Down to Birth

Episodios

• #369 | May Q&A: Postpartum Hemorrhage, RhoGAM, Family Boundaries, Induction, and Placenta Previa 27.05.2026 51m

  Happy Spring! And welcome to the May Q&A! We start with a listener email we loved, followed by a discussion on creativity and why it matters, especially in the early years of motherhood when it can feel completely out of reach. Then we get into your questions. We talk about postpartum hemorrhage and how it’s defined, including whether 500 cc of blood loss is truly cause for concern, and the use of Pitocin and Cytotec in that context, particularly for VBAC mothers. We also revisit RhoGAM a...
• #368 | Kristina's Vaginal Breech Birth at the Eleventh Hour 20.05.2026 43m

  In today's episode, Kristina shares her breech birth story following a long journey marked by cycle irregularities, miscarriage, and difficulty conceiving. At 40 weeks, she learned that her baby was breech and was scheduled for a C-section, despite having been told throughout pregnancy that the baby was head down. Unwilling to move forward with surgery, Kristina sought out an alternative and ultimately found a physician in Connecticut willing to support a hospital-based vaginal breech birth. ...
• #367 | Your VBAC Questions Answered by The First Woman to Have One, Nancy Wainer 13.05.2026 52m

  In today’s episode, Cynthia and Trisha are joined once again by Nancy Wainer, award-winning author, longtime home birth midwife, and the woman who coined the term VBAC in her 1980s book Silent Knife. With decades of experience supporting women through vaginal birth after cesarean, Nancy brings clarity to a conversation that is shaped by fear, false information, and shifting medical standards. This episode is part free-flowing conversation and part Q&A, where we take listener questions and...
• #366 | Full-Term Stillbirth at 39 Weeks: Penelope's Story 06.05.2026 1h 10m

  In today's episode, we speak with Stephanie about her stillborn daughter, Penelope, who arrived at 39 weeks and 6 days. After two healthy births and a completely uneventful third pregnancy, Stephanie found herself facing the unthinkable: an awareness of no fetal movement, confirmed by a silent Doppler and finally a hospital ultrasound. What followed was labor induction, birth, and the impossibility of leaving the hospital without her baby, riding home with her innocently cheerful toddlers in ...
• #365 | April Q&A: Best Age to Have Children, Precipitous Labor, Pushing and Tearing, Pregnancy Weight Gain, Water Birth Myths 29.04.2026 53m

  Welcome to the April Q&A with Cynthia and Trisha! Today, we begin with a conversation about one of the most personal questions women face: is there a best age to have children? We talk about the pressures around timing, fertility, career, and spacing, and why this is one of those decisions that depends entirely on the individual woman, her life, and what feels right to her. Next, we get into your questions, starting with a mother who experienced a very fast labor and wants to know if prec...
• #364 | When Co-Sleeping Gets Complicated: Weaning, Toddlers, and Sleep Transitions with Tiffany Belanger 22.04.2026 46m

  Today, we talk with Tiffany Belanger of @cosleepy about some of the challenges that may arise for co-sleeping families, whether you're trying to reduce night feeds, prepare for another baby, or simply want your bed back. We discuss how these transitions often unfold, including moving a child into a crib or floor bed, and why the experience can look completely different from one family to the next, depending on lifestyle, a child’s temperament, and the parents' mental and emotional states, lik...
• #363 | Breastfeeding Q&A: Chemical Pregnancy, Night Weaning, Oversupply, Mild Tongue Ties 15.04.2026 48m

  We are back with another breastfeeding-only Q&A episode. In today's conversation, we respond to several listener questions related to nursing, sleep, and fertility after breastfeeding. One mother who is co-sleeping with her 15-month-old, who wakes three to five times per night to nurse, asks how she can help her toddler sleep longer stretches without abruptly stopping breastfeeding. Another listener with a 4.5-month-old who has never taken a bottle is planning to attend a bachelorette par...
• #362 | Birth Trauma to Redemptive Birth: Holly's Birth and Breastfeeding Stories 08.04.2026 48m

  In today's episode, one of Trisha's clients, Holly, shares the story of two very different births and two equally different breastfeeding experiences, and what shifted between them. Her first labor began spontaneously but ended with a vacuum delivery, and the demoralizing message that her “pushes weren’t productive.” Breastfeeding was just as difficult, leading to a year of mostly exclusive pumping and undiagnosed postpartum anxiety. Four years later, she approached birth with rea...
• #361 | Is Water Birth Dangerous? Barbara Harper Debunks Fallacies 01.04.2026 1h 8m

  Water birth has long been controversial, but more recently, a wave of claims has emerged from the natural birth community that water birth is dangerous for babies and disruptive to the physiologic process of birth. In this episode, we sit down with midwife Barbara Harper, the world's leading expert on water birth and founder of Waterbirth International, to explain the preponderance of evidence supporting the safety of water birth and to dispel circulating fallacies. We talk about the idea tha...
• #360 | March Q&A: Wild Pregnancy Comments, Tipsy Family Member at Home Birth, Repeat Shoulder Dystocia, Pregnancy Irritability and More 25.03.2026 53m

  Welcome to the March Q&A! We begin today’s episode with a conversation about the strange, intrusive, and sometimes downright insulting comments women receive in public while pregnant. We also share a listener story about a home birth that took an unexpected turn when a woman’s mother, meant to support her during labor, ended up creating some chaos after drinking too much wine. Next, we address feeling unusually irritable toward an older child during pregnancy, what to consider after exper...
• #359 | When VBAC Comes with Medical Assault: Abby's Birth Story 18.03.2026 48m

  In this episode, Abby shares her VBAC birth story following an emergency cesarean. Determined to experience a vaginal birth, she prepared carefully while navigating limited provider options in Alabama. What unfolded during labor and delivery underscores how provider behavior, rather than maternal physiology, often determines birth outcomes. Abby describes how a manual vaginal extraction caused a nearly catastrophic fourth-degree tear, requiring three subsequent surgeries in the months that fo...
• #358 | Dr. Sarah J. Buckley on Oxytocin, Safety, and the Biology of Birth 11.03.2026 1h 1m

  When Trisha was pregnant with her second baby, she read Gentle Birth, Gentle Mothering — a book that completely reframed how she understood labor, and to this day remains her favorite book on pregnancy. Trisha's second birth unfolded in just three hours, a stark contrast to her first. That book was written by Dr. Sarah J. Buckley, and we've long dreamed of getting her on the show. That day has finally come! Dr. Buckley is a New Zealand–trained family physician and leading researcher on the ho...
• #357 | Back to Basics: Birth Planning 2.0 04.03.2026 1h 12m

  Six seasons later, we are revisiting one of our first episodes of this podcast: Using evidence-based care to plan your birth. Much of what happens in labor is presented as standard, routine, or unavoidable—but that doesn’t mean it’s evidence-based. Birth care hasn’t become more complex because women need more intervention. It’s become more complex because intervention has become the default. If you’ve ever wondered whether what’s happening in labor is truly backed by research—or simply ...
• #356 | February Q&A: Tearing vs. Episiotomy, Decels, Posterior Babies, Pitocin, Premature Rupture of Membranes, High Palates, Oversupply 25.02.2026 59m

  Welcome to the February Q&A! We begin with a brief reflection on a mother's need to find time for play (not with her children but for herself) and creativity during early parenthood, before diving into your questions. Today’s episode addresses a common pattern in maternity care: past birth experiences being used by providers to justify predetermined interventions in subsequent pregnancies. One listener asked, do women need to get out of the tub for fetal heart rate decels, and is th...
• #355 | First Birth as a Teen, Next as a Woman: Samantha's Blissful Experience Even with Induction 18.02.2026 43m

  In today's episode, mother of two, Samantha Collignon, joins us to share two very different birth experiences separated by thirteen years. She gave birth to her first baby at 18 with minimal support and limited understanding of her options. At 31, married and deeply informed, she approached birth with education, confidence, and a strong sense of autonomy, resulting in a profoundly different and blissful birth experience. Samantha reflects on how age and life stage shaped the way she was perce...
• #354 | From Trauma to Trust: Moran's (@2lifedoula) Journey to Birth Work and Motherhood 11.02.2026 56m

  In this episode, we talk to Moran of @2lifedoula, a doula whose journey into birth work was born from her own harrowing transition into motherhood. Moran candidly shares the story of her first birth—a clinical, disconnected experience where lack of preparation and resurfaced childhood trauma led to a "full-blown panic attack" and postpartum depression. Knowing that wasn't how birth was meant to be, Moran transformed her approach for her subsequent birth, ultimately having a euphoric, spontane...
• #353 | No Stitches Required: Preventing & Healing Perineal Tears in Birth 04.02.2026 45m

  Tearing is one of the most common fears around birth—and one of the most misunderstood. In this episode, we talk about what really causes tearing, what the research shows, and what you can do to reduce your risk. We cover perineal massage, positions for birth, breathing and pacing, water birth, warm compresses, and what makes recovery smoother. Through the episode, we review our followers' real-life "tearing" stories, and provide our commentary, which includes labial tears, scar tissue, pelvi...
• #352 | January Q&A: Water Birth Myths, Breaking Waters, Cord Clamping in C-Sections, Fetal Monitoring, Wake Windows, Frozen Breastmilk 28.01.2026 1h 3m

  Welcome to our first monthly Q&A episode of Season 7! In today's episode, we discuss why C-sections are sometimes framed as “prevention,” how fear around tearing, fetal monitoring, or cord concerns impacts clinical decision-making, and why breaking the bag of waters is still routine practice despite clear risks and limited benefit. We explain what delayed cord clamping looks like during a cesarean and why vague language like “misplaced cord insertion” can unknowingly lead to unnecessary i...
• #351 | Inside A Difficult Breastfeeding Journey: Flat Nipples, Tongue Tie and Slow Weight Gain 21.01.2026 47m

  In this episode, Jessica shares the breastfeeding journey she never expected. After a smooth birth at a birth center, feeding quickly became complicated: flat nipples, an early nipple shield, a missed first feeding window, a significant tongue tie, and a baby who grew increasingly sleepy and underweight. What followed was weeks of pumping, weighted feeds, donor milk, tongue-tie revision, and the ongoing effort to understand why breastfeeding wasn’t working despite doing everything “right.” Je...
• #350 | Breastfeeding Q&A: Nursing Boundaries with Toddlers; Breast Milkshake; Strong Let-Downs; Fast Flow; Oversupply; Vasospasm 14.01.2026 34m

  In today’s breastfeeding Q&A, we take calls from mothers facing the challenges that often arise well beyond the newborn phase. We begin with a question about nursing an eighteen-month-old who lifts his mother’s shirt the moment she sits down, and what healthy boundaries can look like when a toddler is still deeply attached to nursing. From there, we address concerns about forceful letdowns, oversupply, pumping routines, and the role of pacifiers when feeding becomes overstimulating for th...