a redemption of the first one
all the things she did between the first and second births to make that outcome more likely, including:
more birth education
facing her fears
*managing her expectations.
We pick up where we left off last week. Suzzie has spent hours contracting and waiting and ultimately her stalled labor leads to a C section. She's now been left in the recovery room by herself, with little sense of where her husband and new baby are.
You can find Suzzie's contacts:
Childbirth Class: https://shebirthsbravely.com/learn
What Does Your Birth Plan Say About Your Personality Quiz: https://shebirthsbravely.com/quiz
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shebirthsbravely/
This week's episode features that story of a woman who had two nearly opposite experiences of birth.
Like many of us, the FIRST one was ROUGH--including anything but gentle treatment at the hospital and an unpleasant C section;
The SECOND was a vast improvement, which started her on a journey to learn more about birth and to become what she needed that first time around: an excellent DOULA;
what follows is the first part of our conversation
Molar Pregnancy
https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/17889-molar-pregnancy
https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/molar-pregnancy/symptoms-causes/syc-20375175
Connection between Psychological State and Labor Progress
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4027004/
https://www.parents.com/pregnancy/giving-birth/labor-and-delivery/when-labor-stalls/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1595201/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1595201/
ACOG: infection after PROM
https://www.acog.org/clinical/clinical-guidance/committee-opinion/articles/2019/02/approaches-to-limit-intervention-during-labor-and-birth
To find Suzzie' s contacts:
Childbirth Class: https://shebirthsbravely.com/learn
What Does Your Birth Plan Say About Your Personality Quiz: https://shebirthsbravely.com/quiz
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shebirthsbravely/
In todays episode we hear the end of Tanya's story.
To remind everyone, last week we left Tanya:
She's spent the whole pregnancy on a boat with her 4 other children & husband
the boat is docked in Sarasota Florida for the birth
Although it's her 5th birth, it doesn't go quickly
The midwife sends her to see an acupuncturist during her stalled labor
*Tanya is terrified of needles
Listen to how this birth unfolds....
Castor oil and labor
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7138266/
https://evidencebasedbirth.com/ebb-128-inducing-labor-with-castor-oil-and-dates/
This week's episode features details of a pregnancy on a boat.
My guest Tanya shared her experiences of her other 4 births on an earlier episodes:
Her first episode: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/what-you-learn-from-your-first-two-of-5-births/id1546909059?i=1000617239231
The second half of that story: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/what-happens-when-with-each-birth-you-get-closer-to/id1546909059?i=1000618066765
She had a variety of experiences in the hospital:
induced labor
shoulder dystocia
*large babies
with midwives and OBs, but this pregnancy and birth are entirely different.
She shares what she learned both about her body and the process of birthing, including the fears she had and how she overcame them.
Acupuncture & Labor Induction
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6953318/
https://www.ajogmfm.org/article/S2589-9333(23)00414-7/fulltext
Today's guest uses IVF to get pregnant
she's successful, but nearly not
she has a relatively straightforward pregnancy, but
hypertension sneaks in at the finish line, and
a not straightforward postpartum, ushered in by a hemorrhage and uterine atony.
She can look back over that experience at both the beautiful and hard parts, and learn something important from them.
geriatric patient
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6789409/https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/22438-advanced-maternal-age
unexplained infertility
https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/23187-unexplained-infertility
retained placenta
https://obgyn.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ijgo.14800
https://www.healthline.com/health/pregnancy/placenta-delivery#takeaway
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6789409/
breastfeeding trends
https://www.cdc.gov/breastfeeding/data/nis_data/rates-any-exclusive-bf-state-2020.htm
This week we have the end of my conversation with Andria.
She talks about:
how that first birth unfolded
dealing with the unexpected C section and all the pain and fear that it brought
* the difficulties of that first postpartum
AND
she also shares:
the research she did for the second birth
the value of the midwife
*the empowered birth she created
Dr Amutah-Onukagha shares her advice for how to manage challenging birth settings and her hopes for the future of black maternal care
In today's episode I talk to a woman who walked into her pregnancy imagining that:
it would be relatively easy
miscarriage wasn't a part of the equation and
* that her doctor would tell her everything she needed to know.
It's a very relatable story, given that this is the way a lot of us walk into this experience. It's certainly the way I initially walked into pregnancy.
She'd wanted an unmedicated birth, but her scheduled induction turned into a C section in a way that really scared her and her husband. It also taught her how to adopt a different approach for the second child.
We talk about her experience as a black woman in a maternity setting, and I also talk with a fantastic professor of black maternal health who shares the work she's doing in improving this setting from within a medical school.
ACOG preparation for an unmedicated birth:
https://www.acog.org/womens-health/experts-and-stories/the-latest/thinking-about-childbirth-without-pain-medication-heres-how-you-can-prepare
Dr. Amutah-Onukagha at Tufts School of Medicine: https://medicine.tufts.edu/people/faculty/ndidiamaka-amutah-onukagha
Note: this episode contains some information about military sexual trauma; no explicit details are shared
In today's episode we hear from a woman who navigated her pregnancy and birth with all kinds of obstacles, including that her partner was away on military assignment
She also encountered some significant issues in delivery that turned out to be related to an undiagnosed chronic condition-- Ehler Danlos syndrome,
Once she got her diagnosis, she was able to use it to improve the lives of her children.
She also shares what she did to create the community around her that she needed, and how ultimately getting a diagnosis dramatically changed her life and her children's lives.
For more facts on military sexual trauma: https://www.protectourdefenders.com/?fbclid=IwAR1hFiujoboAufjSw7MrN2TnBM9CSnhgRa84TrcOqSpKYCTiaYmvGowIe1g
In today's episode we talk about: Kelly's second birth, which was at home.
As a BIRTH EDUCATOR & LACTATION CONSULTANT, she shares:
*Some critical ingredients for an empowered birth (hint: the setting doesn't necessarily matter)
*What clues might suggest that you need breastfeeding help and how to find it
- Autoimmune issues that are not uncommon to confront in the postpartum period and what to do about them
You Can Find Kelly's Book here: https://www.amazon.com/Protecting-Potential-Breastfeeding-Kelly-Durbin/dp/1946665665/ref=sr_1_2?crid=BN31OXY3SLPX&keywords=kelly+durbin&qid=1702852134&sprefix=kelly+durbin%2Caps%2C177&sr=8-2
Article about Birth as a Neuro-Psycho-Social event: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/authors?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0230992
Stat's on Gestational Diabetes and Postpartum Thyroiditis
https://www.cdc.gov/diabetes/basics/gestational.html#:~:text=Gestational%20diabetes%20is%20a%20type,pregnancy%20and%20a%20healthy%20baby.
https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/15294-postpartum-thyroiditis
Institute of Functional Medicine: https://www.ifm.org/
In today's episode we talk about the many challenges Kelly faced in postpartum, including:
very painful breastfeeding, in part likely due to a significant tongue tie that was never caught,
signs of tongue tie and the difficulties identifying it
We also hear about her second birth, which was a home birth.
This is the second of three episodes.
torticollis
https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/22430-torticollis
Signs you might be having a difficult postpartum:
In today's episode I talk to a woman about the first of her two births.
She talks about HOW her experience in pregnancy and her first birth changed her life in ways she couldn't have anticipated.
Because of the things that happened in this pregnancy and birth she left teaching and became a BIRTH EDUCATOR & LACTATION CONSULTANT.
She shares how she faced her fears in the first birth, and offers useful tips for others who have fears of childbirth.
She COUNSELS THAT:
every single decision point is important, and people feel more empowered when they know they have options).
- If you're worried about pain relief, learn about natural coping techniques, use these as a first line,
- Believe in your own power.
- Learn about how labor progresses. Create a plan for early labor by keeping your mind occupied.
- Create a plan for active labor. Use people-centered coping techniques (people providing emotional and physical support )
- Believe in yourself!
- And MORE
This is the first of three episodes.
In today's episode I finish my conversation with Chantal.
We talk about:
* how she used her experience of her first birth to inform how she walked into the second birth.
One major change she made was in her research strategy:
The second time around she traded a home birth for a hospital birth
she researched:
her doctor
her hospital
all the procedures that might accompany preeclampsia
and more
which led to a much more empowered birth experience.
It also ultimately led to a career change, away from an office job to becoming a doula.
In today's episode, I talk to a doula who learned a great deal about her body and her pregnancy in a challenging postpartum that included both a hemorrhage and preeclampsia.
we talk about:
the dramatic gap between her expectation: that everything would be easy,
and
her actual experience: how she managed her home birth, which required a transfer to a hospital after the birth to manage retained placenta
how that transfer allowed doctors to manage her hemorrhage, and the postpartum preeclampsia that followed
how she used these experiences to guide her in her second birth
In today's episode, Tonya and I talk about her second birth, which was different in almost every way from her first; Her first birth was an emergency C section in the hospital; her second was a smooth and serene home birth, but the aftermath was much trickier.
Tonya shares the things she learned about:
including children in the home birth process
the value of a doula, not only for the birth but for PP care
how (and when) to advocate for herself
Dr. Bervell also adds insights about the issues that come up, including PP depression and blood clots.
You can find more from Dr. Bervell here (https://drrachelbervell.com/)
"The Black ObGyn Project" (https://theblackobgynproject.carrd.co/)
NPR piece on how to advocate for yourself in the exam room ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eHnlKwk39nQ)
In today's episode, I speak with a woman who shares her experience of two births.
In the first part of our conversation, which follows, we talk about:
the first pregnancy which included:
hyperemesis and how she managed it
and a birth that started out as a vaginal birth that came to include:
induction and an emergency C section
She shares hard won lessons about the need for surrender when her hospital birth that did not go as planned.
I also talk with a fantastic OB who is pioneering work on improving hospital systems to better address patient needs.
You can find Dr. Rachel Bervell's instagram page: "The Black ObGyn Project"
Dr. Bervell mentioned the benefits of doula care
Links:
https://healthlaw.org/doula-care-improves-health-outcomes-reduces-racial-disparities-and-cuts-cost/
https://www.healthaffairs.org/content/forefront/doula-care-saves-lives-improves-equity-and-empowers-mothers-state-medicaid-programs
https://aspe.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/documents/dfcd768f1caf6fabf3d281f762e8d068/ASPE-Doula-Issue-Brief-12-13-22.pdf .
PCOS & fertility
https://www.womenshealth.gov/a-z-topics/polycystic-ovary-syndrome
In today's episode, I finish my conversation with Nadia, who shares:
* the process she went through in understanding her own history
*how she's used things like writing to explore difficult topics
*how she's come to a better understanding about herself and her motivations in an effort to be mindful about what she passes on to her children.
I also include more insights from a fantastic therapist who talks about:
- ways to think about managing past traumas that can come up in pregnancy and postpartum
You can find Rebecca Geshuri at Family Tree Wellness
and Nadia at nadiacolburn.com/
This is a weekly show that highlights real pregnancy, birth & postpartum stories.
In today's episode, I speak with a woman who shares how her experience of pregnancy and birth shifted her into a space in which she could connect with a buried sexual trauma from her past.
NOTE: this discussion is not explicit about the details of the trauma
In our conversation, we focus on how the physicality of pregnancy and birth could lead someone back to something else that happened to their body, another experience in which there was a significant loss of control.
Today's guest is also a writer and a poet. I include some of her relevant work as part of her story.
To talk about this issue, I also include the insights of a fantastic therapist who is focused on therapy around many of the difficult things that can come up around this enormous transition.
Nadia's book of Poetry, The High Shelf
For more from Nadia, check out her website (see https://nadiacolburn.com/)
This is a weekly show that highlights real pregnancy, birth & postpartum stories.
The intense things that can happen in the course of this transition can impact:
how you see yourself,
how you see your partner
and how you parent
The better we understand what happened to us, the better we can manage all the things that follow.
Today is the second part of my conversation with Alexis about experiencing and healing from her traumatic birth. The first conversation we had was shortly after the birth and another almost a year and a half later to see how her perspective had changed.
Today we talk about :
therapy
the challenges of being a new mother
what getting fired from her job taught her and
how her experience influences how she parents
This is a weekly show that highlights real pregnancy, birth & postpartum stories.
The intense things that can happen in the course of this transition can impact how you see yourself, how you see your partner and how you parent. The better we understand what happened to us, the better we can manage all the things that follow.
Todays episode focuses on this fact.
I originally interviewed today's guest just after what can reasonably be called a traumatic birth. What you'll hear today is our second conversation after she's had time to reflect on the things that happened; the focus of our discussion is on how differently she views her own experience given the work she and her partner have done to better understand what happened to them. In what follows, I will flip back and forth between what my guest said originally and how she views the same experience now. Here's first part of our conversation
This is a weekly show that highlights real pregnancy, birth & postpartum stories.
In today's episode I talk with Beth Warren LCSW and PMHC and author of a new workbook that focuses on helping us manage reproductive trauma. We discuss:
- better ways to manage the pain of miscarriage and loss
*what trauma in this space looks like
- how it can affect both ourselves and our partners,
and
- the prospects for healing
October is National pregnancy and infant loss Awareness Month so there's no better time to talk about this often emotionally tricky topic.
Bethany Warren's new book: Healing from Reproductive Trauma This is a weekly show that highlights real pregnancy, birth & postpartum stories.
In today's episode
I finish my conversation with melissa. We talk about:
How she manages the births of her two sons on the heels of a challenging reproductive journey
I also include the insights of a fantastic therapist who specializes in reproductive trauma. She talks about:
How attachment might be affected by trauma,
How one might identify if they had a traumatic experience
Hope for the future despite a challenging past
Find the Pink Elephant Support Network
Melissa's books can be found here
Beth's book: Healing from Reproductive Trauma
This is a weekly show that highlights real pregnancy, birth & postpartum stories.
In today's episode:
I talk with a woman who had a very challenging experience with pregnancy.
She shares the story of a number of miscarriages and a stillbirth, as well as two pregnancies that led to the births of her two sons.
Pregnancy loss is an incredibly common and incredibly hard experience to navigate, and we often do it quietly or alone.
Today's guest wants to change that reality.
I also share the insights of a fantastic therapist, Bethany Warren, who is well versed in reproductive trauma, who talks about the prospects of healing from these often challenging experience.
You can find Beth's new workbook on reproductive trauma here: Healing From Reproductive Trauma
This is a weekly show that highlights real pregnancy, birth & postpartum stories.
in today's episode I finish my conversation with Dawn Thompson, the founder of birthify.
We talk about the dramatic difference between
the education you might get in a prenatal class run by a hospital
and
the education that Dawn is advocating for, with very specific instances of how these two differ.
Ultimately the goal is not to give you the exact birth you want, because that's impossible to promise, but to try to give you the most empowered birth you can get.
To see Dawn's work at birthify: https://birthify.net/
Jen Hamilton inspiring work on nursing on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/_jen_hamilton_/
Head's Up Documentary: https://www.informedpregnancy.tv/products/heads-up-a-breech-birth-documentary
The Friedman curve
https://www.ajog.org/article/S0002-9378(22)02265-7/fulltext
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3655692/
ARRIVE trial
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6821557/
Breech Birth
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/01443610600797186
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7196223/
https://www.acog.org/clinical/clinical-guidance/committee-opinion/articles/2018/08/mode-of-term-singleton-breech-delivery
This is a weekly show that highlights real pregnancy, birth & postpartum stories.
In today's episode I talk to a Birth Warrior. She's:
a mother of six
has been a birth advocate for decades
was a doula
started Improving Birth
Is the CEO of Birthify,
and
has done amazing work in this field to try to make birth safer for all of us.
We discuss both:
how birth is conventionally organized, the common traps we all fall into
AND
What you can do to improve your chances of getting the birth you want
You can find her at: https://birthify.net/
This is a weekly show that highlights real pregnancy, birth & postpartum stories.
TW: Medical Racism in this episode...
In today's episode I talk to a posptartum doula and gentle sleep coach about:
*what she learned from her own experience of birth and postpartum
*what pp doulas do
*how to better afford their care
*what a gentle sleep coach can offer
links for the pelvic floor:
https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/body/22729-pelvic-floor-muscles
links for the role of depression/bipolar history in PPD risk
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0165032721007461
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5561681/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK519070/
- links on induction
https://www.webmd.com/baby/inducing-labor
https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/treatments/24270-amniotomy
How to reach McKayla : https://www.bountifuldoulas.com/
This is a weekly show that highlights real pregnancy, birth & postpartum stories.
In today's episode I finish my conversation with Alasen Zarndt, the nutrition doula. In the rest of our conversation, she shares
- why she offers different recipes for pregnancy and postpartum
*why oatmeal is often suggested for breastfeeding
*suggestions for how to get quality sleep, even if the quantity is limited in the early period
In today's episode I talk with a woman who shared her story back in 2021. She's on again to share a passion inspired by the challenges she faced in postpartum.
A mechanical engineer turned integrative nutritionist, Alasen gives insights on the many ways you can take care of yourself in postpartum; She talks about important:
*foods for pregnancy and postpartum,
*why many women gain weight while breastfeeding, even though they are expecting to lose weight,
*sleep regimens and exercise.
I learn something every time I talk with her.
Nutrition Doula: https://www.instagram.com/thenutritiondoula/
Healthy As A Mother: https://www.instagram.com/healthy.asa.mother/
6 Week Reset: https://thenutritiondoula.com/health-reset/
In today's episode I finish my conversation with Carlota. We delve more into:
*glandular issues with breastfeeding
*managing the guilt of not being able to breastfeed
*concerns navigating her own care
*the surprising difficulty of finding health care providers who are fluent in Spanish.
I also include the insights of a doctor who has authored research on breastfeeding.
There are so many surprises each and every one of us meet in the course of getting pregnant, being pregnant, the birth and postpartum.
Often times how we think about these major life events reflects the difference between what we expected and what we experienced. For example, many people expect breastfeeding to be easy because it's natural. If their experience is different from that expectation, its easy to describe it to yourself as a failure. That was the case with last week's guest and breastfeeding. In this mini episode, I wanted to learn a bit more about the science of breastfeeding.
I spoke some more with Dr. Kandace MacGuire, professor of surgery at Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine who has done research on breastfeeding.
Last week she talked about the anatomical changes that take place in pregnancy and after birth to make breastfeeding successful. In this mini episode she shares some insights about the intricate changes in hormones that have to happen to breastfeed.
In today's episode I speak with a woman about some of the specific challenges women of color experience when they get pregnant.
We talk about:
her fears about being forced into an unnecessary C section, or having her pain ignored
and
How she managed significant Issues with Breastfeeding.
I also include the insights of a surgeon who has authored research on breastfeeding.
In today's episode I finish my conversation with Leah Lax, author of the memoir Uncovered, which tells the story of her entrance and exit from an insular religious community.
Her story illustrates some of the powerful ideas around what it means to be a mother and a women in society, and how those ideas shape our expectations and behavior.
We talk about how the abortion she had saved and fundamentally changed her life, how this choice was the spark for her ability to change her circumstances . We pick up where we left off last week: Leah needs her doctor to tell the rabbi that the pregnancy is life threatening in order to get permission for an abortion...
You can find her book, Uncovered, here
In todays episode my guest and I talk about both physical and emotional challenges of pregnancy.
She wrote a memoir about living in and then leaving a highly structured religious environment.
Her story is about many aspects of this difficult transition, but one aspect that was of the utmost importance with respect to her entry into motherhood was her bodily autonomy.
I'd characterize her book as a love letter to choices--the choice to use birth control, the choice to end a pregnancy, and the ultimate choice: she makes herself a priority in a cultural space in which women's interests are not prioritized.
You can find her book, Uncovered: How I left Hasidic Life and Finally Came Home, here
In todays episode we hear about the pregnancy and birth experience of a pediatrician. It’s always interesting to me to hear how medical pple experience this transition because they tend to enter it with different expectations than the rest of us.
We talk about :
birth plans
if home deliveries are exclusively for pizzas, or can legitimately refer to birth as well
*the challenges of being a parent
and other things that surprised this doctor on the way to becoming a mother
Last week I interviewed a great sleep consultant, Mary Vaughn, and we talked about some sleep issues that Kelly was having with her newborn. Today we'll hear more of my conversation with Mary about:
- the most common mistakes parents make with sleep training
and
*how to handle, and think about, the sleep needs of multiple children in the house.
Mary is a certified PCI parent coach and sleep consultant and founder of Mothers Together, a company that offers a number of services to help mothers escape survival mode, induced by lack of sleep, desperate need for more time in the day, and the chaos of having young kids at home.
You can find her at Mother Together
Today my guest shares her experiences of two births
Although she'd hoped for a natural birth the first time:, she had
an induced labor that turned into an emergency C section
the second time she hoped for a VBAC, but ended up with another C section
she shares tips for managing
*epidural headaches
*her challenges with sleep issues with her newborn
which I discuss with a fabulous sleep consultant who has valuable advice to share.
You can find Mary at Mother Together
In today's episode we hear from a fabulous lactation consultant who answers all kinds of questions
- Is breastfeeding supposed to hurt? how much is too much?
*What are the physical changes that have to happen to be able to breastfeed
*Is there a genetic component to breastfeeding?
You can find more about Jennifer Suffin at her website: Care in the Curve
In today's episode Colleen shares some of her challenges with breastfeeding, including:
managing tongue and lip tie
not producing enough milk
(And we hear insights about these issues from the fantastic lactation consultant, Katie Howser).
She also talks about how significant changes between her first and second pregnancy led to a much better experience.
Basal Body Temperature Info
How to Read Ingredient Labels on Baby Food
A Comparison of US & European Baby Food
Katie Howser, lactation consultant
Dr. Bobby Ghaheri on breastfeeding
Today we have a mini episode with a fantastic lactation consultant based in San francisco, Katie Howser.
Katie offered insights on last weeks show, but some of what we talked about didn't fit in the episode. She talks about:
Signs that you ARE or ARE NOT producing "enough" breast milk*
*How to think about your breastfeeding journey relative to the experience of your Mother (or sister)
what follows is part of my conversation with Katie.
You can find Katie here: http://www.katiehowser.com/
In today's episode my guest shares some of the things she learned from her first birth
she talks about
managing some of the physical struggles of pregnancy, including restless leg syndrome*
all the things she encountered and learned on her breastfeeding* journey
We also hear from the fabulous lactation consultant, Katie Howser who has lots of useful information for anyone who is feeling the challenge of breastfeeding. She has so many great insights that you can put to use immediately, so I'm excited to share what she has to say. I should note that the recording quality of some of our conversation is a bit wonky, but we are going to play through because there is so much value in what she has to share.
In this mini episode, I talk to a fantastic midwife, who gives us a care providers perspective on some common things that happen in births in medical settings.
Today we talk about :
the tools doctors and midwives use to predict how a birth will turn out
the medical care provided to the baby just after birth
Tune in and get her great tips!
In today's episode, I finish my conversation with Tanya, and we hear about what she learned from the last three births
she shares about:
*managing a shoulder dystocia
*her husband's response to the birth trauma he witnessed
*Her red tent experience--laboring surrounded by a team of women
*one of her secrets to pain relief for an unmedicated birth
We also hear from the fabulous midwife, Ann Richards.
In this mini episode:
I talk to a fantastic midwife, Ann Richards, who gives us a care providers perspective on some common things that happen in births in medical settings.
Today we talk about
1. why doctors break your water in the course of a birth
- why IVs are often inserted as soon as you cross the threshold of your labor and delivery room (and some good tips on how to manage the situation).
In this episode we hear from a woman who had five births, each one different in important ways from the one that preceded it.
She shares insights about what she would've done differently in those early births:
- how she would handle the induction
her experience with pitocin
what elements of a hospital birth she would change
*what she learned about ovulation in postpartum
I also include the insights of a fantastic midwife who fully explains why some of the hospital procedures are managed in the specific way that they are.
For extended show notes with links, see War Stories from the Womb website
Here, in EPISODE 100 of the podcast, it seems fitting that CHELSEA CONABOY shares so many insights about how parenting changes parents brains.
*She talks about how Maternal Instinct is a story, not based on science
-
She describes research on these brain changes and what they might mean for our health
-
She talks about how our repeated efforts to check on our newborns, even before we really know how to care for them, is a reflection of some of these changes independent of mood disorders.
Listening to her and reading her book paints a really stark picture that contrasts the stories we tell about postpartum and what the science actually shows.
This is episode 99 of the podcast, and next week is the 100th episode. it seems a totally fitting tribute, for a podcast dedicated to changing the conversation about this transformation, to have a guest whose profound book is all about debunking our most socially potent beliefs about what defines a mother and where they came from (spoiler alert: they don't come from rigorous scientific examination, at best I'd call them science adjacent).
My guest shares the experiences she had in pregnancy and postpartum that inspired her to write this book which so powerfully dispels so many myths around mothers and motherhood. While she was talking, all I could think was: why weren't you whispering this in my ear when I was pregnant? This could have changed how I thought about lots of aspects of my postpartum, although I'm grateful to overturn some of my most oppressive beliefs; hopefully she can change how you think of this period.
In today's episode I finish my conversation with Kaitlin McGreyes, the CEO of BeHerVilliage. She shares her challenges in postpartum, which dramatically changed the course of her life--she left teaching to become a doula, and the combination of a birth that jumped the tracks, as they often do, and the difficulties of PP inspired her to try to change the way the rest of us experience PP--a transformation that is amazing because of the company she created, and because her description of it gives us all a roadmap for what services we should be seeking out in pp so that you are not trying to heal while tending to a newborn by yourself.
For extended show notes, see War Stories from the Womb
We--ALL of US (in the US)--are doing Postpartum wrong. Once we experience it with our first born, we learn this, and all make plans to do something different the second time, if there is a second time. Today's guest wants to change Postpartum for all of us.
In today's episode, my guest shares the birth and postpartum experience that propelled her out of her work as a special ed teacher in New York City and into the field of birth workers. Unfortunately, the overwhelming two that she experienced and talks about is likely to sound very familiar. I had my kids 10 years before she did and she could have been describing my postpartum in lots of ways. But what's new is what she did with that experience, and what she's doing for birthing people now.
For show notes, check out the War Stories from the Womb website
For the last two weeks we talked about shifting identities in motherhood that can bring up conflicting feelings. It's important to acknowledge how universal an experience this is.
The next question is: what do we DO with all of these feelings?What follows is a few more insights from the fantastic therapist, (Jessica Sourci) , who spoke about these topics in the last two episodes, and who helps people navigate the challenging emotional transition to motherhood.
You love your kids, and it might be the case that you also, LOVED your life before kids. The sometimes conflicting emotions that women encounter as they find a new identity in motherhood and figure out how to integrate it with aspects of their life before kids is today's topic.
In today's episode we hear the second half of my conversation with Anne. She shares the strategies she uses to manage her limited time for creative work when babies or young children have such high demands. We also have the insights of a fantastic therapist (Jessica Sourci) who talks us through ways to think about managing the disappointment around some of these hard tradeoffs, as well as how to tend to yourself while also tending to young children.
For extended show notes check out the War Stories from the Womb website
When your interests are shifted to the back seat to make room for the baby's, you WILL have feelings about it, but most of us never talk about it because it doesn't fit our idea of motherhood.
Today we discuss some of these challenges, and ways of making sense of them. I talk to a writer who is also a mother of three about the ideas she brought with her into this giant transition and how she works to balance her family life and work life; the difficulty of this balancing act and the feelings it brought up for her. I also talk with a fantastic therapist who specializes in helping mothers feel comfortable in motherhood by giving us valuable ways to think about and reframe what may be uncomfortable and conflicting feelings--like love and connection with the baby, but also moments of anger or regret-- as we all navigate the job of parenting. what follows is the first part of my conversation with both women.
For extended show notes, see the War Stories from the Womb website
Today I finish my conversation with Molly. In this episode, she compares her expectations at the birth with her experience and learns that the expectations she had about the first encounter with her baby after birth is built on a false narrative. She also shares her process for increasing milk production when she was breastfeeding and some useful tips for that process, and she shares the important lessons she learned from the 10 year runway that preceded the birth of her son.
For extended show notes, see: the War Stories from the womb website
When she was 18, a doctor told her that getting pregnant would be challenging, without offering any suggestions about how to improve her odds. She worked for ten years to prove this doctor wrong--and when she was on the brink of giving up, it happened--she got pregnant.
In today's episode my guest offers advice about what she would've done differently when pursuing the health issue that likely contributed to her trouble with fertility, she shares the dramatic story of finding out she was ,in fact pregnant after 10 years of trying, and suggests ways of thinking about medical advice that may alter how you take hard information in. What follows is the first part of our conversation:
Scientists often study extreme cases to learn about the mechanics of a phenomenon. Many women found themselves running this kind of experiment in their own homes. How would the postpartum period--a time marked by isolation--feel when the whole world was isolating?
In today's episode, author of the Upstairs House Julia Fine, reflects on her experience having her second child in the heart of the pandemic, and how the difference between a pre pandemic postpartum and a pandemic postpartum taught her something important about the period. She shares some advice she wishes she'd received before she had kids and talks about how having language around some of the dramatic challenges we face as caregivers in those early months can change our experience of them. I also include insights from Dr. Patel, a former OB who now focuses on helping women in the postpartum period, on how to combat cultural expectations around motherhood in this period.
For extended show notes, see the War Stories from the Womb website
"**Need is an albatross. To be needed is to wear the weight of stones across your chest . To be wanted. That is different. To be wanted by a child is the cleanest of desires. To still be wanted once the child is fed and rested; once the diapers are fresh and the snot has been siphoned from the nostril and the gas has passed through. To be recognized not just as a body, but a person, a comfort to be loved."
That's a brief snippet from the novel The Upstairs House by Julia Fine, my guest today on war stories from the womb.**
In today's episode the author Julia Fine talks about how her experience with the significant challenges of the postpartum period inspired her novel, what she's learned about the experience now that's its in the past, and how she hopes it will foster a more realistic public discussion of the challenging months that most mothers encounter in the weeks just after birth. I also include the insights of a former OB who has become a postpartum coach about signs of PPD and her advice to help women manage this often stressful, exhausting, lonely period.
For extended show notes and links to Julia's work and to Dr. Patel, see:
the War Stories from the Womb website
In today's episode Anja and I talk about one of the biggest, most oppressive misconceptions about motherhood and what you can do to free yourself from it. We also discuss:
how not being in control can actually be a good thing;
how being present makes you better able to respond to needs, including your own, and
* how the energy you bring into the room and the world has a big impact on both you and your kids.
For extended show notes with links, see War Stories from the Womb
In today's episode you will hear, useful advice about **what you can do if the birth you planned is not the birth you experience**, a very persuasive case for why trusting your intuition is so important and insights on how much control you have in this transformation from person to parent.
**Nausea & Lethargy in Pregnancy**
Mayo Clinic on NVP Cleveland Clinic on NVP Pregnancy Sickness Support Stanford Children's Hospital on NVP Healthline on NVP
**What happens in a C section surgery**
Mayo Clinic on C section Cleveland Clinic on C section American Pregnancy on C section
**Anja's book**, Parent from this place: How Yoga Changed The Way I Parent
Entering the Postpartum period is like being pushed from a cliff...it's a shocking change of circumstance, and its hard to be ready for it that first time--but with more accurate expectations??
In today's episode, you'll hear the second half of my conversation with Megan. She shares:
* how she was able to identify what turned out to be PostPartum Depression in herself given that her symptoms didn't match her sense of the condition
*a useful perspective on managing the difficult transition from one to two children and
*insights about what she wished she'd known about her relationship with her OB before the birth of her first child.
Crohn's Disease & Pregnancy
https://www.webmd.com/ibd-crohns-disease/crohns-disease/managing-the-effects-of-crohns-disease-during-pregnancy#:~:text=Active%20Crohn's%20disease%20raises%20the,as%20compared%20with%20pregnant%20women.
https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/crohns-disease/symptoms-causes/syc-20353304
https://www.karger.com/Article/Fulltext/504701
For audio transcript and more, see the War Stories from the Womb website
"I've heard somewhere that the first baby, it's like a bomb going off in the mother's world. It just totally rearranges you. It rearranges your life. "
**This is a show that shares true experiences of getting pregnant, being pregnant and giving birth to help shift the common cultural narrative, away from the glossy depictions of this enormous transition you can find on all kinds of media to a more realistic one. It also celebrates the incredible resilience and strength it takes to create another person and release that new person from your body into the world.
I'm your host, Paulette Kamenecka, I'm a writer and an economist and a mother of two girls.
In today's episode, you'll hear my guest talk about what she wished she'd known before her first birth, birth that really went off the rails relative to her expectation, or mother's expectation and the norm in her very large family. The fact that her expectation didn't match up with her experience really colored her views about herself. She shares her difficult feelings, and her hard won insights after an induced labor that led to a C section, how she managed that challenge, and the ones that followed.**
For extended Show notes, See War Stories from the Womb
Today my guest experiences pain in her everyday life for years after pregnancy. And then finally, after an exploratory surgery gets a diagnosis she's been waiting for.
In today's episode you'll hear how Kayshaun, a nurse turned businesswoman who is a mother of four, uses the pain and trauma from her four complicated pregnancies to help other people find their voice and consider natural remedies to things like fibroids and endometriosis. What follows is the second part of our conversation, as well as some insights about preeclampsia from a professor of obstetrics and gynecology. We return to Kayshaun's story, as she's describing the consequence of carefully investigating her fibroid situation as she's trying to avoid a hysterectomy.
Hi, Welcome to War Stories from the Womb: In this episode, you'll hear how my guest rejected her doctor's insistence on a hysterectomy, and saved her own life.
Today you'll hear how my guest learns to trust her body and advocate for herself--a critical skill in any medical procedure, maybe even more critical in childbirth; she had four births and each was visited by something unexpected that required her to develop these skills. She also shares how alternative medicine, in particular, acupuncture, helped to relieve chronic pregnancy-related pain when no western medical approach worked. We are also joined by an associate professor of gynecology and obstetrics from Johns Hopkins who shares insights about current theories and approaches to preeclampsia. What follows is the first part of our conversation.
See Extended Show Notes.
In this episode, you'll hear how Kekua managed when her experience really shoved her expectations for her second birth off a cliff.
Tune in to hear how Kekua manages many surprises in the birth of her second child. The number of things that go a bit sideways almost makes her story sound like a sitcom script, but the way she sticks the landing, in the end is what's truly impressive. We'll pick up our conversation where Kekua is talking about the slow return of her body, a body she recognizes after the birth of her first child.
See Extended Show Notes
This is a show that shares true experiences of getting pregnant, being pregnant and giving birth to help shift the common cultural narrative away from the rainbows and roses depictions you can find on social media, and other media more broadly, to a more realistic one (which might include rainbows and wreckage?). It also celebrates the incredible resilience and strength it takes to create another person and deliver them into the world. I’m your host, Paulette Kamenecka. I’m a writer and an economist and the mother of two girls who had far too many surprises on my own path to motherhood.
Today's topic is one that doesn't see much daylight, to the detriment of everyone who has kids: the struggle to manage an unwanted pregnancy. There are any number of ways to respond to an unexpected pregnancy, and in today's show, you'll hear about an uncomfortable but very real response; one that I'm guessing is not uncommon, but is a perspective we rarely hear because the only culturally acceptable response is Joy; you have to be joyous. But that expectation is wildly unrealistic. Having a child is a life changing event, and on the cusp of such an event, any number of reactions can occur. In part one of my conversation, listen to how my guest managed these uncomfortable feelings.
For more extended show notes, see: http://warstoriesfromthewomb.com/
This is a show that shares true experiences of getting pregnant being pregnant and giving birth to help shift the common cultural narrative away from the glossy depictions of this enormous transition you can find on social media, and other media more broadly, to a more realistic one. It also celebrates the incredible resilience and strength it takes to create another person and deliver them into the world. I’m your host, Paulette Kamenecka. I’m a writer and an economist and the mother of two girls.
In this episode Aliza shares ways to manage contractions...she also talks about some important strategies to help you get a birth closer to the one you want; everyone who has been through birth knows that it's really the baby who is driving the process, but there are things you can do to potentially impact your experience, and Aliza talks about some of them here, as well as other doula secrets.
For extended show notes, see: https://warstoriesfromthewomb.com
This is a show that shares true experiences of pregnancy to help shift the common cultural narrative away from the glossy depictions of this enormous transition you can find on social media, and other media more broadly, to a more realistic one. It also celebrates the incredible resilience and strength it takes to create another person and deliver them into the world. I’m your host, Paulette Kamenecka. I’m a writer and an economist and the mother of two girls. In this episode you’ll hear advice about managing miscarriage from a woman who has experienced numerous miscarriages, intermingled with the births of five children and she's a doula. She also shares how each experience taught her something valuable. Today you'll hear the first part of our conversation.
For more detailed show notes and an audio transcipt, see: http://warstoriesfromthewomb.com/
**This is a show that shares true experiences of pregnancy to help shift the common cultural narrative away from the glossy depictions of this enormous transition to a more realistic one. It also celebrates the incredible resilience and strength it takes to create another person and deliver them into the world. I’m your host, Paulette Kamenecka. I’m a writer and an economist and the mother of two girls. In this episode you’ll hear more advice about things to think about on your fertility/ivf/pregnancy journey–knowledge that just might make the often challenging process of fertility a little easier to bear and maybe also (fingers crossed) to keep hold of a bit of your sanity, from the former writer who covered the “fertility beat”, before such a thing existed, for the New York Times. This is part two of our conversation. We'll pick up where we left off: talking about how all consuming the IVF procedure is.
For more extended show notes with links to the research mentioned in the show, see: http://warstoriesfromthewomb.com/**
This is a show that shares the true experiences of pregnancy to help shift the common cultural narrative, away from the glossy depictions of this enormous transition to something more realistic. It also celebrates the incredible resilience and strength it takes to create another person and deliver them into the world. I'm your host, Paulette Kamenecka, writer and an economist and a mother of two girls. In this episode, you'll hear suggestions about what to do with recurrent pregnancy loss and gain insights about the highs and lows of the often challenging process of fertility from a writer who covered the "fertility beat" ( before such a thing existed) for the New York Times**. What follows is the first part of our conversation about her experience working her way through the infertility gauntlet.
For in depth show notes, see: https://warstoriesfromthewomb.com/**
This week we hear the rest of my conversation with Nicole. At the end of last week she'd described her first birth, which ended in a C section and left Nicole feeling that the birth had been exacted without her full participation, and she was vowing to have a different experience in future births, despite the predictions of one of her doctors, who suggested that she might be too physically small to avoid another C section. We pick up Nicole's story as she affirms her goal of a birth in which she feels more intimately connected to the experience.
For extended show notes, see: http://warstoriesfromthewomb.com/
Today's guest walked into pregnancy with an expectation that the process would be as smooth for her as it had been for her mother, as it was for the farm animals she'd been surrounded by for her whole life, as it was from 50,000 feet: civilization depends on this process and women's bodies were made for this project. Although the pregnancy part was relatively straightforward, the ways in which her first birth unfolded deviated profoundly from her expectation. In this first part of our conversation we'll hear how she processed that first experience, and how she used what she learned in this experience to alter the births that followed.
for extended show notes, see: http://warstoriesfromthewomb.com/
Today we pick up the second half of Melissa's story. At the end of last week's episode Melissa was on bedrest, she has to leave her job and be home with a four year old and a husband who worked full time, in a town in which she didn't have a strong support network because she'd moved there relatively recently. To remind us where she was emotionally, I'm going to share an excerpt from Melissa's writing--this is a sneak preview of her book...in this excerpt she is describing the experience of being told about the prospect of a too early birth. To listen to the excerpt, press play; to read it, go to http://warstoriesfromthewomb.com/
**Today's guest is a clinical psychologist, whose mother passed away a few years before she had any direct experience of pregnancy. She encounters recurrent miscarriage, three in the first trimester, and then a pregnancy that progresses past the first trimester, only to be threatened with prematurity early in the third trimester and experience all of these challenging and transformative events are harder to manage without her mother. Now she's focused on helping women who are going through or have gone through these major life events without their mothers. What follows is the first part of our conversation. Next Friday. We'll hear the rest. Let's get to her inspiring story.
for extended show notes, see: http://warstoriesfromthewomb.com/**
Today's guest had a number of challenges with the physical aspects of pregnancy--she and her partner had trouble getting pregnant initially, and her third child was born in June of 2020, very much in the heart of covid, which invited it's own challenges; but what really surprised her was the loss of the person she used to be. She found motherhood to be both beautiful and completely overwhelming and had to work hard to reestablish her boundaries and her life after kids. Her experience becomes the motivation for a new company in an effort to help other mom's navigate this enormous transition a little bit easier.
For extended show notes, see: http://warstoriesfromthewomb.com/
Today we hear the second half of Eileen's story about her experience with pregnancy. Last week we heard about some of the challenges associated with her miscarriages. But when we left Eileen, she was about to deliver her first baby, having christened the hospital elevator when her water broke on the way up to a birthing room. we'll pick up her story when she's on the way to the hospital for her first birth.
For more extensive show notes, see: https://warstoriesfromthewomb.com/
In today's episode, my guests challenge is with miscarriage. She has two miscarriages both at the end of the first trimester, and then uses IVF (despite the fact that getting pregnant isn't the issue)...and get's pregnant, and has a miscarriage....eventually she becomes the mother of two girls, but that's later in the story. She is a writer, and in one of her pieces about this topic called On Fertility in The Toast she writes: When you give birth, you do it with others. When you miscarry, you do it alone. Even if doctors and nurses are present, numbing you, holding your hand, giving gentle instructions, they’re not with you, because what’s happening is both too awful, and too common, to be shared. Nobody wants co-ownership of the failed human. Many don’t even consider it human.
Even if your father is driving you to the hospital in his buttery yellow Lincoln, or even if your mother is riding in the ambulance with you, or even if you husband and sister are outside the procedure room waiting, you’re still alone. There was a person/being/cluster of cells that was alive inside you, and now it’s not. Times three. It happened when I was 31, 33, and 38.
I'll stop reading there and you can hear my guest describe her experience...our conversation is broken into two parts. In this first part I also spoke with a doctor whose specialty is recurrent miscarriage and he shares insights from his own research and experience.
Today we hear the second half of my conversation with Justine. Last week we heard about her first pregnancy that ended in a stillbirth. She just started talking about her second pregnancy, which was looking and feeling too much like the first one for her comfort. And she's gone into the hospital at 27 weeks to get checked out. Near the end of our conversation, when reflecting on her experiences with pregnancy and delivery, Kristine wonders again about the possible impact that trauma could have on her pregnancies. To give us a sense of prevalent issue.
I spoke with a clinical psychologist who studies trauma and pregnancy. Her conversation is included.
Being able to create a new life inside your body is both an awesome feat and one fraught with the real possibility of death. Once you really hone in on the millions of things that have to go right in the just right way to make a baby, it's a wonder anyone is born ever. Today's guest spends time on both sides of this line. Her first pregnancy ends at the beginning of her third trimester in a stillbirth. Although the exact cause of her son's death is not definitively found, my guest suspects that the proximate cause may have been a placental abruption which may reflect her past history of trauma. Given this experience, she was on high alert for the second pregnancy, which also ended early, at the start of the third trimester, but this time her daughter survived.
Few of us enter pregnancy and delivery with a crystal clear picture of what the experience will be like the first time. In some ways, this makes sense, given that everyone's experience will be unique in certain ways, depending on their health, their age, their partner, their history...but the distance between the narrative today's guest received from her mother and her actual experience can only be measured in lightyears....to be fair to her mother who gave birth in the 50s, it was a very different time in maternal care...but carrying this version of the story among others can have real consequence, if not for how her own delivery developed, it has the potential to affect how she understood her own experience.
For more show notes, see: http://warstoriesfromthewomb.com/
**Today we hear from two women, one’s an author and generally in the book world and the other is an author, grief counsel and therapist. Individually, these women encountered challenges with their own pregnancies. They’ve come together to write a book that helps women to process the events of their pregnancies and birth by writing about it.
For extended show notes, see: http://warstoriesfromthewomb.com/**
Today we hear part two of my conversation with Diana about her experiences with pregnancy and delivery. Last week, our conversation ended with Diana 41 weeks pregnant, partially dilated, stomping around in the hall of the hospital trying to get her baby to move into a better position for birth. When all of a sudden she loses her sight. We'll pick up the conversation where we left off in this part of the episode I also include the insights of a doctor training in ophthalmology and neuro ophthalmology.
Today's guest grew up with a mother who is something of an earth goddess, meaning that she was involved in a movement toward empowered birthing long before it's a main cultural current. So the seeds of an idea of what a birth should look like were planted early in my guests life. In the course of her first delivery, preeclampsia fell on her out of a clear blue pregnancy–one that was normal and healthy up to that point. This condition can come with insults to any number of organs, and in her case it dramatically affected her vision. She was struck by blindness. Her story of coming to terms with the differences between her image of this process and the actual process is inspiring and so too was the way she and her husband managed the large number of obstacles they met along the way to creating their family. What follows is part one of her story. In part two, which will be released next Friday, the ninth we're joined by a neuro ophthalmologist who explains what's going on physically when preeclampsia includes blindness.
Today’s show shares the conclusion of Nina's experience as a pregnant 40 year old, trained in psychiatric nursing. She experiences many challenges, some unexpected, and other's that are less surprising. She talks about navigating an unwanted C section and peripartum and postpartum depression.
Today’s show features a guest that can give us some perspective on the current climate around two important topics: abortion and postpartum depression. She’s a psychiatric nurse practitioner, who experienced an abortion in the 1970s and peripartum and postpartum depression in the 1990s. She’s written about her experience. In a piece, titled “No Stranger”. Here are some excerpts from her writing. First, she writes:
“How do you know?” the patient might ask. I lean forward a bit in my
office chair, a magic mix of science and empathy, or so I would like to
think. The woman sitting across from me may be dabbing at her eyes
with her fingers. If her nails are chewed to bloody shreds, I will fold my
own more tightly in my lap.
“I’ve been a nurse practitioner for a long time,” I will say. “More
women than you think go through this. It’s hormonal…”
And a little later in the piece she writes:
Early on I figured that postpartum depression was
a risk for me, but expected I could balance my emotional happiness and
stability against my physiological tendency towards clinical depression,
if I was ever so lucky as to get pregnant. And besides, I was a
professional. With training and resources.
So here’s the thing with training and resources: Depression robs
you of the clarity to use any of those skills or supports.
Let's get to her story
For extended show notes, see: https://warstoriesfromthewomb.com/
Today's episode features the story of an extremely challenging pregnancy that ended in a late term abortion, which was difficult for many reasons, and made more so by the politics and legal apparatus around abortion. My guest was well into a pregnancy that felt off to her in ways she could describe, but which didn't trigger any particular medical action, because first, the diagnosis when it came was for a very rare condition, and secondly, she made it past the 20 week screen with no visible issues on ultrasound. That my guests first pregnancy was visited by a significant hemorrhage and was By comparison, the easier pregnancy gives you some sense. One thing she says that I think bears repeating upfront is that extreme circumstances sometimes lead to extreme actions.
**Today's guest had a pregnancy marked by extremely easy things and significantly hard things. Getting pregnant was consistent with the kind of fertility you see in a romantic comedy instantaneous, but the first trimester morning sickness was more like a sci fi thriller, totally extreme and requiring all kinds of medical help. And after a pretty challenging pregnancy, she ran into postpartum depression after the birth but her’s is a story of overcoming. She found help and recovered and she's deeply immersed in the joy only a five year old child can bring.
for extended show notes, see: https://warstoriesfromthewomb.com/**
Today's episode features a moving story from a woman who recalls her first pregnancy in the late 1960s. The pregnancy was unintended. She was 18. Her parents, her social setting, and the cultural expectations of the time suggested that she had two options: either to marry her then boyfriend and start a family or have the baby in secret and surrender the newborn to the social workers who vaguely tended to her in the Home for Unwed mothers where she spent the end of her pregnancy and birth. Raised in the catholic faith to strict parents, abortion was not something she'd think to pursue, and it wasn't legal or easily accessed, especially for a women who wasn't married. My guest reflects on how dramatically cultural views of sex and marriage have changed since she was first pregnant, and how her feelings about these topics have changed as well.
for extended show notes, see: http://warstoriesfromthewomb.com/
In general all the stories women shared on the show reflect on Roe in part because they show how challenging pregnancy can be both physically and mentally even when pregnancy is highly sought after. That's one of the major take homes from this podcast real women sharing their actual experiences and hopefully contributing to a more realistic narrative around pregnancy and birth. And today's story is very much in this vein. My guest today walked into pregnancy unsure about whether she wanted to have a child. Ultimately she and her partner decided they did. She ran into gestational diabetes which effected how she felt about the pregnancy and her ability to control her blood sugar, and had a significant impact on the delivery, which happened in late fall of 2019, so she also had to contend with a six month old when the first lockdown happened. She and her partner managed it all and now are enjoying their 2 and a half year old.
Today's episode features a difficult but important story. It’s the kind of story we avoid in part because it involves difficult emotional topics—sexual assault and unintended teenage pregnancy—topics that society does not handle gracefully. My guest today was sexually assaulted by her partner as a teenager, and carried this unintended pregnancy to term, at which point she put the baby up for adoption. More than two decades have passed since these events transpired, but we talk about how every element of this challenging situation has impacted my guest's life, and continues to affect her deeply, and likely always will. Now that Roe v Wade is under such direct threat, and there are calls for women to "just carry out the pregnancy and put the baby up for adoption", what all this does to the woman forced to undergo this experience is more often buried than shared. I am grateful to my guest today for sharing her story.
These days the word mother can mean a lot of different things. As today's guest shares, she sought out the birth of her first child, but the second pregnancy was unintended. Her preference for family size clashed with her partners, Although she may have been open to terminating the pregnancy, her partner was not; she was living in a state whose majority is not particularly supportive of a woman's right to choose, and she was brought up in a religion in which abortion is not considered a reasonable choice. and so began a very emotionally taxing pregnancy and birth. She shares how she managed these challenging circumstances which I think is an important story to share, especially right now when such black and white ideas about pregnancy and birth are in abundant circulation.
Today's guest did not anticipate that pregnancy would offer a totally smooth ride to parenthood, but the ride she did encounter included a number of experiences that were nowhere near her radar. Managing a lot of challenging conditions like preeclampsia, and post partum anxiety had significant effects on her: first it encouraged her to reimagine what her family would look like and to find contentment in this family even though it wasn’t what she originally pictured; it made her really engage in caring for herself, to focus on both her mental and physical health; and lastly, this experience made her feel grateful for the life she has now.
**This show is focused so far on the unexpected elements of the emotional or physical toll of pregnancy and birth. Today that story is extended to include the emotional and physical impact of a pregnancy that didn't find its footing and ended in abortion. Abortion is obviously a topic most people have strong feelings about. And unfortunately, those strong feelings tend to flatten the conversation, when in reality like all elements of reproduction, thinking and talking about abortion requires nuance. Some people may seek out first trimester abortion early in their pregnancy and feel like this choice. This procedure is like any other medical procedure. For other women. It comes with more personal or cultural or religious baggage and it's in no way easy for them to make that choice. In today's episode, my guest has a second trimester abortion and her pregnancy which many complications arose. And her experience of working through the grief of this loss is impactful to hear and very much a story that I will carry with me for a long time.
For extended show notes, see: https://warstoriesfromthewomb.com/**
Today's guest, like many of us, encountered some unexpected twists and turns at the delivery that were challenging to manage in the moment. But the focus of the story she shares today is about race and identity--she gives us a sense of what it's like to live in the world both as a daughter who doesn't resemble her father, and as a mother who doesn't superficially look like her son...what assumptions people make and share and what these assumptions suggest about how we define motherhood.
for extended show notes, see: https://warstoriesfromthewomb.com/
Today's guest has an interesting spin on the difference between her expectations for the pregnancy and birth and her experience. Going into pregnancy she had a number of health conditions that led to a lot of cautionary talks about the many things that could go awry...and then, when she actually was pregnant--she more or less skated through a problem free pregnancy...so she's left both feeling grateful to have outrun so many serious issues and like she didn't get to enjoy what was basically a straightforward pregnancy because she was constantly on alert.
See extended show notes at: https://warstoriesfromthewomb.com/
Today's guest has a host of experiences when it comes to creating a family. She and her partner had their first child when she was 35. And when they tried to have another, things didn't quite line up. And so she and her partner looked for adoption, something she'd always been interested in exploring, as she herself was adopted. She’d anticipated that her experience would draw her closer to her daughter, but what she hadn't expected is that it also drew closer to her mother.
**In today's episode, my guest is a friend of mine shares her story. She comes up against a host of extremely difficult situations and challenges in her quest to have a child. Her story has some elements that many people will relate to preterm labor and issues with her cervix, and other issues with IVF and surrogacy that I think really showcase her resilience and strength and make the birth of her daughter a triumph we can all celebrate.
for extended show notes, see: https://warstoriesfromthewomb.com/**
**American culture has a lot of ideas about pregnancy and motherhood baked into it. And even if you don't subscribe to most of the common tenants, pregnancy and birth and still offer unexpected twists and turns, today's guest was gently into pregnancy. She got pregnant relatively easily and for the better part of nine months had a smooth experience. She meticulously researched every aspect of birth, pulling the traditions that spoke to her from all over the world and setting out to have a very specific type of home birth. She couldn't have been more prepared. You'll hear she had her eyelash curler packed in her hospital go back just in case and then the wheels came off, as they often do.
for more detailed show notes, see: https://warstoriesfromthewomb.com/**
If, in your attempts to start a family, you run into trouble getting pregnant you quickly learn about a thousand elements involved in the process of getting pregnant: hCG and estrogen and the uterine lining and if you are making use of IVF technology to get pregnant, a whole other set of elements enter the equation: the quality of eggs and sperm and if you are lucky embryos, and then, again, if you are lucky, the quality of the embryo after a few days of cell division, the blastocyst…and the list goes on and on. What today’s guest contends with, which I’m guessing is a common issue for most people who use IVF, is the question of what to do with the remaining frozen embryos. The power of their potential keeps her and her husband uncertain about their appropriate fate.
for more detailed show notes, see: https://warstoriesfromthewomb.com/
Pregnancy, both physically and emotionally, is a personally transformative event no matter what else is going on in the pregnant person’s life. The context in which you are experiencing this pregnancy, be it calm or dramatic, can add to the challenge. Today’s guest experienced flux in both her extended family, her immediate family, and the medical community she was a part of. While she successfully had six children, five of the births involved emergencies, and her third pregnancy, the focus of today’s conversation, was seeded with issues from the very start. Despite the many tricky elements of this pregnancy and birth, my guest (and eventually her daughter) persevere and create something beautiful: a beautiful baby who grows up to have a beautiful life.
For extended show notes, see https://warstoriesfromthewomb.com/
**Pregnancy involves massive changes and for some of us, one of the first hurdles is overcoming issues that have developed in our bodies that make getting pregnant and being pregnant difficult. On the road to becoming pregnant, today's guest learned that she had endometriosis, an issue that she'd painfully lived with for years without a diagnosis, and which required surgery before a pregnancy could develop...and after the first child, the number of physical obstacles seemed to grow more numerous--more endo, a bit older, a shorter menstrual cycle, a medical community that was suggesting that pregnancy was unlikely again...but today's guest's story should remind us to never bet against mother nature...
for extended show notes, see: https://warstoriesfromthewomb.com/**
Many people enter the long road to parenthood stuffed with different stories about what the process will be like: how long it will take to get pregnant, what growing another human inside your body will feel like, how the birth will unfold. And these stories come from everywhere: your childhood, family experiences, books, and media...today's guest originally thought she wouldn't have children, which may have shaped what stories she took in and which she avoided...and then she had a change of heart. and with this change came some next level planning--not so much for the pregnancy or birth, chock full of their own surprises, but for what came after: the fourth trimester and the new role of mother. She wisely borrowed traditions from a variety of sources that offered the kinds of support she anticipated needing, and made for a lovely transition to parenthood.
Pregnancy can invite a million different kinds of challenges. For some women, it's a physical trial. There are real limits on what our bodies can do. It certainly was for me for some all the massive changes that happen internally and externally can cause distress. And for some women, like today's guest, part of the challenge is how pregnancy can affect relationships. She had lots of challenges with the baby's father at the time, which forced her to navigate the very real question of whether or not to bring a baby into a relationship that wasn't fully settled. Adding to this already tough situation, she had to figure this all out amidst the gnarly set of restrictions required of women having babies during the pandemic. Ultimately, through her own perseverance, she manages to birth both a baby and a whole new family context for herself.
If there’s one thing I can relate to directly, it’s the story of a high risk pregnancy. But the pregnancy that my guest encountered was something I have no first hand knowledge of: she ran into an issue that threatened a premature birth, which caused her doctor to prescribe bedrest–for five months, 150 days for anyone who is counting–of being horizontal, she was more or less plucked out of normal circulation and forced into bed. We talk about what that dramatic transition was like and how she managed it, while also juggling way too many signficant life changes: a move from Brooklyn to a farm, from apartment to farmhouse, the start of a new business and more.
Today's guest stepped into pregnancy relatively easily, and while she had some pretty common early challenges--extreme fatigue, congestion, and sensitivity to smell (her husband called her a blood hound--which feels like high praise in the right context... ). The challenges really picked up at the birth, which was visited by a hemorrhage after a vaginal delivery and a bad reaction to morphine. And by the way, all of this went down during Covid before vaccines. After taking some time to settle after the physical and emotional turmoil, she is now enjoying chasing after her nearly two year old.
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Today’s guest approached pregnancy, and the motherhood that would follow, like a competition--one that she could excel at and ultimately win. And her first pregnancy, while not seamless, was relatively straight forward, giving credence to her early ideas about the process. But these beliefs lost steam when she had trouble getting pregnant the second time, and were fully deflated when ten weeks after a positive pregnancy test, a scan revealed that she was carrying triplets. A pregnancy with triplets is not for the faint of heart. Despite the challenges, she did everything she could to bring these babies safely into the world, and ultimately prevailed. Listen to her inspiring story.
For extended show notes and useful links, see:
https://warstoriesfromthewomb.com/
In this episode we feature the story of a young woman who pursued pregnancy in a country different from her own, where language barriers and a different approach to care contributed to what became her life threatening condition. Originally told that she was not pregnant, she learns, many weeks later she has an ectopic pregnancy–but not your garden variety ectopic pregnancy. Thanks to her organized effort and perseverance, she saved her own life. In a second pregnancy, she goes on to deliver a beautiful daughter, who is a mirror of her mother’s driven spirit.
Here we are at the end of 2021 and you may be feeling nostalgic for easier times, pre pandemic life…we visit these times in today’s story. my guest gave birth for the first time more than two decades ago and had a wide breadth of experiences in pregnancy and delivery in the course of her four pregnancies. She has hyper emesis for all of the pregnancies and learns to manage it despite her busy OB practice. A whole host of surprises visit her in the five years of pregnancy, including what I’ll call an enthusiastic cervix (you’ll see what that means as you listen to her story), postpartum challenges, milk supply issues, and once the kids are older, health surprises of her own. Whether it’s her medical training or her intuition, she makes a number of critical decisions that keep her from what could have been complete catastrophes and She manages the various ups and downs with grace and wisdom.
Every person has their superpower. Yours could be patience or wit or strength. I am guessing that among the things that today’s guest could list as her super power, toughness and or stamina are probably near the top of the list. She contends with a fair amount of uncertainty about elemental issues, like the timing of both pregnancies, and then manages a stack of challenges beginning with birthing a baby who is not situated in the birth canal in a friendly way, tending to said baby, who is getting fed too often to make restorative sleep a viable goal in the early postpartum, and then carefully dissecting her own diet to manage a food allergy …and she does it all with a certain grace and good humor.
Having spoken with a lot of women about their experiences with reproduction, many of them report having one or possibly two issues that visit their pregnancy or birth that alert them to the fact that they have very little control over the momentous task of creating another person in the confines of their body. Today’s guest was visited by many, many issues, including miscarriage, hyperemesis, gestational diabetes and the coup de gras, issues with breastfeeding, all of which happened (drumroll please) during Covid….so yeah, it was a lot. But now that she and her partner are on the other side of that experience, and getting to enjoy their beautiful six month old, she can appreciate how many of these challenges taught her valuable things about herself.
Since it's Thanksgiving weekend, I decided to make this episode about family. And in that spirit, I interviewed my mother about her experiences of pregnancy and childbirth. My mother, who is in her late 70s, had four kids starting in 1966, and ending in 1978. You’ll hear her reference my two older brothers: Josh who is the first born, and Teddy who is the second. I was the third in line, and there is an 8 year gap between me and my sister Samara. It's surprising to hear about how much she changed and how much the medical apparatus around pregnancy in general changed in that 12 year period. Of course, this is just one woman's story, and my father was a doctor, so she had very good access to different medical technologies, which you’ll hear about, but I found it really interesting to hear about how her experiences were so different from how pregnancies and births are managed today. And I hope you do too.
Lots of different inputs go into the project of starting a family; for many of us this includes a host of doctors: fertility doctors and OBs and anesthesiologists...and for today’s guest that list is even longer, extended to include pain doctors and ER doctors and neurologists because she had a stroke after her delivery. Some of the doctors who participated in her project did so because the symptoms she suffered after the delivery were attributed to a spinal headache instead of a stroke. Her’s is a story of amazing amounts of resilience and an inspiring amount of overcoming and it’s also one that highlights some of the glaring holes in the medical system.
for more detailed show notes, see : https://warstoriesfromthewomb.com/
Today I'm lucky to be talking to a midwife about her experience with her own twin pregnancy. The process of getting pregnant and giving birth did not look at all as she had planned, despite the fact that she had a lot of real information on which to base her prediction. Although she didn’t have the specific birth she originally envisioned, she successfully carried twins to term, and gained personal experience with more styles of delivery in one pregnancy than most mothers of twins--she delivered one twin vaginally and the other through cesarean section--which she described as a vaginominal, thus the title. Now she can bring her hard won knowledge to her midwifery work.
We all come to pregnancy and birth with ideas about what these transformative events will be like. Some ideas come from our own family experience and some from broader cultural influences. But discussions around the more challenging details of these experiences rarely get articulated, leaving a space for our own imagination to conjure pretty much whatever it wants. And this expectation will be matched to the actual experience in real time, coloring how we step into parenthood. Like most of us, today’s guest had some surprises at birth, which were trickier to manage in part because they contradicted her closely held expectations around what birth would be...but with time and more experience, and the opportunity to have the birth she’d once dreamed about, she ultimately learned to appreciate each birth in it’s own right.
Today’s guest walked into pregnancy with reservations. She’d done a fair amount of research, as is her way, and understood that pregnancy, birth and postpartum were potentially a more difficult undertaking than movie depictions suggested. Despite her avid preparation, she was, like most of us, taken by surprise. She had to manage a hemorrhage during a miscarriage, and a birth experience that both tested her physical limits and her emotional resources, as her newborn required some experimental medical help. A few years out from these experiences, she can look back and appreciate all that she went through and what she learned from the experience, and revel in the joy of her energetic toddler.
For more detailed show notes: see https://warstoriesfromthewomb.com/
Today’s guest had to reexamine her expectations at various points in the process of growing her family. She enjoyed a relatively straightforward pregnancy, but had real fears of what the birth would be like. Importantly, both births were totally successful, but they didn’t necessarily progress the way she imagined they would. The real challenge for her came after the birth: in the fourth trimester. The monumental change of going from being a part of a couple, just two adults, to caring for a newborn was a pretty staggering life change, and the first time around it came with postpartum anxiety. Ultimately she used her experiences to shape her new career path: she’s become a postpartum coach, using all her hard earned lessons to help other women navigate this tricky time.
Today’s guest used to be a bodybuilder and is now a trainer and the owner of a fitness center and the mother of two kids. I think she’d describe herself as a woman who likes a challenge, and that’s probably a good way to step into the role of becoming someone’s mother.. Different circumstances required her to overcome challenges presented at each step of this process--she originally had trouble getting pregnant, she had a traumatic experience with miscarriage which ramped up her anxiety during the pregnancy that followed, she wrangled with postpartum depression--and each experience taught her something valuable that she was able to use, and from which she grow and developed into a stronger, better version of herself.
For links to Ashley's studio and videos, and more , see: https://warstoriesfromthewomb.com/
Getting pregnant, being pregnant and giving birth can be challenging in a myriad of different ways. But for some people, this massive transformation is….fairly straightforward. I totally enjoy talking to people who had a relatively smooth experience because it proves that the ideas many of us come to pregnancy with are not mythic, they do in fact live in the world ...And sometimes these lucky souls who tread the untroubled path are intent on sharing their superpower through surrogacy. Today’s guest had an interest in fertility as a young adult, and this interest led her into nursing and midwifery. After the birth of her own child, she gave one of the greatest gifts anyone can give: she helped a couple who, for various reasons, couldn’t carry their own pregnancy, by becoming their surrogate. It’s a beautiful and totally inspiring story.
For show notes, see: https://warstoriesfromthewomb.com/
Everyone faces some kind of challenge in the process of becoming a parent. Today's guest took an unanticipated tour of possible approaches to labor and delivery. Once contractions were confirmed she arrived at the hospital to find her midwife busy with another birthing mother. So in the first half of her birth she was attended to by an OB, and the second half was overseen by a midwife, with very different approaches to labor. And because she was a single parent, she braved postpartum without a partner, which turned out to be a real challenge when colic arrived.
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Both of my pregnancies taught me that just because some process is going on in the confines of your body, location does not imply control.
This is also true for my guest today. To some degree, I think that if her timeline didn’t unfold in the very specific way it did, she would not have ended up where she did--the mother of two healthy girls. On the way to this outcome, she experiences both the best and the worst pregnancy “luck”. Overall this story is one of good luck, because she is alive to tell it. Today’s guest did not endure one, but two tubal ectopic pregnancies. Often these types of pregnancies can be handled with medication, but if that route fails, as it did in her case, they require immediate surgical intervention to prevent a rupture, which can lead to internal bleeding and other emergency circumstances. Today’s guest was forced onto the hardest route out of an ectopic; and it’s the way she handled these pregnancy complications that makes her story one of incredible perseverance and resilience that she likely didn’t realize she embodied.
For more extensive show notes, see : https://warstoriesfromthewomb.com/
Talking to my mother and other women from previous generations it sounds like they got pregnant and gave birth in a culture that's different from the one we face today. Based on these talks, I have often wondered how we got to the specific point we are at: where pregnancy is a very medical experience, C sections are so common, we seem to be just starting to talk more openly about miscarriages and the postpartum period, and women are trying to navigate the demands of breastfeeding and work. In today’s show I interview two historians of science to get a sense of how we arrived at this particular moment in which we find ourselves.
For more on my guests, see: https://warstoriesfromthewomb.com/
Today's guest sailed pretty smoothly through the process of starting a family--she got pregnant relatively easily, carried her pregnancy without too many hiccups and gave birth in a way that wasn't too far from her expectation--and then she hit a breastfeeding wall, which likely contributed to her experience with post partum depression. Now she's focused on helping women build a better relationship with their bodies. She clearly articulates the mental and emotional struggle so many of us experience as this process transforms our bodies into something new we've not experienced before, and aims to guide women to a more compassionate understanding of all the amazing things our bodies do. Today's episode is a little different from previous episodes because not only do we talk about my guest's experience, but because of the work she does, we also discuss the press and pressure of postpartum expectations many women have, and talk briefly about one route out of what can be a really challenging fourth trimester.
**This episode could be titled "Overcoming: a guide". My guest overcame the challenges of premature birth, and a fourth degree tear, and a misdiagnosis, and a fistula and a stoma. Having had so many elements of her life overturned by her experience of birth, she was reborn in a way, as a complete badass tackling every physical thing that previously induced fear in her. She's challenging all the ideas that have created limits on her life and in the process, raising awareness and money for others who have experienced birth trauma and changing our perception of what life with a stoma can look like. I'm also lucky to include the medical insights of a fantastic OB, who happens to be the co founder of an organization called Beyond Fistula, helping women in Kenya who are working to overcome their own challenges with obstetric fistula.
For detailed show notes, see: https://warstoriesfromthewomb.com/**
If you look at birth over time, it used to be the case that women were always attended at their births by other women, and sometimes midwives, and these births happened at home. In the 1930s american women moved those births into hospitals, in part to pursue effective pain relief and the allure of more safety--but for a good decade it was not actually safer to have births in hospitals. And over the next 50 years the process of childbearing became more heavily medicalized--with benefits: lower maternal mortality rates and less pain in delivery. But by the 1980s, in part to push back on the increasing rate of C sections, doula's started to attend women in the hospital--they were trained attendants who had been to other births and could advocate for a laboring women who was too involved in the process of birthing to also be involved in all the decision making...
Studies suggest that doula's can have a very positive effect on a woman's experience and today I'm excited to talk to a doula, both to hear about her birth experiences and her work. And in fact, in this case, my guest became a doula in large part in reaction to her first birth experience...
for more extensive show notes, see: https://warstoriesfromthewomb.com
In this episode, my guest tells her own story of pregnancy and she shares her experience of being a surrogate for another family. It is, as you can imagine, a very involved process in part because it involves IVF, which always sounds to me like a full time job. Despite the fact that the pregnancies were relatively straightforward, there are challenges along the way, like postpartum depression, which can make other issues that come up more daunting to manage and we discuss those, too.
For detailed show notes, see: https://warstoriesfromthewomb.com/
If I had to use one word to describe today’s guest i’d say driven, or maybe fierce--truly, and maybe it’s because of these personal attributes that her life in the world doesn’t match the predictions you might make if you looked at her health status on paper. She was born with a neurodegenerative disease that dramatically affected her mobility--she’s never walked and has been wheelchair bound for almost her whole life...and despite the challenges this kind of condition invites, she’s a school psychologist and importantly for this podcast, had a baby. In general, in the medical community, time and time again doctors have told me that pregnancy is an enormous stress test on anyone’s body--to have her condition and successfully manage a pregnancy is next level. And although lots of people enter pregnancy underestimating how it will effect their body, today’s guest had no such luxury.
Listen to her inspiring story
For extended show notes, see: https://warstoriesfromthewomb.com/
Today's guest encountered her own set of surprises in pregnancy and birth. Because she gave birth almost two decades ago, she didn't have easy access to the overwhelming amount of information that's available now, we had kids before the iPhone was a thing and before the internet was the endless warehouse of information it is today, but she forged her path to parenthood, without immersing herself in the baby and parenting books that we had access to and learned a lot from the process itself. Another thing to know about Julie: she is a radio personality, which means, among other things, that she’s charismatic, she can talk and she’s got a voice like butter.
For extended show notes, see: https://warstoriesfromthewomb.com/
If you have the slightest bit of doubt about the complex chemistry needed to inspire an embryo to develop into a baby, a casual stroll around the details of IVF will quickly disabuse you of that notion. Today’s guest set out to get pregnant a few years after she’d turned 35 and pretty quickly turned to IVF. Agreeing to IVF is agreeing to become a science project. Because she so deeply wanted children, she willingly gave all the blood samples, took all the shots, attended all the appointments that are required to re create this complicated chemistry… Through it all she had her eye firmly focused on the goal: babies...and was ultimately rewarded with two beautiful children. Listen to her inspiring story.
For extended show notes: See https://warstoriesfromthewomb.com/
Today's guest went into pregnancy without many expectations about what the process would be like. This openness likely helped her and her partner negotiate the challenging things she had to manage in delivery and the postpartum period. After her first birth, the baby encountered an issue that landed her in the NICU, and a few days after her second delivery, my guest wrestled with some scary postpartum issues, sending her to the ICU. Now a few years out from those experiences, everyone is thriving. Listen to her inspiring story.
For extended show notes, see: https://warstoriesfromthewomb.com/
The challenges of pregnancy and birth can be useful mentors for future parents. Today’s guest learned something significant from each of her three birth experiences. The first taught her that she’d need an advocate in birth given that it’s such a powerful and vulnerable experience. The second taught her that trust could be restored in a situation when a real partnership was at work, and the third taught her about physical limits and flexibility. Her experiences also encouraged a career change, from a police officer to a trauma practitioner. Listen to her inspiring story of growth.
For extended show notes, see: https://warstoriesfromthewomb.com/
There are three reasons to tune into today’s episode: first, it is a chance to see pregnancy through the eyes of an OB who is both the emotional individual experiencing what we all experience when we try to grow our families, and someone endowed with much more experience and information than most of us. Second reason: when you hear the story of a fully trained OB, who has seen how pregnancies and births can progress in a multitude of ways, but still cannot control her own experience it’s a powerful reminder that (spoiler alert) no one can control this experience. And finally, three, Dr. Ghofrany has a significant following on instagram for a reason: she’s a great combination of articulate, charismatic and warm, and, it turns out, a particularly resilient person who shares her challenging, beautiful and inspiring birth story
For detailed show notes, see: https://warstoriesfromthewomb.com/
Today's guest experienced both extremes of the spectrum when it came to creating a family: uncomplicated pregnancies that led up to more challenging births. She enjoyed an easy step into her first pregnancy and wrestled with infertility leading to her second. Both pregnancies were straightforward while both births, strayed from the script, injecting unwelcome drama. While labor more or less spontaneously arrived, her cervix refused to heed the call, and that led to births she didn't anticipate, one after another. Importantly, both deliveries ended with healthy babies. Listen to how she navigates this uncertain terrain.
For more extensive show notes, see: https://warstoriesfromthewomb.com/
Our ability to delay pregnancy through various forms of birth control may lead us all to have expectations about our ability to manage our own fertility. It’s one thing to stop pregnancy, and something altogether different to initiate it. Today’s guest, a fan of control like the rest of us, is a master planner. She planned to get pregnant quickly, have an enjoyable pregnancy, and a routine birth. But the birth refused to follow the birth plan. Pregnancy is, among other things, an educator, teaching hard and often valuable lessons. All the events of that first birth helped to broaden her expectations in her pursuit of a second child, and as a consequence, she and her partner were able to create amazing birth memories the second time around.
For extended show notes, see: https://warstoriesfromthewomb.com/
Today’s guest stepped into her first pregnancy relatively easily,getting pregnant within a few months of trying…... and that was the last easy thing she experienced. She describes herself as someone who is “not a pregnancy unicorn”. She had body image issues while pregnant, felt nauseous, swollen and was generally physically uncomfortable for most of the pregnancy. And then postpartum recovery was even more challenging. A hormonal imbalance caused a too dramatic weight loss, she was visited by postpartum depression and anxiety, and a baby who wasn't particularly interested in sleeping through the night added to her 'non-unicorn' status. In an effort to dig herself out of a hole, she started researching nutrition and found a much better way forward for the second pregnancy, and ultimately for life. I learned a lot talking to my guest today and hopefully you will too. You can find her at https://thenutritiondoula.com/ and in Instagram @thenutritiondoula
Today’s guest is no stranger to hard labor. As a strength and training coach she’s seen how disciplined effort produces results. But long runs and weight lifting sets didn’t prepare her for some of the consequences that the complicated chemistry of pregnancy can produce. Through the course of her different pregnancies she tangled with HELLP syndrome--a pregnancy complication that requires emergency attention, and a visit by gestational diabetes. Now, with three kids under 5, she can add a new exercise to her regimen: child wrangling.
Find out more about Brooke's training business here: https://www.wreckingroutine.com/ For extended show notes: see https://warstoriesfromthewomb.com/
It seems self evident that most doctors would agree that being the doctor and being the patient are two entirely different experiences. And being the patient as a doctor is a third, different path. Today’s guest is an OB, and got pregnant with her first daughter when she was still in residency. Unlike many guests, she probably knew too much about the world she was stepping into--which led her to have an anxious first pregnancy. As it turned out, that anxiety was well placed, as she did run into some complications in that pregnancy, and a delivery at 32 weeks. But what she learned from that first experience informed her next one, which was a much smoother ride. Dr. Rankins and I discuss advice she gives to mother’s to be, and the crisis in maternal health facing women of color. We are joined by a senior policy analyst at the Center for American Progress who offers her insights on racial inequality in maternal health. Listen to this inspiring story.
For more detailed show notes, go to: https://warstoriesfromthewomb.com/
Like many women, today’s guest imagined that having a child would be straightforward–that’s the way she’d always seen it portrayed in the culture around her. And at the start, her expectation and experience lined up well. Getting pregnant wasn’t a challenge and being pregnant, was an exercise in smooth sailing for many months. But then the swelling hit, followed by an episode of fainting, and she and her husband found themselves caught up in the whirlwind of preeclampsia, including some of the more disconcerting features of this condition. She is fortunate to have excellent medical care and now both she and her baby seem to be enjoying toddlerhood. Listen to her story of overcoming.
For extended show notes, see:
https://warstoriesfromthewomb.com/
Some women waltz easily into pregnancy and motherhood, at least in the Hollywood version of the story. This was not the version today’s guest experienced. Getting pregnant and being pregnant was not as straightforward as she was led to believe. Recovering from her first trimester loss was challenging, but my guest and her partner persevered and her subsequent pregnancy went swimmingly. The next challenge: birth--which was physically and emotionally daunting. And as she recovered from the birth, she was introduced to the relentless press of colic. Slowly, slowly the colic subsided and now the greatest challenge is planning weekend adventures with an entertaining and talkative toddler.
For extended show notes and the chance to sign up to share your story, see:
https://warstoriesfromthewomb.com/
Like all great adventures, pregnancy rarely goes as planned, especially for first time mothers. For today’s guest, the journey had all the hallmarks of a grand adventure: pure joy when she found out she was pregnant, the excitement of an impending birth, the physical challenges of a natural labor, and a real dose of anxiety, pain and fear in the aftermath of that birth when a serious hemorrhage becomes life threatening. Listen to her tell her story of ultimate triumph. Read more about Ashley’s experience at http://thinkoutsidethecrib.com/**, or follow her at @ashley_lewko
If you want expanded show notes, see https://warstoriesfromthewomb.com/
and visit the war stories website to sign up to share your story!**
Every pregnancy is awash in chemicals--that’s how the magic happens, how we turn an egg and a sperm into another human being. But this chemistry can have other consequences, notably, peripartum depression. Peripartum depression, the condition formerly known as postpartum depression, has been renamed to reflect the fact that this form of depression can strike during a pregnancy, as well as after it. It is believed to affect 1 in 9 mothers, a full 50 percent of these cases are thought to occur during the pregnancy. Today’s guest didn’t share her feelings with anyone, first imagining that it was normal to have unsettling thoughts during pregnancy. After birth she experienced guilt about her lack of interest in connection. Fast forward five years, today she’s trying to help other mothers who find themselves in this situation. For more about Maria, find her work at https://www.parentonboard.com
For extended show notes and the opportunity to sign up to share your story, checkout:
https://warstoriesfromthewomb.com/
Many women enter pregnancy, coming from a life that feels firmly under their control. That was the case for today’s guest, whose past experience in the world led her to make detailed plans for her home birth. But the stars did not align, and what started out as a home birth ended with a hospital birth attended by a life threatening case of eclampsia. Luckily, both she and her son survived. For her second birth, she planned to be in the hospital, and again the fates refused to abide--a precipitous labor forced a home birth. Although she and her children are healthy, the chaos of these births required some significant processing--an activity the pandemic made more accessible. She has come out on the other side of these challenging experiences with two beautiful children and a stronger sense of self. Listen to her inspiring story. To get more details on this story, look out for Jules’ book Born in the Beyond, available soon, and follow her on instagram www.instagram.com/thejoysofjules
For extended show notes and the chance to sign up to share your story, go to:https://warstoriesfromthewomb.com/
The project of starting a family involves some elements that are totally under your control (when you start trying to get pregnant, the doctors or midwives or doulas you choose) and other elements that you expect to be uncertain: what the pregnancy is like or when the baby comes. But for today’s guest, almost every element of the process carried uncertainty: when she was pregnant, if the pregnancy would take, and if her other organs would behave during the pregnancy, to name a few. She weathered all these life changing events, some stressful, some lovely...and now has layered on top of them the blissful experiences of her three young children.
For extended show notes, or to sign up to be on the podcast, check out:
https://warstoriesfromthewomb.com/
Teenage girls are repeatedly told that pregnancy could fall on them at any moment. Caution is the watchword. But often when those young women grow up, pregnancy is nowhere to be found. That was the experience of today’s guest. When she and her partner set out to start a family, month after month, the pregnancy tests were negative. After some fertility testing the doctors believed that they had nailed down the issue, and almost as soon as it was discovered, my guest got pregnant, and her son was born 9 months later. When her newborn was 6 months old they set out to have another child, only to be stymied again. They undertook the challenging and expensive processes of IVF--which did not end in a pregnancy. Once she had emotionally accepted that she would not have another child, she got pregnant again. She and her partner then went on to help another couple realize their dream of starting a family in a way that could only be written by the fates. Listen to her inspiring story.
For extended show notes and a chance to share your story on the podcast, see:
https://warstoriesfromthewomb.com/
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In this episode we feature the story of a young woman who pursued pregnancy in a country different from her own, where language barriers and a different approach to care contributed to what became her life threatening condition. Originally told that she was not pregnant, she learns, many weeks later she has an ectopic pregnancy--but not your garden variety ectopic pregnancy. Thanks to her organized effort and perseverance, she saved her own life. In a second pregnancy, she goes on to deliver a beautiful daughter, who is a mirror of her mother's driven spirit.
For more detailed show notes and links, see:
https://warstoriesfromthewomb.com/
-#001
This is an introduction to War Stories from the Womb, the why and what of the podcast.
For more information, see:
https://warstoriesfromthewomb.com/
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Many women approach pregnancy, and especially the birth of their children, as a sacred moment, as something they’ve long contemplated before it arrives. And with these thoughts come expectations. Such was the case for my guest today. For all three of her children’s births, she’d imagined a natural birth, with both the pain and the sense of triumph that experience involves. But circumstance got in the way, once, twice, all three times. Despite the challenges she faced, including peripartum depression, she found some significant ways to square the difference between expectation and reality, and when she couldn’t find them, she created them. Using her experience as inspiration, she co-founded the Omaha Better Birth Project, to help give women the birth experience they imagined. For more about her non profit, see: https://omahabetterbirth.org/
For extended show notes and links to medical issues in this episode, see:
https://warstoriesfromthewomb.com
002. In this episode we feature the story of a young woman who pursued pregnancy in a country different from her own, where language barriers and a different approach to care contributed to what became her life threatening condition. Originally told that she was not pregnant, she learns, many weeks later she has an ectopic pregnancy--but not your garden variety ectopic pregnancy. Thanks to her organized effort and perseverance, she saved her own life. In a second pregnancy, she goes on to deliver a beautiful daughter, who is a mirror of her mother's driven spirit.