Doing It At Home - The Home Birth Podcast

Latest Episodes:

478: Natural, Holistic, Spiritual Approach to Birth, Plus Dealing with IUGR with Amy Zhou (DIAH Classic) Mar 21, 2024

Show notes

How do you prepare for birth beyond the physical factors?

Today’s guest is Amy Zhou, a certified Health Coach and Medicine Woman who specializes in teaching women (and men) how to heal their body, mind and spirit naturally at home. She’s also a new mama to her son Nathaniel, who is three and a half weeks old at the time we recorded this episode.

We cover a lot of great things with Amy. For starters, she gave birth in the exact days the situation of COVID-19 dramatically shifted and accelerated in the United States, and specifically in her area of Los Angeles, California. According to Amy, it was like the world was a certain way when they entered the hospital, and then completely different when they emerged. So we chat about initial postpartum during an interesting time in the world and how she’s processing that.

We also hear about Amy and her husband Ed’s preparation process for the birth experience. Their internal spiritual work was vital. Particularly when some challenges popped up, like an IUGR diagnosis (intrauterine growth restriction). This meant there were concerns about baby Nathaniel’s small size and how that could impact possibly inducing Amy before her due date.

And bonus - Amy shares some of her gifts and expertise with listeners and leaves some tips for pregnant mothers both from her own experience as well as her extensive training and coaching.

Links From The Episode:

Amy’s website: https://www.amyzhou.com/home

Offers From Our Awesome Partners:

Needed: https://bit.ly/2DuMBxP - use code DIAH to get 20% off your order
Splash Blanket: https://bit.ly/3JPe1g0 - use code DIAH for 10% off your order
Esembly: https://bit.ly/3eanCSz - use code DIH20 to get 20% off your order

More From Doing It At Home:

Send us your birth story: https://bit.ly/3jOjCKl
Doing It At Home book on Amazon: https://amzn.to/3vJcPmU
DIAH Website: https://www.diahpodcast.com/
DIAH Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/doingitathome/
DIAH YouTube: https://bit.ly/3pzuzQC
DIAH Merch: www.diahpodcast.com/merch

Give Back to DIAH: https://bit.ly/3qgm4r9

477: How to Plan Birth Support During COVID-19 with Heather Delaney (DIAH Classic) Mar 13, 2024

Show notes

Have circumstances impacted your pregnancy and/or birth?

Today we’re chatting with Heather Delaney, childbirth educator, certified labor and postpartum doula and CEO of Maryland State Doulas.

Heather walks us through how she and her team of doulas and birth professionals shifted during the 2020 Pandemic to serve their clients with virtual support. When policies (like partners and/or doulas not allowed in birthing rooms of hospitals and centers) and communications have been challenging, they’ve found alternative ways to educate and empower, regardless of the birthing location.

We talk about what some of the biggest changes/challenges have shown up in the birth world, what families can do in the midst of everything as well as how to minimize the fear around birth that already exists and can be magnified when blended with the conversations around COVID-19.

Offers From Our Awesome Partners:

Needed: https://bit.ly/2DuMBxP - use code DIAH to get 20% off your order
Splash Blanket: https://bit.ly/3JPe1g0 - use code DIAH for 10% off your order
Esembly: https://bit.ly/3eanCSz - use code DIH20 to get 20% off your order

More From Doing It At Home:

Send us your birth story: https://bit.ly/3jOjCKl
Doing It At Home book on Amazon: https://amzn.to/3vJcPmU
DIAH Website: https://www.diahpodcast.com/
DIAH Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/doingitathome/
DIAH YouTube: https://bit.ly/3pzuzQC
DIAH Merch: www.diahpodcast.com/merch
Give Back to DIAH: https://bit.ly/3qgm4r9

476: The Super Fast Bradley Method Water Birth with Kimberly Huck (DIAH Classic) Mar 06, 2024

Show notes

In today’s episode we’re talking with Kimberly Huck, mama to Henry and wife to Dan. And we have a special connection with Kimberly. We live near each other and...we used the same midwives! So the same women who helped deliver baby Maya, delivered baby Henry just a few months earlier.

Kimberly and I connected after she posted a cool home birth related article on Facebook that happened to make its way into my awareness (article link in the show notes). Kimberly is a chiropractor, and she and her husband Dan own a fitness studio in Marietta, Georgia called American Row House. They met while attending Life University, while Kimberly studied chiropractic and Dan studied sports health science.

The Huck household is very into health and fitness, healthy habits and lifestyle and living as natural and toxin-free as possible.

Kimberly grew up in a natural home, being unvaccinated herself. She became interested in home birth after working for a chiropractor in her early 20s who had a home birth in their family.

So for she and Dan, home birth is just a part of the world they live in. In their environment it’s “normal.”

Kimberly’s story highlights the concept of honoring the body’s natural process and timing. Also - birth is not an exact science. Enjoy her journey and story!

Links From The Episode:

Offers From Our Awesome Partners:

Needed: https://bit.ly/2DuMBxP - use code DIAH to get 20% off your order
Splash Blanket: https://bit.ly/3JPe1g0 - use code DIAH for 10% off your order
Esembly: https://bit.ly/3eanCSz - use code DIH20 to get 20% off your order

More From Doing It At Home:

Send us your birth story: https://bit.ly/3jOjCKl
Doing It At Home book on Amazon: https://amzn.to/3vJcPmU
DIAH Website: https://www.diahpodcast.com/
DIAH Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/doingitathome/
DIAH YouTube: https://bit.ly/3pzuzQC
DIAH Merch: www.diahpodcast.com/merch
Give Back to DIAH: https://bit.ly/3qgm4r9

475: 23 Years After Home Birth with Mimi Adeogba (DIAH Classic) Feb 28, 2024

Show notes

Why home birth?

That’s typically a question we ask every guest in some form or another. For today’s guest, the response circled around family and culture. Because when you were born at home and your father helped deliver you and all your siblings, as was custom in his home in Nigeria, it will probably influence you to explore home birth for yourself when the time comes.

Our latest DIAH mama is actually a close friend (a first for the show!). Mimi Adeogba, yoga instructor and yoga teacher trainer and all around amazing human being, joins us to retell the home birth story of her son Adeyemi from 23 years ago. And it’s amazing how decades can pass, and yet the memory of a birth can stick so strongly. The way Mimi tells the story, you would think it was yesterday.

Beyond getting to have a powerful conversation with someone whom we love dearly, we greatly appreciate the perspective that Mimi brings to the DIAH community. Mimi was a 21-year-old PhD student at Baylor University when she found out she was pregnant. Her baby’s father chose not to be a part of the picture. So in the midst of fearing being alone, Mimi gained strength in the team she gathered around her to support her - namely her mother and a trusted licensed nurse-midwife. Her storytelling and heart behind it are compelling and endearing. Trust us, this is an episode you do not want to miss. Thank you, Mimi. We love you!

Links From The Episode:

Mimi’s website - http://www.yoginimimi.com/

Offers From Our Awesome Partners:

Needed: https://bit.ly/2DuMBxP - use code DIAH to get 20% off your order
Splash Blanket: https://bit.ly/3JPe1g0 - use code DIAH for 10% off your order
Esembly: https://bit.ly/3eanCSz - use code DIH20 to get 20% off your order

More From Doing It At Home:

Send us your birth story: https://bit.ly/3jOjCKl
Doing It At Home book on Amazon: https://amzn.to/3vJcPmU
DIAH Website: https://www.diahpodcast.com/
DIAH Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/doingitathome/
DIAH YouTube: https://bit.ly/3pzuzQC
DIAH Merch: www.diahpodcast.com/merch
Give Back to DIAH: https://bit.ly/3qgm4r9

474: A Secret Home Birth and Postpartum PTSD from Hospital Trauma with Stephanie Aberlich (DIAH Classic) Feb 20, 2024

Show notes

Have you experienced postpartum PTSD?

Today we’re talking with Stephanie Aberlich, not only about her home birth of her son Arlo (which she and her husband Dustin planned for and kept a secret from friends and family), but also the traumatic ER visit and hospital stay for baby Arlo just 24 hours after he was born and was experiencing fast breathing.

Doctors later diagnosed him with polycythemia and kept him in the PICU and then the NICU for a total of 5 nights and 4 days. Stephanie talks about their experience, including all the procedures that Arlo underwent as well as the treatment and care from the hospital staff (particularly around their decision to home birth) and how she’s processed since the event.

Stephanie is beautifully open about the whole thing and shares with a reliability and vulnerability that we know will touch other families who have experienced something similar, as well as inform others who have not.

Offers From Our Awesome Partners:

Needed: https://bit.ly/2DuMBxP - use code DIAH to get 20% off your order
Splash Blanket: https://bit.ly/3JPe1g0 - use code DIAH for 10% off your order
Esembly: https://bit.ly/3eanCSz - use code DIH20 to get 20% off your order

More From Doing It At Home:

Send us your birth story: https://bit.ly/3jOjCKl
Doing It At Home book on Amazon: https://amzn.to/3vJcPmU
DIAH Website: https://www.diahpodcast.com/
DIAH Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/doingitathome/
DIAH YouTube: https://bit.ly/3pzuzQC
DIAH Merch: www.diahpodcast.com/merch
Give Back to DIAH: https://bit.ly/3qgm4r9

473: Trusting Baby and Staying Empowered During a Postpartum Hospital Transfer with Lauren Leduc (DIAH Classic) Feb 14, 2024

Show notes

What does it mean to become a student of birth?

For Lauren Leduc, that was the role she took on when she planned for her home birth.

“I took on pregnancy and birth like it was my major in college!”

Who else can relate to that? Lauren shares her birth story of her daughter Gemma. Unsure at first if she wanted to have children, things shifted for Lauren after she turned 35. Eventually she and her husband Arthur made plans to grow the family.

Lauren walks us through some of the challenges that popped up along the way during the pregnancy, the magical birth experience and then the unplanned transfer to the hospital after birth because of complications with the placenta.

One of the big takeaways from this episode is to use your resources and go with your intuition.

Things we talk about in this episode: subchorionic haematoma, progesterone, velamentous cord insertion, postpartum hospital transfer, fetal ejection reflex, D&C

Links From The Episode:

Lauren’s website: www.Thrivewithlauren.com
Lauren’s yoga studio: www.trueloveyogakc.com
Lauren’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thrivewithlaurenleduc/
Sacred Song Home Birth: http://sacredsonghomebirth.com/

Offers From Our Awesome Partners:

Needed: https://bit.ly/2DuMBxP - use code DIAH to get 20% off your order
Splash Blanket: https://bit.ly/3JPe1g0 - use code DIAH for 10% off your order
Esembly: https://bit.ly/3eanCSz - use code DIH20 to get 20% off your order

More From Doing It At Home:

Send us your birth story: https://bit.ly/3jOjCKl
Doing It At Home book on Amazon: https://amzn.to/3vJcPmU
DIAH Website: https://www.diahpodcast.com/
DIAH Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/doingitathome/
DIAH YouTube: https://bit.ly/3pzuzQC
DIAH Merch: www.diahpodcast.com/merch
Give Back to DIAH: https://bit.ly/3qgm4r9

472: A Home Birth Story and A Birth Center Story with Maria Mengel (DIAH Classic) Feb 07, 2024

Show notes

Here we have another magical home birth story for you. Maria reached out to us after listening to the show and felt inspired to share her experience of home birth.

We love stories like these - full of candor, vulnerability and humor. Maria has the experience and perspective of giving birth in a birthing center as well as at home, so we were really excited to sit down and pick her brain about it all.

We learn about the birthing center experience and why Maria was certain on the drive home with her new daughter that she’d never do it like that again. We also hear about the process of home birth, and what can happen when your waters break and you don’t go into labor that day...or even the next day!

Birth was such a transformational experience for Maria that it ignited a passion that would shift her career. She became a doula and now owns a business dedicated to birth work which includes placenta encapsulation and childbirth education.

Links From The Episode:

Maria’s website ThriveBirth.org - http://www.thrivebirth.org/
Hypnobabies - https://www.hypnobabies.com/

Offers From Our Awesome Partners:

Needed: https://bit.ly/2DuMBxP - use code DIAH to get 20% off your order
Splash Blanket: https://bit.ly/3JPe1g0 - use code DIAH for 10% off your order
Esembly: https://bit.ly/3eanCSz - use code DIH20 to get 20% off your order

More From Doing It At Home:

Send us your birth story: https://bit.ly/3jOjCKl
Doing It At Home book on Amazon: https://amzn.to/3vJcPmU
DIAH Website: https://www.diahpodcast.com/
DIAH Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/doingitathome/
DIAH YouTube: https://bit.ly/3pzuzQC
DIAH Merch: www.diahpodcast.com/merch
Give Back to DIAH: https://bit.ly/3qgm4r9

471: Mum of 16 Plus Creating Your Home Birth Plan (DIAH Classic) Jan 30, 2024

Show notes

How should you approach your home birth plan?

In today’s episode Sarah reads listener emails and talks about creating a home birth plan.

Offers From Our Awesome Partners:

Needed: https://bit.ly/2DuMBxP - use code DIAH to get 20% off your order
Splash Blanket: https://bit.ly/3JPe1g0 - use code DIAH for 10% off your order
Esembly: https://bit.ly/3eanCSz - use code DIH20 to get 20% off your order

More From Doing It At Home:

Send us your birth story: https://bit.ly/3jOjCKl
Doing It At Home book on Amazon: https://amzn.to/3vJcPmU
DIAH Website: https://www.diahpodcast.com/
DIAH Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/doingitathome/
DIAH YouTube: https://bit.ly/3pzuzQC
DIAH Merch: www.diahpodcast.com/merch
Give Back to DIAH: https://bit.ly/3qgm4r9

470: First Time Mother and Labor and Delivery Nurse on the Safety of Home Birth with Corrie Oyinloye (DIAH Classic) Jan 23, 2024

Show notes

Why would a labor and delivery nurse choose home birth?

There are quite a few reasons, at least for today’s guest Corrie Oyinloye. Corrie has been a labor and delivery nurse for 10 years. And two years ago, she chose home birth for the birth of her daughter, Rachel.

While working in the hospital, Corrie saw how midwives’ rights were being taken away. She also did her own research and found home birth to be safer for mothers, and just as safe for babies. That in combination with her feelings around delivering in a hospital, given all she knew and had seen in the hospital setting. The fact is that many hospital birth workers suffer from PTSD from the trauma they’ve witnessed. Some of this hospital-induced anxiety moved Corrie towards exploring home birth for herself.

Corrie’s story also includes creating the space for her husband Gabe to feel confident in the decision, a move to a different state, prodromal labor, a cervical lip, occipito posterior position of baby and a double nuchal cord.

Offers From Our Awesome Partners:

Needed: https://bit.ly/2DuMBxP - use code DIAH to get 20% off your order
Splash Blanket: https://bit.ly/3JPe1g0 - use code DIAH for 10% off your order
Esembly: https://bit.ly/3eanCSz - use code DIH20 to get 20% off your order

More From Doing It At Home:

Send us your birth story: https://bit.ly/3jOjCKl
Doing It At Home book on Amazon: https://amzn.to/3vJcPmU
DIAH Website: https://www.diahpodcast.com/
DIAH Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/doingitathome/
DIAH YouTube: https://bit.ly/3pzuzQC
DIAH Merch: www.diahpodcast.com/merch

Give Back to DIAH: https://bit.ly/3qgm4r9

469: Hyperemesis Gravidarum, Membrane Sweeps and En Caul Birth with Melanie Meador (DIAH Classic) Jan 16, 2024

Show notes

How do we move through the discomforts of pregnancy and birth?

This comes up in today’s interview with Melanie Meador. Melanie shares her journey with both of her home birth experiences.

Melanie had hyperemesis gravidarum with both pregnancies (extreme and persistent nausea during pregnancy, often with frequent vomiting).

With her first birth experience, she was feeling a little rushed going into the process, because her midwifery practice was going to close 3 days after her due date. Plus she was working full-time. The birth lasted 34 hours with her waters broken. This is a stark contrast from her second birth, 6 hours and baby was born en caul (waters still intact).

Melanie is the only person in her group of friends to have had a home birth. And with her mother and almost all of her aunts having cesarean births, this was something unique. Melanie says, “My mom was so excited to be at the birth of my son that she told anyone that would listen for the first 2 years!”

This birth story includes: hyperemesis gravidarum, doula, acupuncture, TENs machine, membrane stripping, en caul, cervical lip, and red raspberry leaf tea.

Offers From Our Awesome Partners:

Needed: https://bit.ly/2DuMBxP - use code DIAH to get 20% off your order
Splash Blanket: https://bit.ly/3JPe1g0 - use code DIAH for 10% off your order
Esembly: https://bit.ly/3eanCSz - use code DIH20 to get 20% off your order

More From Doing It At Home:

Send us your birth story: https://bit.ly/3jOjCKl
Doing It At Home book on Amazon: https://amzn.to/3vJcPmU
DIAH Website: https://www.diahpodcast.com/
DIAH Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/doingitathome/
DIAH YouTube: https://bit.ly/3pzuzQC
DIAH Merch: www.diahpodcast.com/merch
Give Back to DIAH: https://bit.ly/3qgm4r9

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