Doing It At Home: Our Home Birth Podcast

Continuing our work to bring real and honest stories of home birth to you, we sat down with Debbie Schneider, CPM extraordinaire. Debbie is actually our midwife. She delivered Maya, and has become a very important part of our lives. We’ve known we wanted to interview Debbie since we started the podcast. She’s an amazing and wise source of information and support of all things home birth. Her story in becoming a midwife is an inspiring one, deciding to shift into her life’s passion at 44. Now 18 years later and some 700 births attended, Debbie talks about “normalizing birth again,” that is, putting it back in the hands of mothers and families to choose the birth plan that aligns best with them. We could’ve talked with Debbie all day, but for the sake of time, we kept it to about an hour. And you won’t want to miss one minute of it. You’ll get some of the history of home birth, obstetrics’ attempts to “make birth more efficient,” and the differences in the experiences of home and the typical hospital birth. Her

In this episode we're talking with mom of 4 Jenny DiPietro, who has had multiple home births, a homebirth turned hospital transfer, a water birth at home, and who performs placenta encapsulation for families. We get into a lot in this one!  Oh yeah, and we’re also entering a new phase of the podcast! In addition to our episodes that feature Matthew and me discussing some topic related to home birth, we’re publishing our conversations with moms and families who have experienced home birth along with professionals and thought leaders on the subject. First to kick off this endeavor is our chat with Jenny DiPietro. Jenny is a mom of 4, who has experienced both home and hospital birth. In our talk, we cover things like: The details of her births What went into her decision-making process to choose home birth Her work as a Placenta Encapsulation Specialist The importance of education in the pregnancy and birthing journey  We’re very excited to bring other stories and perspectives of home birth to you. Enjoy! 

In today’s episode we address the question, “Is home birth messy?” It's a great question that I know crossed my mind once or twice during pregnancy, because let's be honest, most images we have about birth is that it's a bloody, sticky, gross mess! But here’s the truth on mess during a homebirth: yes there are parts of it that can be messy (as I’m sure you can imagine fluids can go everywhere), but you do not have to make a mess while giving birth at home. I repeat, you do NOT have to walk away from your home birth with your house looking like a crime scene. With the right supplies, preparation, and team, you can have a completely comfortable, mess free home birth. I guarantee it! Listen as we share tips to keep your home birth as mess free as possible, give you a list of the things you’ll want to have on hand and set up before hand to ensure your birth is as pleasant as possible.  Links: “Doing It At Home” book on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B098GVJ9KL?ref_=pe_3052080_397514860 Our website: https

Today’s episode was inspired by a listener email. Leonie, listening all the way in Australia, reached out to share her birth story. She had planned for a minimal intervention birth in a midwife led public hospital program (way to go Australis!) but things didn’t go exactly as anticipated. Her email was amazing - raw, honest and transparent - and at the end she had a few questions for me about home birth, my connection to Maya, and more. So when we received this email we knew we wanted to record an episode with our response. Here are the questions we cover in this episode: Sarah how did you feel after Maya was born? Did you feel an instant connection? Can you go into this time a bit for us? How do you feel now weeks down the track, looking back? Do you look back with any regrets, and trauma, and worries? How do you feel overall about the home birth concept, how did it fit into your dream/vision? Is there anything you would change? Is there anything your would recommend? Leonie, and every

A lot goes into creating a badass and powerful team. You want a team that works together and has synergy. You want individual members who can hold their own yet contribute to the totality of the group. You want to be able to trust everyone’s competence and commitment to the overall goal. These teams win championships, seal the deals, and set the example for all other teams. Now when it comes to choosing your team for your home birth, how do you go about creating the ultimate, most awesome group of people to support you in such an amazing, magical experience? That’s exactly what Matthew and I talk about in this episode. Maybe you haven’t even thought about having a birth team and this is a new concept for you. We’re here to help give some context around it. We share our experience of selecting the members of our home birth team - our thought process in how we chose them and why, the vision we had in mind for the people who would be involved, the roles they played and how they contributed to the whole experienc

In this episode, I invite you into a precious and intimate moment. You see, during the early parts of birthing time (labor), we placed a recorder in the room - to capture the experience and be able to listen back to it later on. While I was moving through my birthing waves (contractions) in the bathtub, Matthew tended to me by bringing me water and snacks along with affirming me and contacting our midwife with updates. I would later find out that during one of the times Matthew left the room, he took the recorder with him. And he would then record one of the most amazing pieces of audio I’ve ever listened to. A few days later, he shared the recording with me. And now I’m sharing it with all of you, along with my response to it. Why am I choosing to let you in on this? Because I think it’s important to hear about the magic of this experience. Because by sharing this, it creates the opportunity for its impact to be magnified by anyone who might hear it and be influenced. I want women and their partners to feel

I had always heard pregnancy can be a vulnerable time. You’re dealing with a lot of changes - physically and emotionally. Not to mention, the more pregnant you become, the more obvious your circumstance is to anyone who lays eyes on you. And for some reason, actually lots of reasons - there’s something about a big, beautiful belly that attracts a lot of attention. There comes a time when you can’t walk through the grocery store without being approached with a question or comment on your pregnancy. It’s kinda like a weird form of celebrity. And while some of it is sweet and affirming, others make for an uncomfortable encounter. Like the unsolicited advice and opinions. I actually had a woman in a restaurant apologize to me when I told her I was having a girl. Oh, and then there are those who take it a step further and feel compelled to touch your belly. Yep, that happened. So how do you respond to these people who test your patience and tempt you to kick them in the shins? For me, it involved a lot of deep, in

This is it, folks! The episode you’ve all been waiting for….our birth story! Matthew and I sit down (in bed, as always) with our first guest - less than a week old baby Maya. She lies quietly (for the most part, you might hear some coos and little grunts in the background at times) on Matthew’s chest while we recount the story of our home birth, while it’s still fresh in our minds. We take you from the beginning of the birthing waves (contractions) when they started late Saturday night, all the way to delivery. It just so happens that the night it all started was a special date night, and one that we’re sure to remember forever. I purchased tickets to the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra performing music by the famous composer John Williams earlier in the year as a Father’s Day present for Matthew. Its date being a precarious one (close to our due date), we weren’t sure if we’d end up going. Turns out that Maya must’ve known, and was waiting for us to have this special time together before her arrival. It would be

“We are not a culture that waits for anything, nor are we believers in normal birth; waiting for a baby can feel like insanity.” This is a powerful quote from an article that had a profound impact on Matthew and me. The article is about the “in between” stage of the last days of pregnancy before moving into birth, a period that the author of the article calls zwischen (pulling from the German word for “between” - fitting huh?). You can find the article here. In this episode, Matthew and I talk about our own experience with the “between,” being that we are technically past our “due date.” We share how this is a beautiful time to practice patience, surrender, and enjoy the moments that we have together before moving into the roles of parents for the first time. We also acknowledge, however, that it can seem excruciating - like you’re walking around waiting for a timer to go off that you really have no control or knowledge of its plans. We share some examples of things and situations that have helped us stay pa

We preface this episode with a little disclaimer and I feel it necessary to include it here as well - WE ARE NOT DOCTORS OR MEDICAL EXPERTS AND WE ARE NOT GIVING MEDICAL ADVICE. Now that that’s out of the way, let’s get into some fun stuff. Today we’re talking about our top 10 list for prepping for our home birth. We found that these were the things that helped us throughout pregnancy - from the mental prepping to physical activity to some natural products and even spiritual and energetic exercises. We’ve been very keen on having the most powerful and peaceful home birth experience possible. And we know for that to happen, it requires some conscious and proactive action on our part. So here’s a quick recap of the 10 (in no particular order of importance) for you: Working with midwives. Not just working with {amazing} midwives - but having hour-long prenatal appointments with them every time we met (which was a huge contrast from the hour-plus we would spend at the OBGYN - to physically meet with the doctor f

Let’s talk about sex, BABY! Not just the kind that makes the babies, but the kind you continue doing while the bun is in the oven. There’s plenty of topics around pregnancy that receive just the surface level of attention paid to them in the blogs, books, and classes. Sex was the big thing for me that I experienced ambiguity around. Everything I saw depicted one of two extremes - you either want it all the time or the thought it makes you more nauseated than morning sickness. My main takeaway was “no more missionary” and just do whatever works for you. I won’t knock the advice of doing what is most comfortable for you - it’s great even. I was just hungry for more -- like what was stuff that popped up for other women and couples in the bedroom? What were the fears that could be broken down during this time, new paradigms that could be formed and stronger, more intimate bonds that could be forged in the scene of sexual intimacy while pregnant? Naturally, Matthew and I decided to sit down and talk about it. So n

When you’re expecting, it’s very common to hear the question, “Where are you delivering?” If not that specifically, people generally ask about your doctor or your doctor visits. Whether it’s close friends and family or total strangers, most will insert some sort of advice or personal experience to whatever birth plan it is you’ve chosen. It can be even more interesting when you share that your birth plan involves a home birth. Queue awkward silences, uncomfortable jokes and even sometimes downright judgement. That’s what we’re talking about in this episode: what we’re calling the “pushbacks.” They are the often well-intentioned but poorly executed gestures and words to share varying degrees of care and concern for yours and your baby’s well-being. But it’s great because it gives you a chance to exercise patience and understanding. It might even help you confirm why you’re considering or chose home birth. Matthew and I have grown to love the pushbacks, and we share some examples of ones we received. Links: “D

Remember the horrible films you’d watch in sex ed classes featuring a scary, screaming, bloody mess of a woman giving birth in total agony (probably because she had sex before marriage and was birthing the baby out of wedlock - I went to Catholic school so I’m convinced those videos were purely to warn off pre-marital sex rather than educate on the miracle of childbirth)? Well until becoming pregnant myself, these were the only visual references I had for a birthing experience. Throughout the pregnancy, I’ve made it a point to watch more empowering examples of birth play out. Our awesome midwives have a full library of home birth videos from women and families they’ve worked with, and they lend them out to current patients to check out for themselves. I dove right in, like an athlete studying film of other amazing athletes in the game. I watched for different home birth setups, styles of laboring, support from birthing partners and family members, and all the other elements I could use to envision my own home

Just about every pregnancy/birth resource out there focuses on the mother or the baby, which makes sense to an extent because they are the main actors on stage. But there’s typically another partner involved who is feeling all sorts of things, but isn’t always asked or encouraged to share and express the roller coaster of thoughts, fears, hopes, beliefs that they’re experiencing. I wanted to change that in today’s episode, and so I interviewed my husband Matthew on his experience of going through pregnancy with me, how he initially felt about a home birth, and how he managed his fears and emotions of finally settling on an out-of-hospital birth. It’s an amazingly open and honest conversation about all of the things that came up for him through this journey. Matthew, as always, is honest and transparent, and that brings an amazingly refreshing perspective to the conversation of pregnancy and home birth. This episode was inspired by an article I read in Pathways To Family Wellness magazine. The article is title

When we began our pregnancy adventure, home birth was pretty far from our mind. We kicked things off the traditional way: going to see an OBGYN at a great hospital that would usher our baby into the world the way that 98% of families in the US do it. But three months later we parted ways with our OBGYN, partnered up with a midwife group working out of their home, and began our home birth journey. The two of us flip flopped on who was more fearful and enthusiastic about the idea. Neither of us had seen a home birth, we didn’t know much about them, and (until we started asking around) we didn’t know anyone who had even done one. But our decision to have baby Maya in our home ended up being the absolute best decision we could have ever made for our family (and I can say that with full resoluteness, because 5 days ago we welcomed Maya into the world! But we’ll get into that in a future episode). In this episode you’ll hear our full story on how we went from traditional hospital birth with an OBGYN, to a shiny

“We’re doing it at home!” That’s the response my husband and I gave when people asked us about our birth plans. 3 months into our pregnancy we decided to ditch the traditional hospital birth with an OBGYN, for a birth that aligned more with the experience we wanted to create for ourselves and our little one. Home birth suited us well, and we dove in. But not without fears, judgements, conversations, decisions, research, planning, and everything else you can imagine. This podcast is about our home birth journey. The purpose of this show is simple: To provide empowering conversation around home birth. What we’re setting out to do with the podcast is to create the space for a conscious, loving, raw dialogue around home birth, by sharing our own personal experience and through storytelling, conversations and interviews that give women and families an empowering resource so that they can make the birthing decision that is the best for them. Listen to the episode to learn more about our story, why we started the sh