Free Birth - Exploring Autonomy In Childbirth

This week on the show we have Tatiana, who freebirthed her second daughter 8 years after her first birth. Sadly, her first birth was completely sabotaged by an irresponsible midwife who abandoned Tatiana after days of attempting an induction. So, Tatiana took her time and did the work of healing until she was ready again. When she became ready, Tatiana staked her claim and birthed entirely her way. 

We have a fierce episode for you today with the epicly powerful Dominique Christina. A spoken word poet, writer, mother, and radical feminist, Dominque shares her life’s story of owning her voice and committing to truth telling. Get ready to interrogate, unpack, and detonate with today’s unapologetic guest. 

During Sparrow’s freebirth, she found herself unable to release her bladder. When she arrived at the hospital seeking a catheter, instead - she was misdiagnosed with HIV and given a c-section. She was kept from breastfeeding, harassed by social services, and spent the following few days in a nightmarish hell as she fought for herself and her new baby.    So, this episode is Sparrow’s story, and it’s also in celebration of who Sparrow is today and her new offering to the world.    Sparrow is a very special woman who has devoted her life to serving pregnant women through high level body work and birth keeping. Today we are celebrating the launch of her new online program, BODY FULL OF GRACE that I am honored to be offering through Free Birth Society.    It’s a DIY prenatal care course for aligning with a pain free and easy pregnancy, so if you’re pregnant, planning to be soon, or work with pregnant women, you check it out and add it to your tool kit.    Sparrow is here to tell the tale, what she learned, and to

After pregnancy loss and a break up, Samantha begins a journey with a new relationship to call in her baby. This is a powerful story of a brave woman who used her anxiety as a flag for what to move towards and away from. It's a story of a woman who committed to following her instincts in spite of a nervous partner. and it is a story of the quiet strength of a wild woman becoming a fierce mother.

Today on the show we have Laney from Texas. After a coerced and stressful induction with her first child, Laney knew it had to be different the second time. Witnessed by her husband and her friend, Laney freebirthed her daughter into this world, entirely on her own terms. 

I am grateful to be bringing you the story of a wise woman with quite the story to tell. Shanika is from Jamaica, currently living in Atlanta, Ga, and is both a free birther and a Radical Birth Keeper. She tells us of her first birth at 17 and then the tragic tale of her daughter's death three years later. And yet, in the loss of her daughter, Shanika had a true spiritual awakening, and became the incredible woman she is today. Shanika is a deep well of wisdom, and her story will surely inspire you to be your authentic self.

This week we have the lovely Bec from Australia who finally decided with her third baby to stop compromising her vision and had a glorious home birth with her daughter, which both challenged her marriage and the previous stories she’d been told about her body in birth. Bec is a doula turned radical birth keeper who shares how she chose to hop out of the machine and live her life aligned with her truth. 

Today on the show we have Jaime, who shares the heartbreaking story of her first two children born in the system, and the insightful reflections of her experience. Jaime shares the incredible story of her choice to leave the system and birth in sovereignty, while navigating her 3 year olds brain tumor diagnosis and surgery. This is a beautiful tale of a woman finding her voice in her marriage and in her life. 

I’m joined today by Sarah, calling in from her yurt on Maui, Hawaii. On the same day she decided to leave her partner, Sarah, at 22 years of age, was shocked to discover she was unexpectedly pregnant. This episode is a poetic tale of a young woman turning towards trust, surrendering to the great mystery, and learning to choose herself, fully. Sarah shares about her wild pregnancy, and of the lessons she was sent during her psychedelic outdoor birth. She also tells us of her blissful first year of motherhood, and of the tearful sweetness of her father coming to take care of her postpartum.

I am thrilled to be bringing you Rae’s story this week on the show. Rae is a fiercely intuitive mother from Trinidad, who shares everything from her decision not to get the rhogam shot, to using psychedelics to prepare her mind and spirit for freebirth, even how she self pleasured herself into labor. This is not one to miss!

Today on the show we have Anastasia from Seattle, Washington. A self declared recovering people pleaser, Anastasia chose to stay home to birth her child, alone and in the dark. The mantra she carried with her throughout her birth was to whisper to herself, "I die to be reborn, I die to be reborn". She tells us the gorgeous story of how she brought her child earth side with the support of her ancestors. 

We are kicking off Season 4 with an amazing free birth after c-section story. I'm excited to introduce to you, our first guest of Season 4, my amazing friend Jess, from Arizona. She chose a free birth after her first birth resulted in a fear mongering c-section due to breech presentation. Tired of being pathologized in the system, Jess began to feel the presence of her daughter, and she turned to trust. She had a wild pregnancy, and roared her baby into the world. 

Kim is an international sex coach and one of my personal inspirations for how she shows up in the world. So this episode dives into the concept of the “Well Fucked Woman” and we cover some of the tools of how to get there. We also unpack the jade egg and what to do about it, and what does it mean to be in our sexual power with a healthy vagina and pelvic floor. *If you don’t already know this about my podcast, there is a lot of cursing and in this episode in particular, it’s about sex, so be warned.  Click here to join me for her upcoming Well Fucked Woman Salon. 

Today we are joined by Pam, who shares the powerful discovery of her own maternal power. After a forced c section because she and her baby were both surely too big, she knew what had happened was wrong and it could never happen again. So then she tried medical midwifery, and shares the complicated terrain of achieving a VBAC at home but still being left knowing she had been sabotaged and pathologized in so many ways. And then, Pam gets pregnant with her daughter, and she knew she could not afford anything less than total autonomy. Pam tell us how she learned to trust herself, through her wild pregnancy and freebirth, which taught her to go on to advocate for her children for the rest of their lives.

We are celebrating two incredible things with this week’s episode, Nancy’s recent freebirth, and the launch of her latest course, Conscious Conception: Welcoming Your Spirit Baby Home. We get into both incredible topics in our discussion today, so if conscious conception is a new topic for you, be sure to tune in. Nancy shares about what turned out to be, a 45 minute birth with the baby born in his caul. 

Today we have a special episode with a first time mom in our community. Clarke found a registered midwife to attend her that also held willingness to center the mother, in her entirety. I thought this story was worth telling on our “Free Birth” podcast as it highlights how determined pregnant women can hone in on what they want and actually get it! Midwife attended births, of course, can be wonderful, and I wanted to highlight one that was, in hopes that it will inspire women to speak up and commit to what they want. And of course - to encourage midwives to center the women they serve. Join us today for a lighthearted sweet story of the wisdom of a young new mother diving into the work of bringing a child earth-side.

Left feeing unsatisfied with the total lack of support she received from her midwife the first time around, Carlita knew with her next pregnancy that she’d be doing it alone, on her own terms. Supported by her husband, Carlita birthed her son into the world just five weeks ago, under a global lockdown, wild and free.

This week I’m joined by Sadie, a new mother that just free birthed her first full term child not long ago. Sadie first, a few years ago, experienced a pregnancy loss late in her second trimester and chose to stay home and spontaneously birth her precious stillborn son. After dreaming of her daughter, she easily conceived her and committed to the high vibrational work of wild pregnancy. With the support of her beloved partner and mother, she roared her daughter into the world, guided by the blue light of her spirit son who had passed years ago.

Concluding our Radical Birth Keeper Series we have an experienced traditional birth attendant, Lilly. Lilly was trained as a medical midwife and quickly came to learn she would be no such provider. Instead, she found her way through traditional apprenticeships and trusting the call to serve women in a way that felt safest - with mothers at the center. Lilly shares how her own birth was a journey into darkness, and we discuss birth attendance as shamanism, and how to say yes to that calling.

This week on the show we have the lovely Leisa Masters, a radical birth keeper in Australia. As Leisa shares her journey from doula to coach, we get into the doula climate, money, integrity, and she describes the lightbulb moment when she learned how to stop "saving" women and show up for them in mutual responsibility.