The Birth Village Podcast

The main message for this episode is that birth can be beautiful right from the start. It is so common for mothers to prepare for their dream birth after having had a bad experience with previous children, but Hannah wants our listeners to know and understand that you don't have to wait for a bad experience to put in the work for a good one.

Falen is a newer doula in the Birth Village and we are excited to hear from her today. She is an Endometriosis Advocate as she struggles with it herself, and she talks about her birth as well as some plans she has going forward as a doula.

Why do we care about birth so much? Why do these things even matter really??

In our society we have accepted the standard of care to be a healthy mom and a healthy baby. And those things are HUGELY important. The most important things. So why do all these other things really matter? .....

We'd love to tell you (;

Trisha and Morgan talk about why you might want to care just a little bit more about birth and its surrounding topics today. Whether you are pre-kids, having kids, or post kids there is something here for everyone.

Chloe Gonzalez is BACK on the pod today to talk about her newest (and very exciting) certification of many. Chloe is now an International Board Certified Lactation Consultant. What does this mean you might be wondering? Check out the podcast to learn about her new certification as well as the new mastitis protocol, tips on a successful breastfeeding journey, and oh so much more. And by the way... as an IBCLC she can accept insurance now!

We haven't yet shared a home birth transfer story, not because we don't want to, but because they aren't all that common. But we do want to make sure to share every type of birth story, and Tami has shared a beautiful story with us today. A story of a changed plan, some difficult feelings that were overcome, and how beautiful the experience still was even though it was not what she imagined.

Check out our sponsor and her amazing photography:

Mallorie, also known as Mal The Energy Gal joins us today to explain feminine and masculine energy and why both are so important in the birth space.

Check out our sponsor and her amazing photography:

Tiffany, doula and childbirth educator shares her birth stories with us which lead her to her passion of teaching parents the Mindfully Prepared Birth course.

Her course focuses on planning and preparing for the unexpected and of course helping women achieve an empowered birthing experience, no matter how their birth goes!

Check out her instagram here:

Okay guys, it's a solo episode today! Just wanted to talk about empowerment and what that can mean in our lives. It is important to us on this podcast, and hopefully after listening to this episode you can get a sense of why that is!

Kelli Curtis is a doula here in Southern Utah. She has experienced four different types of births and shares those stories with us today!

Here's what you can expect....

Kelli had her first daughter in the hospital, with more or less a normal experience.

Her second daughter was stillborn at 18 weeks also in the hospital and she tells us about what that was like for her and her husband to experience.

Tia Stout was on the podcast a little over a year ago helping us to introduce Southern Utah's Birth Village because she is such a vital member! There is SO much she does to help keep things moving along in our non-profit organization and we are so grateful for her.

A few months ago Tia had her 6th baby in a dramatically different way than she'd had her previous 5. It was a difficult journey for her, and we are grateful that she was willing to be vulnerable enough with us to share this special story.

Today Trish and I discuss a super hot topic when it comes to birth and that is PAIN. So many women are scared of the pain of childbirth; in this episode we discuss various ways that you can manage that pain from medical options like epidurals, to alternative options like "The Gate Theory"

Hope you enjoy!

If you are interested in becoming a doula, contact Trisha on instagram or on her website!

Ashely, a birth photographer here in Southern Utah shares birth stories with us from all four of the births she has had. She also tells us about her business and talks about how impactful birth photography can be!

Check out her instagram and website!

Ashely, a recently single mom has made some strides in her life learning how to find and trust her intuition; both in her birth experiences and in other life experiences as well. She shares with us how impactful it is to lean into intuition and what a difference it can make in your life.

Ashley is also a Doula and Childbirth Educator and offers Mother's Blessing planning services, as you heard in the ad for this episode!

Autumn is FUN. Today she shares her birth story with us and tells us how she got into being a doula.

Her homebirth story is a great one that I know you'll enjoy!

Autumn shouts out a couple of people throughout the episode, they are:

Helen Barlow, Midwife

Dani Andrew is an incredible woman with quite a story to share. She found a way to overcome some extremely tough life experiences through practicing yoga and now is able to pass on the love an healing she has found in yoga to those that attend her classes.

We do have a pregnancy loss trigger warning within the episode, that is talked about around 14 minutes in and lasts through 24 minutes. It's not graphic, but we (including Dani) wanted to be sensitive to any who are having a hard time dealing with any emotions on this topic.

Dani prepared a very special meditation for us, it starts at 37:11.

For Christmas we decided to share with you our imagined and elaborated version of Mary's birth story. It is, after all the reason for the season! As well as one of the most iconic births in history.

We hope you'll enjoy.

We love and appreciate you! Thank you for your continued support!

We've mentioned "free births" on the podcast before, but we had the chance to interview Laney who actually had a free birth and wanted to share her story!

Laney is a Homecare and Hospice Nurse, and she decided to do a free birth with her most recent (third) baby.

If you don't know, a free birth basically means an unassisted birth, or essentially deciding to give birth at home or somewhere else without the help of a healthcare professional such as a midwife. (Different than an accidental unassisted birth where the baby came before the midwife was able to make it, called "born before arrival")

Shoutouts to other podcasts that Laney mentioned:

Free Birth Society Podcast

Holy Wild Birth Podcast

Ashley Sorenson specializes in Postpartum Corrective Exercise. Today she shares her story with us as we learn why what she does matters so much not only to her, but why it should matter to everyone!

She tells us about a resource that was very beneficial to her, ANYA, which stands for A New You Again.

ALSO, Ashley is currently Mrs. Washington County and getting ready to be in the Mrs. Utah pageant! She tells us about her platform (which is AWESOME) and how we can support her!

Brianna Bryner threw herself into learning homeopathy and alternatives to traditional medicine after realizing that traditional medicine wasn't working well for her and her family. She believes in a healthy balance between homeopathy and traditional medicine, and in my eyes has become a fountain of knowledge and a wonderful resource for those of us that are just starting to learn these alternative ways of taking care of ourselves and our families.

Bri mentioned LOTS of great resources and bits of information that I promised I would include in the show notes.... so here all that is! (including some things that weren't mentioned, but that come recommended!)

In this episode we answer a handful of the questions that you have sent in.

While reflecting on her first birthing experience and preparing for her second, Miri realized her first c section may have not been necessary and decided to take matters into her hands for her next time around. Miri did a lot of preparing and was able to have a successful VBAC! Listen to this episode to hear all about it!

Natalie Nelson shares with us a very sweet story of how she went from having two wonderful "normal" hospital births and experiences to deciding she wanted to have her third baby at home and how that changed her whole life!

Deborah Abner has been working in birth since the 1990s and we are so lucky to have her practicing in Southern Utah VERY soon!

We decided to have a little fun for Halloween and read your submissions for things you find spooky about pregnancy, birth, and motherhood! We had some fun with this and we hope you will too!

Jen Atkisson is an amazing example of an empowered woman! Trisha met her at the AWHONN conference and really hit it off! We knew we needed to have her come on and talk to all of you.

In this episode we talked about a book called "Transformed By Birth" by Britta Brushnell, PHD. Definitely go check that one out!

Jen also taught us about asking for an ethics consult if you feel you are being coerced while you are there. We loved this advice! Its such a good way to make sure everyone is working really well together.

She taught us about Informed Consent (and informed refusal) and taught us the acronym PARQ, which stands for Procedure, Alternatives to the procedure, Risks of the procedure, and do you have any Questions? All of these pieces make up true informed consent.

She even talks to us a bit about the "Pitocin Paradigm"

This episode is JAM PACKED! Don't miss it! And make sure to share it with your friends! (:

Trish recently had the chance to attend and speak at the AWHONN conference in Salt Lake! Now we get the privilege of hearing all about her experience.

If you don't know, AWHONN is The Association of Women's Health, Obstetric and Neonatal Nurses, and is the foremost nursing authority that advances the health care of women and newborns through advocacy, research and the creation of high quality, evidence-based standards of care.

Kesley Shumway is a Pelvic Floor Physical Therapist and in this episode she tells us all about what a huge impact pelvic floor health can have on our lives! She has such a caring energy and the best smile!

We've had TONS of requests from you guys to talk about "how to convince your husband to have a homebirth" (and other similar requests).

This is..... not necessarily that episode. Everyone's situation is going to be SO different that it would be impossible to perfectly execute that request. It also brings up the issue of whether or not it is appropriate to "convince" your partner about something!

SO in lieu of answering this request as best as we could, we discuss today some advice on how to have hard conversations about birth when they come up!

I'm joined by my favorite person ever, my husband Tyler Brower who was the best labor support a girl could ask for! And also he has a bachelors degree in communication, so there's that too.

Laura Tritle is a FUN, powerhouse of a woman and I am so glad you guys get the chance to meet her in this episode. She shares a lot of wonderful things with us in this episode. Her empowerment is infectious!

In this episode Lexi tells us her two birth stories! Her oldest children are twin girls and we get to hear the differences between that pregnancy and birth and that of her brand new baby boy.

Chloe Gonzalez is a Birth and Postpartum Doula as well as a Registered Nurse. Today Chloe and I go over what you should expect when you are heading into a postpartum journey so that you're not left in the dark after you actually birth your baby! Postpartum can be a hard time and it can also be a beautiful time. The key is making sure you prepare yourself as much as you can through education and also setting yourself up for success with what you learn.

Cherish Payne is a joy to be around, so of course she made it so fun to listen to her birth stories!! Proving that every birth is very unique, Cherish shares the different births of all three of her babies! One medicated hospital birth, one unmedicated hospital birth, and one homebirth!

Join us as Trisha Baird and I wrap up the awesome month we have had celebrating Breastfeeding Awareness Month!

Bree Hoyt is a Certified Breastfeeding Specialist and joins us today to share some really cool facts about breastfeeding and how amazing it is! We talk about some of the history of feeding babies and just how truly incredible breast milk is.

Emily went from having some extremely crazy difficulties with breastfeeding to loving it. And when I say extremely crazy.... I mean it.

Emily is a doula in our Southern Utah Birth Village and we adore her! She is knowledgeable and confident in what she does and it makes her great at it!

I could literally not say enough good things about Dr. Paul Thomas and DeeDee Hoover.

Dr. Paul was one of our keynote speakers at the Birth Expo and he agreed to join us for an episode on the podcast and we feel SO honored that he would come on our podcast and spend the time with us!

Megan joins us again, this time to tell us about the speedy and magical birth of her newest son Jet! (Isn't that name so fitting?? HA) Megan recounts her previous birth experiences and lets us in on the journey of building her trust and relationship with birth to prepare herself.

Megan WILL be at the expo and is actually one of our speakers!!!

Before meeting Mandy in this episode, I had heard that Foot Zoning was amazing, but I really had no idea of just how beneficial it could be! Now I am anxious to schedule my appointment with Mandy and reap all the benefits of her wonderful talents in energy work, specifically in Foot Zoning, Facial Reflexology, and as a Women's Relationship Coach!!

Lucky for us Katie Gubler heard that we were eager to get to know her and was happy to come introduce herself here on the pod.

Katie works at the hospital here in St. George, UT as a Certified Nurse Midwife and she is so sweet and amazing at what she does! We are so grateful to have been able to introduce her.

What is Gestational Diabetes? Who is at risk for it? What happens if you get it? In this episode, Dr. Kati Smith teaches us valuable information about Gestational Diabetes!

We are so grateful to have had the chance to introduce Dr. Landon Staley, DC. He tells us about the benefits of chiropractic care and specifically what to expect when you go into his office. Dr. Staley is incredibly knowledgable but also personable in a way that will make you feel very comfortable receiving care in his office. After all, it's easier to raise healthy children than fix broken adults! And that all begins in pregnancy!

Happy Father's Day to all the Dads out there, this one is for you. If you've listened to a few of our episodes you might know that we like a theme around here. So having a voicemail request for an episode for the guys lined up TOO perfectly with Father's Day to miss the opportunity! Thank you for the submission! If anyone else feels inclined to send us a voicemail, we would LOVE to hear from you!

We wanted to hear from you guys, and you really delivered!! Thank you to everyone who sent in questions to make this Q&A episode possible! If you have any questions or want to send us voice memos or voicemails we would still love to hear from you!

Call us at (424)444-1BVP or (424)444-1287 to leave us a voicemail! Or send us a DM on instagram (:

We wanted to hear from you guys, and you really delivered!! Thank you to everyone who sent in questions to make this Q&A episode possible! If you have any questions or want to send us voice memos or voicemails we would still love to hear from you!

Call us at (424)444-1BVP or (424)444-1287 to leave us a voicemail! Or send us a DM on instagram (:

Our very own Corinne Bowler shares her birth stories with us! Ever heard of anyone having a VBAC at home??? You're about to!

After chatting on the phone about one of Trisha's most recent experiences with a client, we knew we had to tell all of you about it! We will be hearing Kati's birth story from the amazing mother herself next week, but we hope you will enjoy today's Doula POV episode!