What do you do when your water breaks and FOUR days later, there’s little sign of labor? For Sivan Dirks this meant almost drinking a castor oil smoothie! Instead, she leaned into the holistic and intuitive tools she’d gathered over her previous -and varied!- birth experiences, to have her most connected and physiologic birth yet. She shares with Adriana her three experiences which include a belly-birth breech preemie and two fast VBACs. They also talk about the importance of being intentional in your birth preparation to strike a balance between informed choices and a heart-centered approach.

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Get the most out of this episode by checking out the resources, transcript, and links on its show notes page.  

If you liked this episode, listen to our interview on The Purpose of Childbirth Pain and our episode on The Baby's Birth Experience.

You can connect with Sivan on Instagram @rosecitybabypdx. You can connect with Birthful @BirthfulPodcast on Instagram or email us at [email protected]. 

If you enjoy what you hear, download Birthful's Postpartum Plan FREE when you sign up for our weekly newsletter! You can also sign up for Adriana’s Own Your Birth online BIRTH preparation classes and her Thrive with Your Newborn online POSTPARTUM preparation course at BirthfulCourses.com.

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What better way to celebrate this incredible 10-year milestone than by having Adriana share her own birth story? But there’s a twist… actually more than one! First, it's Adriana’s daughter, Persephone (Seph), doing the interviewing. They’ll be sharing the evolving tradition Adriana started when Seph was one, of telling her birth story on her birthday, and how impactful that has been in normalizing birth for her (and how Adriana found out that Seph had started to listen to the podcast!). And finally, by dusting off this episode (originally published to celebrate our 100th episode), Adriana gets to reflect on how doing the podcast for a decade has helped transform her work as a doula and educator, and announce the end of an era.

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Get the most out of this episode by checking out the resources, transcript, and links on its show notes page.  

If you liked this episode, listen to our interview on Rethinking the Pushing Stage and our episode on A Quick Guide to Triage

You can connect with Birthful @BirthfulPodcast on Instagram or email us at [email protected]. 

If you enjoy what you hear, download Birthful's Postpartum Plan FREE when you sign up for our weekly newsletter! You can also sign up for Adriana’s Own Your Birth online BIRTH preparation classes and her Thrive with Your Newborn online POSTPARTUM preparation course at BirthfulCourses.com.

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One of the biggest surprises for Ujarak Appadoo when she first got pregnant was that she would need to prepare or adjust for living in a pregnant body and giving birth. She’d figure she’d just carry on doing life as she’d seen her peers do, and that everything would unfold without much fuss. So began her long journey of transformation through four births, which included having to accept not being able to birth with midwives in her location of choice due to lack of access; experiencing, birthing, and grieving the 19-week pregnancy loss of her third daughter; and ultimately discovering she needs ample space for birth and postpartum, so she can stand in her power, and lovingly care for herself and her family, in community.

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Get the most out of this episode by checking out the resources, transcript, and links on its show notes page.  

If you liked this episode, listen to our interview on Going into Birth Intuitively and our episode on Why A Midwife Might Be Just What You Need. 

You can connect with Ujarak on Instagram at @Amautiga. You can connect with Birthful @BirthfulPodcast on Instagram or email us at [email protected]. 

If you enjoy what you hear, download Birthful's Postpartum Plan FREE when you sign up for our weekly newsletter! You can also sign up for Adriana’s Own Your Birth online BIRTH preparation classes and her Thrive with Your Newborn online POSTPARTUM preparation course at BirthfulCourses.com.

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Even though 5 doctors had cleared Jessica Pinney for a vaginal delivery with her rare placental conditions of vasa previa and velamentous cord insertion, she listened to her intuition and decided to have a planned surgical birth for her first child. For her next pregnancy, listening to her intuition led her to have a homebirth. She shares with Adriana how these different circumstances led to very different models of care, how they impacted her postpartum experiences, and how much her confidence and knowledge have grown because of it. 

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Get the most out of this episode by checking out the resources, transcript, and links on its show notes page.  

If you liked this episode, listen to our interview on Family Centered Cesareans and our episode titled Let’s Tackle Postpartum Mood and Anxiety Disorders.

You can connect with Birthful @BirthfulPodcast on Instagram or email us at [email protected]. 

If you enjoy what you hear, download Birthful's Postpartum Plan FREE when you sign up for our weekly newsletter! You can also sign up for Adriana’s Own Your Birth online BIRTH preparation classes and her Thrive with Your Newborn online POSTPARTUM preparation course at BirthfulCourses.com.

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Even though Tabitha DeLorio had a long pushing stage (and we’re talking 6 to 7 hours long!) at no point was she discouraged that something was wrong. She shares with Adriana how the trust she had in her body and her team, their loving support, and constant reassurance (as well as her baby showing no signs of distress) allowed her to power through despite her baby’s head being tilted to one side with a hand in front of their face. Tabitha also shares the cozy sweet times her family had after the birth, soaking in all the love and help from those around them.  

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Get the most out of this episode by checking out the resources, transcript, and links on its show notes page.  

If you liked this episode, listen to our interview on How To Know If You And Your Provider Are Truly A Good Fit and our episode on Why Optimal Baby Oral Function Matters.

You can connect with Tabitha at OverviewEffectBodywork.com. You can connect with Birthful @BirthfulPodcast on Instagram or email us at [email protected]. 

If you enjoy what you hear, download Birthful's Postpartum Plan FREE when you sign up for our weekly newsletter! You can also sign up for Adriana’s Own Your Birth online BIRTH preparation classes and her Thrive with Your Newborn online POSTPARTUM preparation course at BirthfulCourses.com.

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What happens when a baby suddenly turns breech at 36 weeks? For Kaitlin Moore, this meant a hard pivot and lots of research to weigh her options between trying to get her baby to flip back or having a surgical birth. She shares the difficulties of finding the right provider to do an External Cephalic Version (ECV), and how elated she was when the ECV was successful and she could wait until her (now head-down) baby was ready to be born, to ultimately have the mostly unmedicated vaginal birth she had hoped for (despite it starting with an induction for early rupture of her waters)!

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Get the most out of this episode by checking out the resources, transcript, and links on its show notes page.  

If you liked this episode, listen to our interview on What You Need to Know About Obstetricians (OBs) and our episode on Why A Midwife Might Be Just What You Need.

You can connect with Birthful @BirthfulPodcast on Instagram or email us at [email protected]. 

If you enjoy what you hear, download Birthful's Postpartum Plan FREE when you sign up for our weekly newsletter! You can also sign up for Adriana’s Own Your Birth online BIRTH preparation classes and her Thrive with Your Newborn online POSTPARTUM preparation course at BirthfulCourses.com.

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If birth and death are liminal bookends to our human experience, what conversations emerge as a pregnant funeral director is attended by a grieving midwife? Anna Walsh shares the story of her two fast births, and how she felt safe, heard, and respected as she transferred to the hospital for a retained placenta after her first birth (and cheered the second one when it came easily!). In this season of introspection and remembrance, Anna shares with Adriana her insights on the power of companionship through these connected spaces, how she intentionally combined two comfort measures to help her through her birth, along with the hearse drivers’ particular feelings about driving around a very pregnant person.

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Get the most out of this episode by checking out the resources, transcript, and links on its show notes page.  

If you liked this episode, listen to our interview on How Prenatal Yoga Can Help Protect Your Energy (And Why This Is Important!) and our episode on Shaking and the Primal Nature of Birth

You can connect with Birthful @BirthfulPodcast on Instagram or email us at [email protected]. 

If you enjoy what you hear, download Birthful's Postpartum Plan FREE when you sign up for our weekly newsletter! You can also sign up for Adriana’s Own Your Birth online BIRTH preparation classes and her Thrive with Your Newborn online POSTPARTUM preparation course at BirthfulCourses.com.

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Can a chaotic labor with a myriad of interventions for preeclampsia and several failed epidurals be a positive experience? Olivia Styons shares with Adriana the hard pivots she and her team had to make and how crucial it was for her to speak up for her needs - from getting a shower to holding her premature baby for a few minutes - to resiliently turn a 5-day induction into a beautiful experience. 

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Get the most out of this episode by checking out the resources, transcript, and links on its show notes page.  

If you liked this episode, listen to our interview on Preeclampsia Essentials and our episode on Postpartum Fertility: What you need to know.

You can connect with Olivia on Instagram @BirthWithLiv. You can connect with Birthful @BirthfulPodcast on Instagram or email us at [email protected]. 

If you enjoy what you hear, download Birthful's Postpartum Plan FREE when you sign up for our weekly newsletter! You can also sign up for Adriana’s Own Your Birth online BIRTH preparation classes and her Thrive with Your Newborn online POSTPARTUM preparation course at BirthfulCourses.com.

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Doula and perinatal dance instructor Kemeera Nimahat has given birth four times and is the self-proclaimed queen of ignoring early labor. She shares with Adriana how tuning into her intuition has been pivotal in deciding where and with whom to give birth (she switched from homebirth to hospital for her first) and the deep work she did in preparation for her most recent birth, which was surprisingly fast, and pain-free. 

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Get the most out of this episode by checking out the resources, transcript, and links on its show notes page.  

If you liked this episode, listen to our episode on Is Homebirth for You? and our interview on Big Babies and Shoulder Dystocia. 

You can connect with Kemeera on Instagram @MammaJammaDance. You can connect with Birthful @BirthfulPodcast on Instagram or email us at [email protected]. 

If you enjoy what you hear, download Birthful's Postpartum Plan FREE when you sign up for our weekly newsletter! You can also sign up for Adriana’s Own Your Birth online BIRTH preparation classes and her Thrive with Your Newborn online POSTPARTUM preparation course at BirthfulCourses.com.

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Danielle Fetty-Lovell has been through a lot in her births! But probably the most unexpected moment was when her first daughter had the hiccups while she was crowning for a really long time (making it both comical and excruciating). She shares with Adriana how being deeply focused on her labor meant that she didn’t care they got her dilation wrong (going from 8 cms back to 4!) and how trying to make sure her 34.5-week preemie gained weight, along with a stressful job and a neverending pumping regime contributed to her postpartum depression and mood disorders (PMADs).

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Get the most out of this episode by checking out the resources, transcript, and links on its show notes page.  

If you liked this episode, listen to our interview on Can Exercise During Pregnancy Make Labor Harder? and our breastfeeding episode on Figuring Out How To Suck, Swallow, And Breathe.

You can connect with Birthful @BirthfulPodcast on Instagram or email us at [email protected]. 

If you enjoy what you hear, download Birthful's Postpartum Plan FREE when you sign up for our weekly newsletter! You can also sign up for Adriana’s Own Your Birth online BIRTH preparation classes and her Thrive with Your Newborn online POSTPARTUM preparation course at BirthfulCourses.com.

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Toni Shama’s first birth asked for movement, and her third birth asked for much vocalization. Her second birth, however, asked for tons of intimacy with her husband. She shares with Adriana how when they fueled that passion, labor became so fast they barely had a chance to call their midwife before their baby was born. And how if any of them had known the baby was breech, it would have been a very different –and much less blissful– birth. 

Sponsor offers - TIME SENSITIVE! 

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• ARTIFACT UPRISING - Get up to 20% off at ArtifactUprising.com with code BIRTHFUL through December 31
• IXL LEARNING - Get 20% off a membership at ixl.com/TODAY

Get the most out of this episode by checking out the resources, transcript, and links on its show notes page.  

If you liked this episode, listen to our interview on Why An OB/GYN Chose To Have A Midwife and our episode on How To Bring More Pleasure And Joy Into Your Birth (And Why It Makes A Difference!)

You can connect with Birthful @BirthfulPodcast on Instagram or email us at [email protected]. 

If you enjoy what you hear, download Birthful's Postpartum Plan FREE when you sign up for our weekly newsletter! You can also sign up for Adriana’s Own Your Birth online BIRTH preparation classes and her Thrive with Your Newborn online POSTPARTUM preparation course at BirthfulCourses.com.

Follow us on Goodpods, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, Spotify, and anywhere you listen to podcasts.