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The Happy Homebirth podcast is your source for positive natural childbirth stories, and your community of support, education and encouragement in all things homebirth and motherhood.
Episodes
Monday Jan 09, 2023
Monday Jan 09, 2023
- How amazing was it to hear the way that Blythe's mother's choices regarding birth set her and her brothers up for success? They grew up not feeling fearful about birth, but believing it to be a normal, beautiful event. This is what you're doing for your children right now as you make this decision to. embrace pregnancy and labor as it was physiologically designed to be. How incredible.
- Blythe struggled. Truly, truly struggled. From conception through the first three years, she had a long, dark road to walk. It included symptoms of psychosis, anxiety and depression, and it was just heavy. If you've been there or if you're there now, I want you to know that you're no less worthy of a human because you're struggling. There can be such grief and shame added from ourselves, which simply compounds the pain. Instead, I would love to share about one of many avenues we can consider to heal. I believe that so much healing can take place when we focus on the nervous system. This can look like many different things, but tapping or Emotional Freedom Technique is one of my favorite ways, and it's got the research to back that it truly works. There are so many incredible practitioners out there, but I have a package that has be created specifically for my listeners and students by two amazing women, Greta Zukoff and Naomi Reyes. Greta has worked with me over the last year healing my relationship with myself, with my childhood, with the deepest parts of my core.... and Naomi specializes in working with pregnant and postpartum mothers. She deals with these exact issues. If you are struggling and you know that you're tired of struggling, just how Blythe began to feel, let's begin to heal. The link to contact them and sign up is available in my bio. I would love for you to take advantage of it.
- Finally, I want to end with the incredible joy that came with healing for Blythe and her family. Not only was she able to reconnect with Gibson in such a powerful way, but she was also able to experience a pregnancy and birth that were truly marked by joy. And Gibson was able to see and feel that, too. What a gift and what a beautiful reconciliation. If you've experienced a pregnancy or postpartum that reminds you of Blythe... I want you to focus in on that. It does NOT mean that you won't experience joy in the future. Blythe surely did, and how beautifully healing is that.
Monday Jan 02, 2023
Monday Jan 02, 2023
- let’s start where we began: What does it mean to have a ‘good’ homebirth? What does it look like, and how does it feel? Do you have to breathe your baby out and be super quiet? Absolutely not. Remember- the way that a birth unfolds, whether it’s loud, quiet, “breathy” or “screamy” it can all be empowering. Or disempowering. So what makes the difference?
- The decision-maker is what makes the difference. Who was in control? Who held the authority? Truly, the decisions that are made and the exact outcomes matter far less if we recognize that we are in the driver’s seat and our decisions are respected.
- and finally- you are so strong. Your body is so strong and capable. And at the same time, I see so much beauty in the reliance on something more. On the crying out to the lord and acknowledging that we can’t do this without him. He takes us the rest of the way.
Monday Dec 26, 2022
Monday Dec 26, 2022
- Common does not equal normal. Unfortunately, the cascade of interventions offered--forced-- at the hospital under the guise of safety are anything but and so disempowering to the mothers who realize... wait a minute, I didn't need that.... And the vast majority of the time, that's absolutely the case.
- Jamie realized that this second time around, she was ready to get into the deep work of preparation. As her husband stated, homebirth is a lot of work! And the truth is-- yeah! Taking responsibility after generations of handing over responsibility means that we have to do a lot of additional work. But you know what's so cool? Because Jamie and her husband bared the brunt of the hard work.... their daughters WON'T have to work so hard. They'll grow up in a family that understands and appreciates birth as a natural, beautiful process, and they'll likely feel far more confident and prepared without having to do nearly as much work to ready themselves for birth. What a gift.
- And finally, your body is amazing. Jamie's body is amazing. It knew exactly what it needed to do to get her daughter unstuck, and despite being tangled up in the cords, she was birth just fine and just beautifully. I love Jamie's beautiful perspective of how her birth was perfect-- rescue breaths and long-holding placenta and all. The beauty of birth is in the variations, and the fact that our bodies are capable of handling them.
Monday Dec 19, 2022
Monday Dec 19, 2022
𝗜 𝗪𝗮𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝘁𝗼 𝗯𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗕𝗘𝗦𝗧 𝗠𝗼𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗿… 𝗛𝗲𝗿𝗲’𝘀 𝗛𝗼𝘄 𝗛𝗼𝗺𝗲𝗯𝗶𝗿𝘁𝗵 𝗣𝗿𝗲𝗽 𝗛𝗲𝗹𝗽𝗲𝗱!
So often we get lured into this trap of an idea: you can prepare for Birth, but you can’t really prepare for motherhood. It just happens.
‼️SPOILER ALERT‼️ They’re intimately linked.
The problem? Traditional childbirth classes:
➡️ focus on simply avoiding pain. So… if we experience pain… what? Did we fail?
➡️ ignore the fact that childbirth is a rite of passage, and it’s sacred. They focus on just getting through, not appreciating and *gasp* enjoying it.
➡️leave us unprepared for the new version of us we’ll be meeting on the other side. If the whole time we’re just learning to relax (which, relaxation is good!), we aren’t focusing on the aspects that will build confidence in ourselves in birth AND motherhood for the long haul: tapping back into our intuition, setting boundaries (and why we need to!)… what our actual thoughts and opinions even are about birth! Kind of… a big chunk of info.
If you’re anything like me, your desire is to be the absolute best mother that you can be. Here’s the deal. We become that mother when we’re prepared to meet that mother.
When you learn to connect to your primal mother, to soothe and regulate your nervous system, to take charge of your decision making… you better believe you become a force to be reckoned with both in birth and motherhood. And isn’t that what we truly want? To step into these experiences feeling confident and prepared for whatever awaits us?
If this is you, I highly encourage you to apply for our next cohort of the Homebirth Collective, running Jan 2- March 24. It’s not childbirth education- it’s so much more. Perfect timing for mamas who will be about 12-28 weeks pregnant at the beginning of Jan!
The link to apply is in my bio, or send me a DM for more info. ✨
Monday Dec 12, 2022
Monday Dec 12, 2022
“𝗕𝘂𝘁 𝘄𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗶𝗳 𝗜 𝗳𝗮𝗶𝗹?” - 𝟯 𝗪𝗮𝘆𝘀 𝘁𝗼 𝗢𝘃𝗲𝗿𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗲 𝗬𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗛𝗼𝗺𝗲𝗯𝗶𝗿𝘁𝗵 𝗙𝗲𝗮𝗿𝘀
We’ve got to:
1. Stop letting fear drive the bus (he doesn’t even have his license)
2. Determine who you’re willing to gain your information from.
3. Realize that failure has far led to do with outcomes than it does mindset and surroundings. Are you the hero or the victim?
Listen in to hear a thorough breakdown!
And if you decide that you’re the kind of woman who is ready to kick fear to the curb and break generational chains around birth and motherhood, make sure you apply for The Homebirth Collective today! Our next cohort runs from Jan 2nd-March 24th, and it’s perfect if you’ll be around 12-28 weeks pregnant on 1/1!
Monday Dec 05, 2022
Monday Dec 05, 2022
- God makes messy things beautiful. I've seen it time and time again in my own life and in the lives of others, and how clearly was this put on display in Gabrielle's story. Gabrielle shares how she overdosed and flatlined 3 times-- died- and yet now is a whole new, reborn creation who is pointing others to her Savior. What a beautiful testimony.
- And next, I think it's so incredible to see how the life experiences that she's had, of dysfunction, of such severe struggle-- she's used those to change the paradigm for her own family. Gabrielle and her husband are taking their children down an entirely new path-- one that's functional and full of love and grace.
- And lastly, I just want to share about the beauty in Gabrielle's decision making. Despite the fact that she's off of social media and thus not being bombarded with pretty homebirth images, she prayed for discernment and knew that what she wanted for her babies was different from the conventional path. I just find it so powerful that Gabrielle trusted and obeyed and had two beautiful girls in a way that empowered her and granted her confidence in motherhood.
Applications for The Homebirth Collective open next week, so be ready to apply early! Seats are extremely limited, so the earlier you can apply and get a suitability call, the quicker we can reserve your spot.
Monday Nov 28, 2022
Monday Nov 28, 2022
- The inner child: It wasn’t something that naturally called to me. I thought it was a bit silly— that I’m not a child, and I should just do better. But when we realize that so many programs that we’re running are created in those first few years of life, we can see that, perhaps some of those programs may be outdated! Are these serving me? Are these TRUE? This can be an incredible place to start.
- Tapping Specifically: EFT has been a huge help for me in my life. Like Greta and I spoke about, it’s so beneficial for both the “acute” and the “chronic.” During the panic attack, and to deal with the deeper layers of reprogramming.
- Pregnancy and postpartum are massive times of flux. We may be drawing on a lot of subconscious programs, and we’re certainly in hormonal flux. I love tapping to connect with my baby, and I’m thrilled to have it as a resource in my postpartum phase so that If I do begin experiencing any type of postpartum mood disorders, I already have this massive tool.
Finding Freedom (4 month Subscription):
$149 pay per month price
$ 119 pay in full incentive ($476 total)
Includes:
-4 group tapping calls (per month)
-2 group prayer/meditation calls (per month)
-Private Fb group for support
Ready to join us? Email greta@gretazukoff.com with subject line: Finding Freedom
Monday Nov 21, 2022
Monday Nov 21, 2022
- Courtney shared about the fact that nature never repeats the same pattern consistently. In fact, it never repeats itself exactly! This repetition, which is found in harmful EMFs, is what actually causes our bodies to be on guard. BluShield's mitigation products, like nature, provide a variety of frequencies that allow our body to enter safety.
- Another incredibly important topic that Courtney covered is the idea of taking responsibility for our own health. Courtney did this in terms of her birth experience: giving birth free birth unassisted with her first baby. She felt so strong and confident in her decisions, and she chose not o outsource t her health. It's the exact same when it comes to her journey with EMFs.
- Finally, we must remember: Let's do our best. Let's do what we can to protect our families, and then let's not stress about the rest. Additional stress and fear is only going to cause more inflammation, more chronic illnesses, and more acute illnesses. For me, this involves trusting the Lord--trusting that He is the true source of provision and protection. I'm doing my part, and then letting go--having an hand open with the rest.
Monday Nov 14, 2022
Monday Nov 14, 2022
If you're excited to join the next cohort of The HBC, which will run from January to March, make sure you're signed up for our waitlist! You'll be the first to know when applications are open, and you can grab your spot quickly, as spots are incredibly limited!
Go to myhappyhomebirth.com/collective to learn more and sign up.
- Natalie's births were all conscious conceptions- thoroughly planned and prepared for. While this is certainly not the case for many of us, isn't it so neat to hear? What deep consideration and thoughtfulness that went into their welcoming of these new lives. I like to think that that deep consideration of Natalie and Brandon extends into every endeavor they take up. It's so clear to see that very same thoughtfulness in both of the companies that they run together.
- The body is so incredible: Who knows how long Natalie was sitting at 10cm.... I love how her midwife did not encourage her to push until she was ready, which leads into the realization that size of the baby matters less than our ability to tune into what our body is asking from us. Natalie was able to listen to her body instead of outside opinions, and this led her to have a beautiful birth with her baby at 43 weeks. NORMALIZE 43 WEEKS, BABY!
- And finally, there's so much to constantly be learning in terms of how to protect ourselves and our families in a modern world where technology is changing daily. Unfortunately, these big companies and massive decisions don't always have our health and best interest at heart. As the caretakers and shepherds of our children, we have a responsibility to look into what's going on, and decide how to best protect our little ones. I'm so grateful for Blushield for making this easier. We've seen such massive differences since purchasing our cube, and I would never be without it at this point.
Monday Nov 07, 2022
Monday Nov 07, 2022
When your Nutritionist is on point and you're doing everything seemingly correctly and yet you still have trouble conceiving or maybe even going into labor, where can we look? What is it that may be impacting our experience?
This week, we are speaking with my friend Amanda Montalvo she is a Hormone healing Rd (@hormonehealingrd) on Instagram if you follow her there. She also has an incredible podcast called Are You Menstrual we're going to be discussing her journey of how she got out of the Hormonal birth control pill had really had to help rebalance and then became pregnant eventually and went on to have a home birth. We're gonna get to hear how all of this unfolded and some of the really beautiful gems that she has learned along the way. One issue that we are going to discuss several times throughout the episode is this idea of stress and how it can impact us in so many ways how you can be doing everything seemingly right but if we are overwhelmed with stress there are still going to be issues you know kind of consistently popping up so be sure to listen through on that theme and hear some of the advice that Amanda gets throughout.
If you're excited to join the next cohort of The HBC, which will run from January to March, make sure you're signed up for our waitlist! You'll be the first to know when applications are open, and you can grab your spot quickly, as spots are incredibly limited!
Go to myhappyhomebirth.com/collective to learn more and sign up. Okay, let's jump into this beautiful story with Courtney.
Episode Roundup:
- You can prepare all you want, you can do everything right and still struggle to conceive and what we need to remember is that stress can play a critical role in this and you know truthfully timing is everything Amanda wanted to get pregnant and thought she would get pregnant very quickly and yet it took a year but once it was finally the right time, everything was in position she was in a feeling environment she and her husband were able to conceive and what a precious little baby they did make.
- Now on that same idea same concept if we move that over to labor what talk about how stress can also play a role in win that begins you know part of the importance of going into labor is relaxing letting loose getting comfortable if we are in a state of stress and panic it will be hard to get into that separation phase to get the contraction moving and going obviously it's gonna happen at some point. We're going to come to labor but the best thing that we can actively let go to actively release our responsibilities as much as possible and focus inward on the massive transformation that is about to take place. Once Amanda was able to let go of that go go go intensity really actively focus on relaxing she was of course able to step into that separation phase and to relax and release into the laboring process and apparently reflexology really really help together there.
- Next, we were trying different time is not linear it's not the same thing that we experience from day-to-day and why is that well we're in what's called liminality we're in this other worldly out of our typical mind experience which is beautiful but don't expect the clock to make sense when you're in labor because it's going to be totally different from what you expect almost always. It’s one of those experiences where a minute may feel like an hour or an hour may feel like a minute. It is an absolutely unlike clear version of time so relaxing into that and allowing the process to just unfold without the concerns of protective “Oh no did you get that contraction timer down like if everything written and recorded” that's going into liminality releasing all of that thinking brain allows that to be OK no matter whether you're labor is 30 minutes or 30 hours.
- Finally Amanda stated that birth forced her to truly look in word, Can you do this Amanda? Do you want to meet your daughter? or Do you wanna transport? Do you want to outsource to the hospital have them do something for you to stimulate labor to relax you in some way? But you know what and Amanda in this situation decided to dig in and meet her baby and this is what motherhood is about. Digging into your intuition no matter what it takes that doesn't necessarily mean they get home every time it may be something very different but digging into your intuition and what's right from you. Instead of immediately outsourcing to somebody else's idea or what somebody else thinks is right for you. This not only served Amanda during labor but it has served her already tremendously and motherhood and making those decisions for her family making those decisions for Eliana with confidence. That is what motherhood is all about and that is what labor can teach us if we are open and willing and ready to accept it alright my friends I hope that you enjoy.
Resources:
FREE Homebirth Essentials Guide