Latest / MyMaine Birth / 95. Embracing Birth Bliss: Katie's Journey to Natural Childbirth

Transcript

95. Embracing Birth Bliss: Katie's Journey to Natural Childbirth · MyMaine Birth

• 0:01
  Angela: I'm Angela and you're listening to my Maine Birth a space where we share the real-life stories of families and their unique birth experiences in the beautiful state of Maine.
• 0:13
  Angela: From our state's biggest hospitals to birth center births and home births, every birth story deserves to be heard and celebrated.
• 0:23
  Angela: Whether you're a soon-to-be mom, a seasoned mother or simply interested in the world of birth, these episodes are for you.
• 0:31
  Angela: Welcome back to the my Maid Birth Podcast.
• 0:36
  Angela: Today I have a very special episode as we reconnect with past guest Katie Stroud, who is currently navigating a wild and beautiful pregnancy journey of her own.
• 0:48
  Angela: As a passionate childbirth educator and graduate of the Free Birth Society's Radical Birth Keeper School, katie is embracing the philosophy of free birth and she's here to share the intimate details of her experience, from the moment she discovered she was pregnant to how she's nourishing her body and managing her own prenatal care.
• 1:09
  Angela: But that's not all.
• 1:11
  Angela: Katie and I have teamed up to create Birth Bliss, a comprehensive childbirth education course designed for anyone planning a natural birth, whether that's in a hospital, a birth center or at home, with a licensed midwife or through sovereign birth.
• 1:27
  Angela: Our shared vision is grounded in the fundamental belief that birth works best when it's allowed to unfold in a natural and undisturbed progression.
• 1:39
  Angela: Knowledge is power, and we're dedicated to equipping you with the tools that you need for a confident and informed birth experience.
• 1:49
  Angela: As I am currently undergoing my training at the Free Birth Society's MatriBirth Midwifery Institute, our combined expertise is infused into this course, ensuring that you receive the most holistic and supportive natural birth education possible in Maine.
• 2:07
  Angela: Now again, birth Bliss is a three-part complete childbirth education series.
• 2:13
  Angela: We're hosting it at Mainley Succulents in Orono on October 27th, november 3rd and November 10th.
• 2:20
  Angela: We're holding it from 9 am to 11 am each of those days.
• 2:23
  Angela: We're holding it from 9am to 11am each of those days.
• 2:28
  Angela: Enrollment for the entire thing is only $129 for all three classes, and this includes a seat for you and one birth partner.
• 2:33
  Angela: And, as an added bonus, if you pay in full, you'll receive an invitation for a complimentary birth coaching session with either myself or Katie, and this is valued at $129.
• 2:46
  Angela: So if you're desiring a natural birth and want to learn more, this is a no brainer.
• 2:51
  Angela: Not only are we going to be gathering in person, but there's also going to be a private online community to stay connected with us and the other local parents in the group.
• 3:02
  Angela: And in our final class, we're going to be getting our hands dirty and creating a succulent birth arrangement courtesy of our hosts mainly succulents.
• 3:14
  Angela: So if you're pregnant and craving a natural birth experience, this episode is for you.
• 3:20
  Angela: If you're interested in signing up for Birth Bliss, you can head over to my website.
• 3:24
  Angela: If you're interested in signing up for Birth Bliss, you can head over to my website, mymainbirthcom.
• 3:28
  Angela: Slash birthbliss.
• 3:29
  Angela: All right, let's get to it.
• 3:32
  Angela: Hi, katie, welcome back to my Main Birth.
• 3:35
  Angela: Hey, angela, I am so excited to have you back on the podcast today.
• 3:41
  Angela: You shared your first two birth stories in episode 48.
• 3:46
  Angela: So for anyone that hasn't had a chance to listen to that one yet, go check it out.
• 3:51
  Angela: I've got it linked over in the show notes.
• 3:53
  Angela: It's actually the second most downloaded episode of the podcast, so lots of women have found a great deal of value in the wisdom that you share over in that episode.
• 4:06
  Angela: But for anyone that might not have heard it yet, will you start by sharing a little bit about you and your family?
• 4:13
  Katie: I'm Katie.
• 4:13
  Katie: I live in northern central Maine, in Sabat.
• 4:17
  Katie: I am a wife and a mother of two boys and I'm currently pregnant with our third baby.
• 4:22
  Katie: And I'm currently pregnant with our third baby.
• 4:24
  Katie: They are coming early next year, sometime January, and I am a sovereign birth coach, I like to say also I'm a free birth advocate, but I mainly like to support women in making the decisions that are best for them, while also giving them all of the information and tools to navigate getting through their pregnancy, whether it's their first time, second, third, whatever.
• 4:52
  Katie: I'm just super passionate about women's work really, and that didn't really start from a young age.
• 4:58
  Katie: But I always thought I was like a midwife in another life or something.
• 5:02
  Katie: And, uh, it kind of started when I learned fertility awareness method actually, and I got really really into learning about my body and how, how everything works in my cycle and I just I was obsessed with like the fact that I could know all of this about my body just by like listening to it and observing the signs and being more in deep with my body.
• 5:28
  Katie: So that kind of started then and I kind of went down this you know more natural lifestyle at that point as well for my first son, so my first when I was pregnant with my first son he's three and a half and I went through the medical system with him.
• 5:44
  Katie: I actually worked in the medical system as an x-ray tech and I never pictured it being any other way because that's just kind of how I grew up.
• 5:52
  Katie: I grew up very medically minded.
• 5:54
  Katie: It's normal to birth in a hospital, right, and that is the norm now.
• 5:58
  Katie: So, yeah, I went through the medical system with him.
• 6:00
  Katie: I birthed him at a hospital in Vancouver and ended up being with a midwife.
• 6:06
  Katie: But I worked at an.
• 6:08
  Katie: I went through an obstetric practice that had midwives there as well.
• 6:13
  Katie: His birth was overall okay.
• 6:17
  Katie: But after that it kind of sent me down this path of wanting to dig deeper into, I guess, all of the things about mothering.
• 6:27
  Katie: Like I never questioned or looked into vaccinations and stuff like that before I had my children.
• 6:35
  Katie: I just was like a given that that was going to happen.
• 6:37
  Katie: But suddenly I had this baby and my world just shifted and changed so much and I feel like that was like a big catalyst for me, as well as the COVID pandemic.
• 6:49
  Katie: That was a big eye opener for me.
• 6:52
  Katie: So anyway, long story short, it set me down a path of uncovering a lot, going down rabbit holes, evolving as a person and as a mother, and yeah, and so a couple years later we decided or a year and a half later we decided we wanted to try for another baby.
• 7:09
  Katie: And it was at that point that, before actually I got pregnant, I somehow came across a podcast called the Free Birth Society podcast, which I'm sure a lot of your listeners are familiar with.
• 7:22
  Katie: If they're not, definitely recommend giving it a listen.
• 7:24
  Katie: There's so much medicine in those stories, as well as all birth stories really.
• 7:29
  Katie: I kind of came across that because I was obsessed with listening to birth stories through my first pregnancy and then kind of even after.
• 7:37
  Katie: I continued here and there, but I always listened to stories of like the quote unquote natural births or like unmedicated births, and then I kind of started slowly getting to like the home birth stories.
• 7:49
  Katie: And then I discovered the free birth society and it was like this whole new realm of birth, pregnancy and birth that I didn't, I wasn't even aware of, I didn't know was a thing I and it seems like it would be common sense to like be aware that that would be a thing like oh, some women just have pregnancies and give birth and don't ever go to a doctor, and it's totally normal and natural and a part of their life.
• 8:17
  Katie: But it just didn't hit me as that.
• 8:19
  Katie: I know women that that has come so natural to them and I love that because I think it's really cool that they don't need a podcast to kind of like know that, like in their deep down and with their intuition that oh, this just makes sense, right.
• 8:32
  Katie: But also when you're going to the doctor on a regular basis and like you're seeing your gyno and you're seeing all the people, if that's a part of your day-to-day life, it would make sense that when you get pregnant that continues.
• 8:49
  Katie: You go to the doctor for that and stuff.
• 8:51
  Katie: But I guess at this point in my life I wasn't really doing that.
• 8:55
  Katie: I wasn't seeing a doctor, I wasn't.
• 8:56
  Katie: That just wasn't in my realm.
• 8:58
  Katie: There was nothing I needed from them.
• 9:00
  Katie: I was learning a lot about natural remedies and holistic medicine and everything and how to heal my family at home and with nutrition and through our daily practices.
• 9:12
  Katie: So when I discovered the podcast, it kind of just made sense, it clicked for me and I had the thought when we have another baby, I think I want to do this this way.
• 9:25
  Katie: So that's what that's what I did and it wasn't really scary for me but it was really eye opening and just it opened up a lot for me.
• 9:37
  Katie: So I get pregnant in around August and start listening to the podcast before then.
• 9:44
  Katie: So I'm like familiar with free birth society and I see that they have a really amazing program called the radical birth keeping school and it like excited me so much to see that I was like what is this?
• 9:58
  Katie: I want to know more.
• 9:58
  Katie: So I, you know, I followed some people that I knew that had taken the course and I just looked more into it and all of it was getting me so excited to think about becoming a birth support person or like a birth coach or like all the different ways I could go with it.
• 10:16
  Katie: So the Free Birth Society has a course called the Radical Birth Keeping School school and it's kind of like I guess if you want to use the word doula, you can use that word just to make it the most comparable to what people understand, because a birth keeper isn't a term people are familiar with, but I guess the closest thing would be kind of like a doula.
• 10:37
  Katie: Anyway.
• 10:38
  Katie: So I decided I think I want to enroll in this school and I'm going to be pregnant while I'm in this school.
• 10:44
  Katie: It's a three month long program and I feel like it would be so amazing and just like it's going to feel really good to be around that kind of community of women who truly believe in the biological design of birth in our bodies.
• 11:03
  Katie: And you know, I was excited for what I was going to learn.
• 11:06
  Katie: What tools are they going to bring to the table?
• 11:08
  Katie: What kinds of things are going to make my life as a woman and a mother and a wife better?
• 11:16
  Katie: Because that's what the program was about really, not just about how to be a birthkeeper.
• 11:22
  Katie: But I was very in-depth and used a lot of tools Like, for example, if anyone's familiar with Byron Katie's work, it's called the work.
• 11:32
  Katie: We used a lot of that and you know the drama triangle or you could call it the victim triangle People know it that way as well and just all these tools.
• 11:41
  Katie: And then there were the tools that I learned.
• 11:44
  Katie: And then there were also the calls, the weekly calls, three days a week, of two hours being on these Zoom calls, surrounded with women who just had this craving for the knowledge about learning about physiological birth and being there to support women and helping shed light on how birth can really be and how it is biologically designed to be and how it works best.
• 12:11
  Katie: And you know how the system isn't really always there for us in the best way, of course there it's there for a reason and I believe it's there for emergency reasons.
• 12:23
  Katie: That's my opinion.
• 12:24
  Katie: It's kind of a radical opinion, but I know that some listeners may resonate more than others and I encourage you, if you don't resonate, maybe just kind of think about why you feel differently and like I don't know.
• 12:37
  Katie: It's an invitation to become more curious, I guess, in general, instead of judgmental.
• 12:42
  Katie: Of course, we all kind of jump to the judgmental train because we're human, I do, of course, but I think that really everything that everything that we come across is an opportunity to become more curious and just like, hmm, I wonder why they feel that way, or I wonder what, what this is about.
• 13:00
  Katie: So, um, yeah, I was actually in my radical birth keeping school, which is called RBKk.
• 13:07
  Katie: There were at least 10 other women pregnant with me during this time and it was like so beautiful to just see us all like walking this journey of called wild pregnancy, I like to just say that, like it's just living your life, you continue to live and you're just pregnant as well and you're doing the things that feel good for you.
• 13:28
  Katie: Whether that's your prenatal care would be maybe like walking with a friend once a week, going on a nice walk.
• 13:35
  Katie: Maybe you have a birth keeper and you're meeting with them monthly or every other week or whatever, and you're getting to just talk and work out all of your fears and talk about your dream birth.
• 13:47
  Katie: And so, yeah, what my wild pregnancy looked like was really just continuing to live, listening to birth stories, because I really find medicine in that and it gave me just more confidence.
• 13:59
  Katie: Some women don't like listening to stories while they're pregnant because they get these thoughts in their head that aren't their own and whatever.
• 14:06
  Katie: And if that doesn't feel right for you, then yeah, that's great, but I really liked listening to them at that point in my pregnancy.
• 14:12
  Katie: So, and then just being in this community with a bunch of other women and my teachers, emily Saldea and Yolanda Norris-Clark, who are just like two of the biggest pioneers right now in sovereign birth, physiological birth, and they just it was just incredible and it felt really good.
• 14:29
  Katie: It just gave me more confidence and knowing in my body that like this is designed to work pretty well when it's left alone and disturbed.
• 14:38
  Katie: So the pregnancy was overall you know it was it was good, besides some outside things that were happening in my family that were kind of out of out of our control.
• 14:48
  Katie: But yeah, so I ended up having my second baby.
• 14:51
  Katie: It was a free birth.
• 14:52
  Katie: So in the episode we've already recorded I talked about my birth, so I'm not going to go into a whole lot of detail.
• 14:59
  Katie: But yeah, my second baby was born at home, sovereign birth.
• 15:03
  Katie: It was amazing and beautiful and perfect and literally the birth dream that I had been envisioning throughout my pregnancy.
• 15:12
  Katie: It was pretty much exactly that, which I think is a testament to just how powerful, if you want to call it manifestation is, or just kind of speaking out our desires and our hopes and wishes.
• 15:23
  Katie: It's a lot more powerful than people give it credit for.
• 15:26
  Katie: And yeah, I mean, and if it didn't go exactly that way, that's great too, but it's really still powerful to have those birth dreams.
• 15:34
  Katie: So, anyway, it was beautiful.
• 15:37
  Katie: I pretty much was kind of just by myself while my husband and son were hanging out laboring in my room just doing the birth dance I call it.
• 15:45
  Katie: It was really so, so mild, and I don't like saying that necessarily, because I feel like women think that's how it's supposed to be and it's not necessarily.
• 15:55
  Katie: It can be somewhat hard and long.
• 15:58
  Katie: The birth that happens for us is the birth that's meant to be there to show us whatever it is, reveal to us things.
• 16:05
  Katie: But I think a big part of it is because I was not being watched.
• 16:09
  Katie: I felt really safe and comfortable.
• 16:12
  Katie: I was in my bed.
• 16:13
  Katie: There weren't like bright fluorescent lights over me and just all of that plays into the hormonal blueprint of what was going on in my body.
• 16:24
  Katie: Everything was cascading exactly the way it was supposed to, cascading exactly the way it was supposed to.
• 16:31
  Katie: So, yeah, and then I went into the tub and my transition was like 30 minutes and he was born in the bathtub.
• 16:34
  Katie: My husband picked him up, caught him and brought him up to me and he took like a minute to cry and it was beautiful.
• 16:41
  Katie: And I realized, you know, within 10 seconds I looked, of course I'm like, oh, I have another son, I had said it's another boy and yeah, and so that birth was.
• 16:50
  Katie: It was really beautiful and it just really set my already deep knowing that, like, this is how it's supposed to be and this is truly the design.
• 17:01
  Katie: It set that knowing in deeper for me and I don't know if things would have went differently if I would feel differently.
• 17:08
  Katie: But I think that there's something to still trusting, even when things don't go necessarily perfectly, because with life comes death, and that's a big topic for the birth world and I don't think that there's enough talk about that.
• 17:23
  Katie: When it comes to medical birth, it's just like you assume that your baby's going to be alive and that you're going to live through it and there's people there to save you, basically.
• 17:33
  Katie: But I think that's a special part about the sovereign birth community is that women don't they don't shy away from these topics of their fears in birth.
• 17:42
  Katie: What they're actually maybe scared of they don't shy away from talking about the if, the what if, because there's always that possibility.
• 17:50
  Katie: So that's just to say that like, just because the birth was like perfect, of course I feel like it, like that's how it's supposed to be Right, but I do still fully believe that like, even if things didn't line up exactly like that, that I would still have those beliefs, not exactly like that, that I would still have those beliefs.
• 18:13
  Katie: So yeah, so anyway, postpartum wasn't great though, I will admit, and that's kind of made me even more passionate about postpartum work as well.
• 18:19
  Katie: When it comes to pregnancy, birth and postpartum, I think that gets neglected way too much and it's just as important as the birth.
• 18:28
  Katie: So, yeah, that's kind of becoming more a part of my work in birth work, so yeah.
• 18:35
  Angela: Awesome.
• 18:35
  Angela: So now will you share with me when you found out you were pregnant for the third time and I guess a little bit about your thoughts in choosing your care, although it seems obvious after your second pregnancy, right?
• 18:47
  Angela: So how yeah?
• 18:52
  Katie: care, although it seems obvious after your second pregnancy, right?
• 18:54
  Katie: So how?
• 18:54
  Katie: Yeah, yeah.
• 18:54
  Katie: So after I had my baby, I actually I did things so much different with him.
• 18:57
  Katie: I wasn't working full time, I was determined to exclusively breastfeed.
• 19:02
  Katie: I really didn't want to have a pump in my life.
• 19:04
  Katie: It's just like extra work, you know, washing the parts, doing it, and I didn't feel like my, like you, you don't need that, right?
• 19:11
  Katie: Like our bodies aren't designed to really do that.
• 19:13
  Katie: It's great if you do, if it feels good, but so, yeah, things.
• 19:16
  Katie: But things are different with him.
• 19:18
  Katie: With my first, I didn't get my cycle back until I was completely done nursing and I had like an extra oversupply with him and maybe that was because I pumped.
• 19:28
  Katie: I mean, who knows, maybe it was because I was anxious about a tongue tie that he had, so I was pumping extra and doing all these extra things.
• 19:36
  Katie: But so maybe I think that extra supply or something had something to do with my hormones not being ready to have my cycle again.
• 19:44
  Katie: But with my second, I was just nursing and my cycle returned at like eight months postpartum and I was like, whoa, okay, you know, not super ready.
• 19:55
  Katie: But also I felt like, oh, maybe this is a sign of like vitality, I don't know.
• 19:59
  Katie: So it came back in eight months.
• 20:02
  Katie: So I mean it was still a good amount of time.
• 20:03
  Katie: It wasn't like right off the bat.
• 20:05
  Katie: But with my first it was 17 months, and then my second or 16 months and my son was eight.
• 20:10
  Katie: So it was quite a big difference and I was kind of like, oh, maybe it's because you know the way we're doing it or whatever, my son, my second son, is just so different and it's like, oh, you can't control the temperament of your baby, you can't control the soul that's going to come to you and you have to like just surrender.
• 20:30
  Katie: And he just was he wasn't into nursing that much like he really just.
• 20:35
  Katie: And it kind of broke my heart because it made me feel like, you know, I don't know, you take it kind of personally as a mom, I guess, but I really had to just surrender and he ended up like kind of weaning himself at like 10 months postpartum and I was, I was just heartbroken and I just had to let it go.
• 20:57
  Katie: I tried like pumping to.
• 20:58
  Katie: You know, at that point I was like maybe I can try to get my supply up, but with my cycle and maybe some stress in life.
• 21:03
  Katie: I just wasn't able to produce enough.
• 21:05
  Katie: It was causing me more stress, so I was getting like maybe two ounces every time, and so I just let it go and I said you know what he's doing this, because this is what his body needs.
• 21:15
  Katie: And so, yeah, and so I was kind of tracking with fertility awareness method, but very loosely, and obviously, when you're not tracking something or you know, on her hormonal break control, there's a larger possibility that you're going to conceive.
• 21:35
  Katie: And that's what happened.
• 21:36
  Katie: It was it must have happened about 11 months postpartum.
• 21:39
  Katie: And so funny I actually.
• 21:42
  Katie: So I, I had my second baby, axel, on mother's day of 2023.
• 21:46
  Katie: It was beautiful, perfect.
• 21:48
  Katie: And then this year we had his birthday party and everything.
• 21:53
  Katie: And then the next day was Mother's Day and I took a pregnancy test that day and, surprise, I was pregnant.
• 22:01
  Katie: So I just think it was just like.
• 22:04
  Katie: So it's just funny that you know, a year later I'm finding out I'm pregnant again and, to be very honest, I was really sad and scared because I was not ready.
• 22:16
  Katie: I was, we were not trying, it was not conscious conception and I had a lot of plans for like some health journeys that we were going to go on mostly myself just dealing with my gut health.
• 22:29
  Katie: I was going to go in like the total gaps protocol if anyone's familiar with that it's.
• 22:35
  Katie: It's incredible and it can do so much healing for not only like physical symptoms but like a lot of mental symptoms autism, adhd, schizophrenia, so many, so many things.
• 22:48
  Katie: So anyway, I had some big plans and this baby kind of like put a stop to that and I felt like really sad and it was mostly because I wanted to heal myself, because I knew we would have more children and I really wanted to be able to have a pregnancy where I could fully feel nourished and be drinking raw milk and making just like really nourishing foods that I can tolerate.
• 23:16
  Katie: That as of now, I can't tolerate those things, so there are times where I don't feel like I'm getting as much nourishment.
• 23:24
  Katie: So anyway, I really wanted to.
• 23:26
  Katie: I was determined to have my third pregnancy be one where I could fully be just like nourished, and so that's what made me the most sad, and then I was kind of upset with myself for letting it happen and not giving this baby the best chance.
• 23:41
  Katie: That's how I feel.
• 23:42
  Katie: I think as mothers and women, we often kick ourselves a lot more.
• 23:46
  Katie: We're hard on ourselves and I just once again the word surrender had to happen, like I really had to surrender because there wasn't another option for me.
• 23:57
  Katie: I didn't think about any other thing.
• 24:00
  Katie: But okay, we're having this baby, but, yeah, it took me a little while to come to terms with it and to really let it be the reality, I guess.
• 24:12
  Katie: And of course, yeah, like you said, my plans for this pregnancy have been the same as my last, same for my birth.
• 24:23
  Angela: What are some things that?
• 24:23
  Katie: you're considering for your prenatal care?
• 24:25
  Katie: Yeah, so, being outside of the medical model, obviously I'm not going to check up, not seeing any providers, which is a huge plus.
• 24:34
  Katie: It takes so much stress off my plate and it's just something like I don't even think about anymore.
• 24:41
  Katie: Like you, it's not, you know.
• 24:43
  Katie: But that being said, my version of prenatal care for me in this pregnancy is kind of just doing things that feel good for me in the moment.
• 24:52
  Katie: It sounds really basic and simple, but like it doesn't have to be complicated.
• 24:57
  Katie: I don't think and I thinkplicate it.
• 24:59
  Katie: So, yeah, I'm just trying to nourish my body with lots of home-cooked foods and having a lot of herbal infusions that are loaded with vitamins and minerals.
• 25:11
  Katie: I choose not to take a prenatal vitamin.
• 25:13
  Katie: That's a whole other topic that we could talk about for a while but prenatal vitamins just aren't bioavailable for our bodies.
• 25:22
  Katie: So I prefer to get my nutrition from as much as I can for my diet and I supplement a little bit with collagen and protein, because protein is a hard one for me to get daily.
• 25:34
  Katie: So having a really good protein powder has been helpful for me to meet my goals of at least a hundred grams of protein a day.
• 25:42
  Katie: I think that nutrition is so under under talked about, I guess, um, for pregnant women, and because of that, there's more like things like preeclampsia and or the diagnosis of those things, which that's debatable as well.
• 25:59
  Katie: But, yeah, so I think that having a good foundation of nutrition is so important for all women in pregnancy, and so that's a big one for me.
• 26:09
  Katie: And then, yeah, I'm just spending a lot of time with my family and I'm home pretty much every day with my boys, while my husband's working, and we get outside multiple times a day.
• 26:21
  Katie: My youngest loves being outside, so that helps, even sometimes when I don't feel like it.
• 26:27
  Katie: It's always very grounding, quite literally, to get outside and get fresh air and just try to check out of my to-do list.
• 26:36
  Katie: That's been something that I've been working through through this pregnancy and that it's been teaching me.
• 26:42
  Katie: In the beginning I was pretty tired and my body just wanted to rest more and like stop doing more, and I really had to like stop my ego from trying to tell me that I needed to do more and like do the same things.
• 26:59
  Katie: I usually try, because I've always got like a to-do list going on in my head, so I've been really trying to lean into rest more.
• 27:06
  Katie: It's still been a struggle in a lot of ways, but I think that's a big thing that I'm being taught through this pregnancy.
• 27:15
  Katie: So, yeah, taking baths is another big one, magnesium baths and I really think that's pretty much, pretty much all the things that I can think of that.
• 27:25
  Katie: That, yeah, whatever feels good to me, you know.
• 27:28
  Katie: So, yeah, just living your life, yeah, exactly Living my life.
• 27:33
  Katie: And you know, sometimes I'll take my fetus scope out and listen to my belly, just because it's fun for me.
• 27:39
  Katie: The baby's moving, so like, I know, you know they're living.
• 27:43
  Katie: But even with things like that, like like when people buy the Doppler's, you can check it one moment and the next moment, you know it could be different.
• 27:53
  Katie: So, yeah, I just think, I think it's fun with a fetus scope because you you're more like connected and you're kind of you kind of have to like search around and you get to just hear all the other sounds of your body, I guess, and it's just really fun.
• 28:06
  Katie: And yeah, so that's another fun one I like to do.
• 28:09
  Katie: Some days Sometimes I've like randomly measured my fundus just because I'm like, oh, what if there's two babies in there?
• 28:16
  Katie: Maybe?
• 28:16
  Katie: I'm like, you know, I'm going to be showing more or whatever, and it's it is what it is Like.
• 28:21
  Katie: You know, I'm going to be showing more or whatever, and it is what it is Like.
• 28:23
  Katie: There are so many stories of women who have twins and who had no idea, or who think they have twins and they don't.
• 28:29
  Katie: So I'm just kind of like taking it day by day but, yeah, pretty much just living my life and trying to live in the moment and not stress about all the little things.
• 28:39
  Angela: Yeah, oh my gosh.
• 28:40
  Angela: So is there anything that you're doing like specifically to prepare for birth that you want to share about?
• 28:47
  Katie: Yeah, not really, to be honest, and there's kind of been a lack of that between my husband and I.
• 28:53
  Katie: We haven't really talked much about it up until now, but there has been a very big emphasis for us this time around making sure that we have enough support postpartum.
• 29:03
  Katie: That was kind of a big downfall last time was he didn't feel like he had enough support to, you know, to do all the things like cleaning up and taking care of our other son and and he was trying to do those things and so we kind of missed out on spending time with the baby.
• 29:19
  Katie: So, yeah, we're focusing a big time on that, hoping to have you there to help us and be that postpartum support that we need and really just trying to have my birth vision in mind.
• 29:33
  Katie: I actually, for the first time, started envisioning it a couple of weeks ago and it felt really good and really nice and I felt like what I had in mind was exactly what I wanted, and so, yeah, I'm focusing on that and really making sure and that's what we're going to do, because that's that's another very important thing.
• 30:04
  Katie: That kind of got ruined last time and so I think I think I'm preparing more for postpartum than the actual birth.
• 30:12
  Katie: I have like an amazon cart with some some supplies and stuff, just some basic things for like a home birth kind of thing, like you know umbilical cord clamps, more towels cause you could always use more towels some Chuck pads and, oh you know, another big one is herbs for Yoni steaming, postpartum and sits bath, because that was those are so key.
• 30:36
  Katie: Yeah, so just just the little things, but um other than that there isn't really a whole lot, I feel like for birth that I'm preparing, for just having a good mindset and keeping my birth vision in mind all the time forget about it was my first mentor in this line of work, Naya.
• 31:04
  Angela: She shared her birth story in episode 29 of the podcast.
• 31:06
  Angela: She says birth alone and do postpartum in community.
• 31:10
  Katie: Exactly it gets.
• 31:11
  Katie: There's a huge lack and you don't.
• 31:13
  Katie: You don't know it until you experience it, and I don't want other women to experience it.
• 31:18
  Katie: Like I, truly it's like it sucks to not have that support when you need it the most and like, truly, it's like it sucks to not have that support when you need it the most and like you really don't need it for your birth.
• 31:26
  Katie: Like that, like I mean, maybe you do, maybe you want to invite, you know certain people and you still need that.
• 31:31
  Katie: But yeah, postpartum is sacred and that's what's going to really the birth kind of sets that's a lot into your mothering.
• 31:44
  Angela: But postpartum really does as well.
• 31:45
  Angela: So, yeah, that's definitely big.
• 31:46
  Angela: Yeah, and that's why we've gotten together and created this really awesome module in birth bliss about how to set yourself up for a blissful postpartum period, and we cover all of the things about breastfeeding, early mothering and parenting.
• 32:01
  Angela: I'm super excited to teach about this with you.
• 32:04
  Katie: I know I'm so excited.
• 32:05
  Katie: Yeah, I'm just.
• 32:06
  Katie: I'm excited to see other women there and who have this craving to learn more and to set themselves up for the best that they can, because they deserve it really.
• 32:18
  Katie: And I've been really motivated and excited to get more into birth work because I just took the RBK school last year.
• 32:26
  Katie: I have been hosting women's circles and I'm feeling really passionate about that and I think that's one of the best ways to get communities of women so.
• 32:35
  Katie: And then, you know, being in connection with you, we kind of decided, hey, maybe we should do something together Because we're both passionate about this.
• 32:45
  Katie: And yeah, motherhood is honestly one of the most vital roles there will ever be, and this means whether you're becoming a mother the first time, the third time, the fourth time, because every time you give birth you're becoming a new mother again.
• 33:02
  Katie: And stepping into that can be really challenging in the society we live in today, where we're kind of all alone and not in community and we don't have the tools and the resources.
• 33:13
  Katie: And that's a big part of why we wanted to bring this course, because it's just loaded with so many wanted to bring this course because it's just loaded with so many, so many tools and so many different layers of pregnancy and birth and postpartum that we feel that all women should have access to and there should be more of more of a stress on that.
• 33:35
  Katie: For women becoming pregnant, there should be more opportunities for learning, because we don't get that knowledge passed down anymore through our Grammys and, you know, and our mothers.
• 33:46
  Katie: It's just different.
• 33:47
  Katie: So so when we meet in communities like birth forces and women's circles, we get we kind of get that with them and we are really excited about creating this force for the women in our community.
• 33:57
  Katie: Because we're just so passionate about it.
• 33:59
  Katie: And even if you're just curious maybe you don't necessarily plan the natural birth but you still want to learn I think this course is still for you.
• 34:10
  Katie: Whether you're giving birth at home or in the hospital or however you're doing it, just come and join us and learn with us and you will feel the excitement from us and the passion and the love and that will transfer to you and your partner and just it will light you up, I think, and really make your pregnancy and birth all that more exciting and that's the end of another episode of the my main birth podcast.
• 34:37
  Angela: thank you for joining me and listening.
• 34:38
  Angela: If you're looking to document your birth story or if you're interested in doula support for your upcoming birth, head over to my website, mymainbirthcom and check out my packages.
• 34:51
  Angela: I'm a certified professional birth photographer and an experienced doula, and I offer in-person services to families throughout the state of Maine, as well as virtual birth coaching worldwide.
• 35:04
  Angela: I want to invite you to grab my top free resource for newly pregnant moms.
• 35:10
  Angela: It's called 37 questions to ask your care provider, whether you've already established care or if you're in the process of interviewing new providers.
• 35:19
  Angela: This is for you.
• 35:21
  Angela: Not only are you going to get the questions to ask, but I also share how to assess their answers and the major red flags that you should be looking for.
• 35:30
  Angela: So go grab that.
• 35:32
  Angela: It's at mymainbirthcom slash download.
• 35:36
  Angela: Thank you again for tuning in and I look forward to bringing you more amazing birth stories.
• 35:43
  Angela: Don't forget to subscribe and leave me a review, and I'll see you back here again next week.