My dear friend and fellow birth worker Raina and I went deep diving on this episode. Through all the loss she has seen in her life, we explore some tear-jerking emotional experiences first and how those played a hand in her becoming a woman, a mother, and the birth worker that she is today. We talk on how birth attending is a fellowship, the differences in what we offer as traditional attendants as opposed to what the medical model of midwifery offers and how advocacy has been lost in the field of birth workers. We touch on connection with our clients, cause for transfer and how we’ve held space for clients that would have been transferred with literally anyone else sitting at their feet, and yet.. we stayed home. She shared intimately about the births that have made a profound impact on her this year, as well as her own personal birth stories and where she found her calling and her self through her own birthing experiences. We rattle on for hours, affirming what we know to be true, but that others have not yet discovered in this wonderful work we do and how it’s so important to have birth buddies who understand. I am just so thankful that she is in fact one of my birth buddies. I hope you enjoy our friendly banter here.

Our longest episode to date… for good reason! Here we are going to talk about why authentic birth workers that show up to walk and sit with women in the true sense of the original meaning are worth their weight in gold. We discuss recent births that have taken a toll on us, what makes it worth it, what behind the scenes hardships and tedious tasks that our clients don’t even know that we deal with, how hard the birth community is and what weight we carry that goes unseen, including motherhood in the midst of mothering women. This is a lengthy but trail mix crunchy of an episode that is sure to hit a ton of points that many can relate with, or need to know before jumping into autonomous birth work.

Ashley is a wonderful student of ours, whom went on to birth her fifth baby FREELY! She talks about the variation in her baby’s head, handling dystocia in her freebirth, and how it differed from her previous hospital and midwifery led experiences. Such a good, insightful and informative share.