Doing It At Home - The Home Birth Podcast

Latest Episodes:

023: Home Birth and Pregnancy Affirmations for Moms and Dads Jan 23, 2017

Show notes

In this episode we're giving you some powerful affirmations to help you prepare for your pregnancy and home birth. We have 2 affirmations for moms and 2 for dads.

We’ve talked a lot about affirmations on the show at different points in time - a little bit in our story and then in the stories of other moms, so we thought we’d create some of our own for you beautiful listeners!

I thought it would be fun to have some for both pregnancy and the birthing process. And not just for mamas - for the dads too!

This episode is a little shorter, but all the more sweeter. We both share our affirmations and a little bit on why we chose them and how they can contribute to a powerful and peaceful mindset and experience of your home birth.

We hope these affirmations serve you well or even inspire you to come up with your own!

Here are the affirmations for you to copy and use or share with others:

For Pregnancy

Sarah: I am fully connected to my body and my baby’s needs

Matthew: I anticipate our upcoming birth with joy and peace in my heart. It will unfold exactly as it should.

For Birth

Sarah: I am powerful, peaceful and fully supported as I give birth.

Matthew: I am strong. I am capable. I am intuitive. I am compassionate. I am patient. I am a parent.

Links

The blog post Matthew drew inspiration for his affirmations from: Birth Affirmations for Expectant Dads and Partners
“Doing It At Home” book on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B098GVJ9KL?ref_=pe_3052080_397514860
Our website: https://www.diahpodcast.com/
Home Birth Support Group: https://bit.ly/3jKtIYv
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/doingitathome/
DIAH YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCGoKeBfEZ143sWU7V9I5Gdg
DIAH Store: https://yoursuccessfulhomebirth.com/
DIAH Merch: https://bit.ly/3qhwgAe
Donate to DIAH: https://bit.ly/3qgm4r9

022: HOME BIRTH STORY - Finding Your Home Birth Midwives and Releasing Fear with Marissa Olivera Jan 20, 2017

Show notes

In today's episode we're talking with Marissa Olivera, a mom of 2 from Utica, NY, with both a hospital birth story and home birth story.

Marissa experienced intrauterine growth restriction (IUGR) with her first pregnancy. That, along with some early signs of labor made for a hospital birth that included a lot of intervention and fear. The way she sees it, baby Maxwell just wasn’t ready yet.

She planned for a home birth again with baby number two, Miles. With positive reinforcement from resources like Ina May Gaskin and Birth Without Fear, Marissa went into her second birth tuned in to her intuition and gut feeling (and we’re not just talking about the contractions!).

Marissa’s candor and detail with her birth stories compels you to listen and engage. She’s a great example of how to plan the birth you’re intending to create - like finding midwives even when you’re far away from a big city with more options.

We even get a little cameo from surprise guest Maxwell!

Here are links to the things mentioned in today's episode:

Marissa’s blogpost on her home birth
Birth Without Fear
Ina May Gaskin
“Doing It At Home” book on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B098GVJ9KL?ref_=pe_3052080_397514860
Our website: https://www.diahpodcast.com/
Home Birth Support Group: https://bit.ly/3jKtIYv
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/doingitathome/
DIAH YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCGoKeBfEZ143sWU7V9I5Gdg
DIAH Store: https://yoursuccessfulhomebirth.com/
DIAH Merch: https://bit.ly/3qhwgAe
Donate to DIAH: https://bit.ly/3qgm4r9

021: 9 Questions To Ask Yourself When Considering A Home Birth Jan 16, 2017

Show notes

In today's episode we're giving you nine questions to ask yourself to decide whether home birth might be an option for you and your family.

This podcast is all about providing resources, stories and empowering around the home birth conversation. We personally chose homebirth to welcome our daughter into the world, but we realize that home birth is not the best option for some families. There are so many factors to take into consideration when making your birth plans. Our number one priority with this show is to help you ask the questions, have access to the resources, and find the information to help you make the best decision for you.

This episode was inspired by an article on Fit Pregnancy called "3 Questions To Ask Yourself Before Giving Birth At Home". I read that article and immediately felt there were more things to ask, and felt inspired to record this episode.

These are the 9 questions covered in today's podcast:

How is your health: physically, emotionally, spiritually, etc.?
What’s the most important thing for you to experience during birth? (is home birth a way to have this happen)
Who would you be working with? Midwife, doula, etc.
What does your partner, husband, etc think?
Are you prepared to go “no drugs”?
Costs - insurance vs. out of pocket
What’s the backup plan?
What are your fears around birth?
How much do you trust your body and the process?

Links:

“Doing It At Home” book on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B098GVJ9KL?ref_=pe_3052080_397514860
Our website: https://www.diahpodcast.com/
Home Birth Support Group: https://bit.ly/3jKtIYv
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/doingitathome/
DIAH YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCGoKeBfEZ143sWU7V9I5Gdg
DIAH Store: https://yoursuccessfulhomebirth.com/
DIAH Merch: https://bit.ly/3qhwgAe
Donate to DIAH: https://bit.ly/3qgm4r9

020: HOME BIRTH STORY - Birth Center Transfer and Planning A Home Birth with Lindsay Bonnar Jan 12, 2017

Show notes

In today's episode we talk to mom Lindsay Bonnar about her home birth story. Lindsay planned a home birth for her first baby, but circumstances required a transfer to a birth center. Now pregnant with her second, Lindsay and her husband are planning a home birth again for the second round.

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This episode is an interview and home birth story of Lindsay Bonnar. Lindsay is another beautiful face of home birth, sharing her plans for home birth with her daughter that eventually shifted into a transfer to a birthing center.

Now pregnant with baby number two, Lindsay is planning another home birth, a decision that we are totally inspired by and know others will be as well.

For Lindsay, birth was the most spiritual experience of her life. And she talks about trusting herself and her body in such a way - it’s an amazing example to women everywhere to empower themselves to choose in alignment with what’s best for them.

Another aspect of Lindsay’s story that really resonated with me and Matthew was the role of her husband Kevin and how awesomely he showed up for the birth experience. Dads and birth partners, take notes from this one!

You can learn more about Lindsay and the resources mentioned in the show below.

Links:

Lindsay’s blog post on her birth story - https://feedingyourgenes.com/2014/05/26/84/
Birthfit - http://www.birthfit.com/
“Doing It At Home” book on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B098GVJ9KL?ref_=pe_3052080_397514860
Our website: https://www.diahpodcast.com/
Home Birth Support Group: https://bit.ly/3jKtIYv
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/doingitathome/
DIAH YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCGoKeBfEZ143sWU7V9I5Gdg
DIAH Store: https://yoursuccessfulhomebirth.com/
DIAH Merch: https://bit.ly/3qhwgAe
Donate to DIAH: https://bit.ly/3qgm4r9

019: My Home Birth Postpartum Experience Jan 09, 2017

Show notes

In today’s episode I’m sharing my postpartum story. I get into the nitty gritty details of the very first postpartum stages after my home birth. I also talk about what I experienced with postnatal visits with my midwives, healing a perineal tear, breastfeeding, diastasis recti (aka ab separation), postpartum sex and more!

Hey all, Sarah here. In this episode I’m solo and talking all about my home birth postpartum experience.

I’m currently almost 4 months postpartum, and it’s been quite the journey for me. Postpartum is this fascinating transition stage of life - first off, you just launched a human being from your body! And for a first-time mom like me, not only are you learning what the heck this whole motherhood thing is about - you’re adjusting to the new normal of a seemingly endless cycle of feeding, diaper changing and “moments” of shut eye. You’re responsible for keeping a little creature alive, whilst trying to figure out why you’re leaking from every orifice, your organs are bouncing around and you’re starving all the time (or at least that was the case for me).

Postpartum could be its own series of episodes...nay, probably a whole podcast dedicated to it. For now, I take one episode to skim the surface of my experience and how it ties in with our home birth.

I talk about:

First stages of postpartum after home birthPostnatal visits with midwivesHealing a delivery tear (ouch!)Placenta pillsBreastfeeding and mastitisPostpartum sexDiastasis recti (aka ab separation) and post-baby weight lossAnd here are some links from some of the references I make in the show:

Stuff You Should Know Podcast episode on breastfeeding - http://www.stuffyoushouldknow.com/podcasts/breast-feeding.htm

You can sign up to be notified for the new version of the Balance Chart tool that I mention here - http://ydbg.launchrock.com/, if you are so excited and can’t wait and are interested in getting on the current version, you can email me at hello@diahpodcast.com and I can help you out.

Links:

“Doing It At Home” book on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B098GVJ9KL?ref_=pe_3052080_397514860
Our website: https://www.diahpodcast.com/
Home Birth Support Group: https://bit.ly/3jKtIYv
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/doingitathome/
DIAH YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCGoKeBfEZ143sWU7V9I5Gdg
DIAH Store: https://yoursuccessfulhomebirth.com/
DIAH Merch: https://bit.ly/3qhwgAe
Donate to DIAH: https://bit.ly/3qgm4r9

018: HOME BIRTH STORY - A Home Birth Story and A Birth Center Story with Maria Mengel Dec 28, 2016

Show notes

Today we're talking with Maria Mengel about her 2 birth stories. Maria's first daughter was born at a birthing center with a midwife, and her second was an unassisted home birth (also known as "freebirth"). In this episode Maria gets honest about her two birth experiences and shares some of the things she learned during the process.

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.

017: 6 Things You Don't Say To A Homebirth Mom Dec 07, 2016

Show notes

In today's episode we talk about 6 comments and questions that you absolutely don't want to say to a homebirth mom or family! We heard these things as we prepared for our home birth and can say from experience that they are not helpful at all.

Some things are better left unsaid, and that applies to commentary on someone’s decision to have a home birth.

In this episode we share 6 big statement/topics to avoid when you’re talking to a mom who’s planning a home birth. While they may be well-intentioned, these are the things that don’t help the process.

And if you are a home birth mom, we talk about ways to address these comments and how you can deflect them like Neo with those slow motion bullets in the Matrix.

Let’s leave the fear and judgement out of it. Because we all know birth could use less of that.

So steer away from these 6 things, please. And if you must comment then simply tell the mom how much of a badass she is! (that'll win you some brownie points)

016: Normalizing Birth And Empowering Families with CPM Debbie Schneider Dec 01, 2016

Show notes

Continuing our work to bring real and honest stories of home birth to you, we sat down with Debbie Schneider, CPM extraordinaire. Debbie is actually our midwife. She delivered Maya, and has become a very important part of our lives.

We’ve known we wanted to interview Debbie since we started the podcast. She’s an amazing and wise source of information and support of all things home birth.

Her story in becoming a midwife is an inspiring one, deciding to shift into her life’s passion at 44. Now 18 years later and some 700 births attended, Debbie talks about “normalizing birth again,” that is, putting it back in the hands of mothers and families to choose the birth plan that aligns best with them.

We could’ve talked with Debbie all day, but for the sake of time, we kept it to about an hour. And you won’t want to miss one minute of it. You’ll get some of the history of home birth, obstetrics’ attempts to “make birth more efficient,” and the differences in the experiences of home and the typical hospital birth.

Here are some of the resources Debbie mentions in the episode: