Looking for all the best freebies and downloads?!

Show Notes:

[1:35]  This week's episode is all about how to include people into your birth space as kind of your own personal doula. If you have your mom, sister, aunt, birth partner, friend, or other family member that you want in that birth space, send them this episode if they are planning to be there to assist you, and you want to give them a crash course.

[2:11] What are the benefits of having someone who can guide you through birth?

•  You will reduce your length of labor. When you have support people that know what they're doing and can be of support to you, your labor time is less.
•  Studies have shown to decrease the amount of pain that a mom experiences.
•  It is shown to boost confidence and improve the experience of labor, including how you feel when you look back on it, hopefully with joy.

[6:20] If you are a My Essential Birth mom, and you have somebody helping you out, they should definitely be watching the birth course. There are definitely very specific things ...

Show Notes:

[2:13] Our Reviewer of the Week is MurphyMLW: "So happy to have found this podcast! I found My Essential Birth at the end of my first trimester. We had hired a doula very early on and was so grateful to have the resources to be able to do so. However, being a military family I think My Essential Birth is awesome for anyone who may not have those resources readily available."

[3:57] Our guest, Grace, is a birth and postpartum doula in Canada. She became a doula about a year and a half ago. She supports families from home births to planned C-sections to epidurals. She does baby wearing education, childbirth education, and truly just found her passion!

[4:56] Grace got into doula work after hiring a doula for herself around 38 weeks pregnant. Her doula encouraged her to take some training and become a doula. She put herself out there and went from having one birth a month to being completely booked out!

[9:03] Grace's first birth experience was in a hospital setting wit...

It's true that we love telling you all of the ways to have an easier, more comfortable, confident, and empowered birth experience, but we decided to switch things up and get a little sarcastic so you can join us in some laughs while we give you all the top tips on what will cause more pain during labor.  Maybe you already know that being flat on your back and not having great support will leave you less than comfortable but what about pulling up trauma from a previous birth, focusing on all the negatives happening right now, and inviting all the unsupportive and opinionated people into your birth space!? No? Don't worry, we've got you covered mama! As always, we hope that you leave this episode armed with a smile and some crazy good info about how to make your birth the best it can possibly be.

Show Notes

4:07 - Being free to move around during labor is so important and being stuck in one position not only causes more discomfort but also slows, stalls, and makes it harder for baby...

It's true that we love telling you all of the ways to have an easier, more comfortable, confident, and empowered birth experience, but we decided to switch things up and get a little sarcastic so you can join us in some laughs while we give you all the top tips on what will cause more pain during labor.  Maybe you already know that being flat on your back and not having great support will leave you less than comfortable but what about pulling up trauma from a previous birth, focusing on all the negatives happening right now, and inviting all the unsupportive and opinionated people into your birth space!? No? Don't worry, we've got you covered mama! As always, we hope that you leave this episode armed with a smile and some crazy good info about how to make your birth the best it can possibly be.

Show Notes

4:07 - Being free to move around during labor is so important and being stuck in one position not only causes more discomfort but also slows, stalls, and makes it harder for baby ...

This episode starts with two stories about a birthing mother named "Jessica" and we have a feeling you may relate to her quite a bit, but you'll have to tell us if you're relating more to Jessica's scenario #1 or scenario #2! As mothers, we do the very best that we can in preparing ourselves for this beautiful, sacred experience of birth, and having the very best birth team can really make our ideal birth a reality. If you're wondering how to achieve that, you are in the right place!

Show Notes

4:05 - Scenario #1. A birth story from Jessica. We take a moment to read you a little story about a fictitious birthing mother named Jessica. Listen to this and see if you can relate to any of this.

10:51 - Scenario #2. This is a different birth story from Jessica. Do you relate to any of this?!

19:13 - Wondering what a birth team is? It's anyone who works as a team to support you, the birthing mother! It's also who you interact with and listen to and care about the opinions of.

25:13 - L...

So often we are told the benefits of procedures during pregnancy and birth, but how often are we given the risks associated with those procedures too? True informed consent means getting both and then being given the opportunity to consent or decline. The tricky part can be in not really understanding the options. How do you really know if you're getting all the information? Well, that's exactly what we break down for you in this episode!

Informed consent means that a provider explains the benefits and risks of a medication, procedure, (or lack of either), and then allows the mother to give consent.

Informed consent is NOT 

• making you afraid to say no
• telling you only the benefits and downplaying the risks
• telling the mother, "I'm going to do ______". For example, "I'm going to preform a vaginal exam on you."

Our Top Tips for Informed Consent

Since providers may fail to give proper informed consent, you need to remember to use your B.R.A.I.N so that you can get the informa...