The Birth Heard 'Round the World
Show Notes:
We're celebrating our 200th Episode for My Essential Birth! 🎉 To celebrate, Stephanie King, the host of the Pregnancy & Birth Made Easy Podcast and creator of the My Essential Birth Course AND My Essential Postpartum Course, will be sharing her birth stories (one Cesarean, one VBAC, and one home birth!) and how it impacted her to become a doula! You won't want to miss this celebration episode!
"When it was time to have my third baby, we were moving from overseas back to the States, and the area in which we were moving had one hospital. When I called and said, Hey, this is my experience and I'm ready for another VBAC, they said, 'Nope, plan for another cesarean. We don't care that you've had a VBAC.' And I was like, no, no, no, no. I have worked too hard, too long. I know the risks and the benefits of what I am trying to do. Like that's not happening."
[1:28] - It's HERE! The My Essential Birth Postpartum Course is HERE! Whether you're pregnant, just got baby home, or weeks and months into postpartum, this is the course for you. No more wondering what's normal for your body postpartum. If baby's eating or pooping enough, or how to get a good latch, you now have an all-in-one resource where you can click a topic and get the answer. Learn more at myessentialbirth.com/postpartum. And add it onto the My Essential Birth course for even less when you bundle them at checkout already in the course. Check your student library and add the course for the same discount. I can't wait to support you on your postpartum journey! 💜
[2:13] - Our reviewer of the week is Kristen Thomas, and she said: "Get ready to feel empowered and confident about your birth experience. Hey Stephanie! My name is Kristen, and I am so thankful for your podcast. As soon as I was a day late for my period, I knew I was pregnant and the first thing I did was try to find a podcast that fit what kind of birth experience I knew I wanted to have. I am so grateful that I found this so early in my very first pregnancy. I binged listened from the very first episode all the way to the most current episode. Started at four weeks pregnant and now I am 17 weeks. That is a lot of episodes and I feel so empowered, knowledgeable, and confident to have a natural unmedicated birth that I have always dreamt about. I knew I wanted this kind of birth experience before we even started trying, so I had my husband on board before we were even pregnant. Thank you for filling us with so much knowledge and helping us feel confident in all the choices we are making leading up to welcoming our first baby into our lives. I would love to come on and share my birth experience after baby comes in late November."
Kristen, this is awesome. Thank you for your review. Thanks for being with me and for following along. I hope that you are putting all of these tips, tricks, information to practical use so that you are totally prepped for this birth coming up. 🙌🏼
[3:43] Welcome to the 200th episode of the Pregnancy and Birth Made Easy podcast! Stephanie talks about how grateful she is to have achieved this milestone. She had a difficult birth 15 years ago physically and mentally, but she also has had two successful VBAC births (one in a hospital and one at home). She realized the importance of sharing all three of her births and thinking "If I can do this, anyone can." She started telling her story to anyone and everyone that would listen and literally, this birth story has been heard around the world now. We have over 1.6 million downloads for this podcast that continues to grow every day as you guys continue to share it with your friends or leave a review.
[6:41] Stephanie walks us through her first pregnancy experience. She realized around 36 weeks into her pregnancy that she needed to start preparing, and after doing some research and reading books, she realized what kind of birth she wanted. She took birth classes in the hospital, which she felt were useless and did not prepare her at all, and she tried to meet with a childbirth educator, but they were either full or too expensive. She felt like she could do it on her own and wing it. However, looking back, she sees that there were a lot of red flags with her provider. She walks us through her labor experience and how had she been knowledgeable about what was happening to her body, she could have prevented a lot of the interventions done by the hospital. Her birth ended in a Cesarean. However, it became the catalyst for figuring out what she could do different the next time.
[12:01] Stephanie takes us through her second birth story. This time around, she wanted to be as prepared as possible since she was attempting a VBAC. She and her little family were overseas at the time of her second birth. After dealing with prodromal labor and trying to just relax, Stephanie chose to get the epidural. She was still able to have a VBAC and hold her baby immediately after birth. She felt like she was on Cloud 9!
[13:51] - Her last birth experience came while she and her family were moving back to the States after being overseas. She called the hospital where they were going to be stationed and was told that even though she had a successful VBAC that she should plan to have a Cesarean. Stephanie knew that was not an option for her. She hired a midwife and made the decision to give birth at home. She also got a doula and her husband involved in the process. She talks about the incredibly spiritual aspect of her birth and how it impacted her birth.
[18:30] Shortly after her third birth experience, she became a doula and childbirth educator. She wanted everyone to experience what she had! She started taking courses for midwifery school but she realized that her babies needed her at home so she paused completing her midwifery certification. Around that time Cortney reached out to her and asked if she wanted to create an online birth course. They completed the course, but they did not have a huge line out the door waiting to buy the course. They needed to market it better.
[19:15] They decided to start the podcast in July 2019 and the episode title was "Why Your Hospital Birth Class Probably Sucks." Stephanie shares about the early days of the podcast and all the lessons she and Cortney learned (including blankets over their heads to get the audio just right.)
[22:49] Stephanie shares about the financial toll the birth course and podcasting was taking on her and her family.
[25:06] We hear about how Stephanie took on 2020 with her family and was present at her sister's birth at home. She had 6 weeks of prodromal labor, and Stephanie and her family lived with her during that time so she could be there to help her sister. She walks us through the past few years and the updates and transitions her family has experienced.
[29:30] Thank you note from Stephanie:
Just with everything that's happened these last years, I just wanna say thank you for those of you that have kind of followed along and buoyed me up along the way. Maybe you didn't know that you were doing that. I know I've shared with you a couple of you who have DM'd me at just these perfect times that I will just say something like, "You have no idea how much I needed this today. And that is absolutely true. I feel like right when I'm having those really rough times when I am in tears over the last weeks, months, and years. Just praying even about My Essential Birth. Should I keep doing this? Is this what my kids need? Is this what my family needs? Am I serving women? Is this, you know, is it actually necessary work that I should be doing in my life at this time for other people? I'll get a message saying something from one of you that's like "What you're doing is so important and I'm so grateful that God put you here and you're standing in your purpose!" You have no idea what that does when I'm feeling my lowest. This has been such a blessing for me. I am who I am because of this, because of My Essential Birth, because of this podcast, because of the birth course, because of all of you. I have the blessing of being able to stay home with my kids and work from home and get to talk to all of you. I'm grateful for those small ways where I get to be just a tiny bit a part of your birth experience.
[31:41] Thank you to friends, family, and the MEB team!
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ALL the best,
Links Mentioned:
- My Essential Birth Postpartum Course
- 3 Free Exercises
- Episode 1: "Why Your Hospital Birth Class Probably Sucks"
