Birthful

9 Most Badass Birth Moments (From Adriana’s Doula Career)

Adriana celebrates a decade of podcasting by sharing some of the most badass moments she’s witnessed as a doula, including an unassisted waterbirth at the hospital, a uni

[Birth Stories] Triumphant Vaginal Birth of Twins Despite Preeclampsia and Triggering Interventions, with Michelle Rose

Michelle Rose describes her birth as that of her dreams, despite having a two-and-a-half-day-long induction for preeclampsia with a low platelet count, enduring a magnesi

[Birth Stories] Four Days After Her Water Broke and Still No Labor – Now What?!, with Sivan Dirks

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 le

[Birth Stories] Celebrating Our 10 Years With Adriana’s Birth Story!

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

[Birth Stories] Weaving Together Four Unmedicated Births to Reveal Her Authentic Self, with Ujarak Appadoo

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. S

[Birth Stories] A Scheduled Surgical Birth and a Home VBAC: Both Based on Her Intuition, with Jessica Pinney

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

[Birth Stories] Knowing All Was Well Despite Seven Hours of Pushing, with Tabitha DeLorio

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 Adri

[Birth Stories] Getting Baby to Flip From Breech With an ECV for a Flowing Vaginal Birth, with Kaitlin Moore

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

[Birth Stories] Fast Homebirths and Liminal Spaces With a Pregnant Funeral Director, with Anna Walsh

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 sh

[Birth Stories] Creating a Beautiful Birth Experience Despite 5 Days of Interventions, with Olivia Styons

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 pivo

[Birth Stories] An Intentionally Unassisted Birth After Three Hospital Births, with Kemeera Nimahat

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 tuni

[Birth Stories] Can You Even Prepare for Baby Hiccupping While Crowning?!, with Danielle Fetty-Lovell

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

[Birth Stories] An Unexpectedly Unassisted Blissful Breech Birth, with Toni Shama

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

[Birth Stories] When Place-Of-Birth Policies Keep You Thinking Instead of Birthing, with Emily Salahuddin

Emily Salahuddin set out to have an unmedicated birth at a birth center, but trying to remain within the risk boundaries of that facility turned into an all-consuming min

[Birth Stories] Two Non-Epidural Inductions: With and Without the Fetal Ejection Reflex, with Meredith Finch

Given that Pitocin contractions can be so intense, most people who have inductions also tend to have epidurals – but not Meredith Finch! Listen as she shares with Adriana

[Birth Stories] From Traumatic Cesarean to Healing (and Fast!) VBAC, with Morgan Moy

What’s more stressful: a panic attack right before a surgical birth that takes your breath away and leaves you with memory gaps, or your baby’s shoulders getting stuck on

Connecting with Your Baby in Utero through Song, with Penny Simkin

Figuring out a newborn’s needs can be tricky, and sometimes a baby will cry no matter what you do. Wouldn’t it be great to have a tool to help you automatically soothe yo

[Birth Stories] How Birth Took Her to Her Edge When She Least Expected It, with Vanessa Janek

A former labor and delivery nurse and childbirth educator, Vanessa Janek thought she knew what to expect from birth. Going into it, she was a bit leery of transition… but

Insider Tips From a Labor and Delivery Nurse, with Mandy Irby

Even though you may not have met them before, labor and delivery nurses are an essential part of your hospital birth team. In this episode, Registered L&D Nurse Mandy Irb

[Birth Stories] When the Curveballs Come Before and After the Birth, with Mandy Alexander

Mandy Alexander got pregnant at 40, having had bariatric surgery 7 years before that. During what she describes as her ‘bariatric-geriatric’ pregnancy, she worked through