The Home Birth After Cesarean Podcast

Rachael’s Cesarean & HBAC Stories

In today's episode we meet Rachael, who is a mother of two. Rachael had a scheduled cesarean at 36 weeks during her first pregnancy due to placenta previa. This left her with a difficult postpartum period due to baby being early. Before the scheduled cesarean even took place, Rachael knew that she would be pursuing a VBAC during her next pregnancy. When she got pregnant she planned an HBAC and gave birth to her next baby at home. 

Join us as Rachael shares her birth stories, how alone and anxious she felt after her cesarean, and the importance of going into labor with an open mind to accept birth however it may unfold. We also discuss the perspective shift of being excited for labor instead of fearing pain and discomfort, the importance of breath work and how it can impact labor, the fear and doubt that can creep in during transition, the “birth high” after having a home birth, having your older children around during labor, and keeping your birth plans private and not discussing them with those who may not be supportive.

Be sure to subscribe to The Home Birth After Cesarean Podcast on your favorite podcast app to be notified when new episodes are available, and follow us on Facebook and Instagram for all of the up-to-date information.

Want to share your Home Birth After Cesarean (HBAC) story? Send us an e-mail at hbacpodcast@gmail.com to get in touch.

This podcast is for educational and informational purposes only. It is not intended to replace advice from qualified medical professionals.

Jaimie’s Cesarean, Hospital VBAC & HBAC Stories

In today's episode we meet Jaimie, who is a mother of four, as well as a doula and lactation consultant. Jaimie had a cesarean after her first baby flipped breech between 38 and 39 weeks. After being led to believe that she would have a “gentle cesarean” but none of her preferences actually being honored, she knew she wanted something different the next time. Jaimie then went on to have a hospital VBAC with a 9lb baby and 2 HBACs, both of which were with 10lb babies.

Join us as Jaimie shares her birth stories, her journey through learning about pregnancy and birth, how she started advocating for herself and the impact it had during her VBAC birth in the hospital, and how she supports other moms today in her role as a doula. We also discuss the “protest-despair” response in babies who are immediately separated from their mothers after birth, how hospitals often seem to focus on paperwork and policies rather than the human beings they are working with, variations of normal in labor, our body’s innate wisdom and the ability of our body and baby to work together during labor and birth, our intuition as mothers and how it can lead us to support our babies in ways we may not understand in the moment, the image we create in our minds of how birth “should be” vs. how it actually is, the importance of processing through our births regardless of the outcome, the mental and emotional battles that often come with pregnancy, and the impact that true surrender in pregnancy, birth and motherhood can have.

Connect with Jaimie on Instagram, here.

Be sure to subscribe to The Home Birth After Cesarean Podcast on your favorite podcast app to be notified when new episodes are available, and follow us on Facebook and Instagram for all of the up-to-date information.

Want to share your Home Birth After Cesarean (HBAC) story? Send us an e-mail at hbacpodcast@gmail.com to get in touch.

This podcast is for educational and informational purposes only. It is not intended to replace advice from qualified medical professionals.

Jen’s Cesarean & HBAC Stories

In today's episode we meet Jen, who is a mother of two. Jen had a cesarean with her first child after a long labor and very little support in the hospital. Feeling dehumanized and traumatized by her experience, she began to look into other options and hired a home birth midwife as soon as she realized that she was pregnant with her second child. Jen then went on to give birth to her 10lb pound baby at home.

Join us as Jen shares her birth stories, the feeling she experienced during and after her cesarean of being the one giving birth but not mattering to anyone in the room, and the difficulty in navigating mainstream prenatal care when you don’t know the right questions to ask or that there are other options. We also discuss how quickly people are to say that VBAC and home birth are risky and the importance of remembering that repeat cesareans also come with risks, how home birth and birth centers only vary in regards to location, the difference in prenatal care from a midwife vs. an OB, the importance of taking the time to heal from previous birth trauma, how having your other children present at your birth will impact them and their perception of birth, the importance of taking time to rest in the postpartum period and process through your birth experience regardless of if it was traumatizing or not, and how motherhood can look different than you envisioned, especially if you start making choices that go against the mainstream. 

Be sure to subscribe to The Home Birth After Cesarean Podcast on your favorite podcast app to be notified when new episodes are available, and follow us on Facebook and Instagram for all of the up-to-date information.

Want to share your Home Birth After Cesarean (HBAC) story? Send us an e-mail at hbacpodcast@gmail.com to get in touch.

This podcast is for educational and informational purposes only. It is not intended to replace advice from qualified medical professionals.

Megan’s Cesarean & HBAC Stories

In today's episode we meet Megan. Despite Megan’s desire for a natural birth, her journey to motherhood began with an ectopic pregnancy and the discovery of autoimmune issues which left her feeling shaken and like maybe home birth wasn’t for her after all. When she got pregnant again, Megan sought out care from the OB who had performed the surgery for her ectopic pregnancy and ended up having a cesarean due to breech presentation. Immediately after her cesarean, Megan knew that she definitely wanted to have her next baby naturally at home and started meeting with midwives before she was even pregnant again. Megan then went on to give birth to her next baby in the comfort of her own home.

Join us as Megan shares her birth stories, the importance of discussing the realities of it sometimes taking several months to get pregnant once you begin trying, and the importance of paying attention to early red flags from your provider. We also discuss the sensations and feelings that come with having a cesarean and healing afterwards, the cascade of interventions and potential consequences of forcing labor to start before your body is ready, the stress of having strangers present during a hospital birth, the differences in the overall relationship and environment associated with a home birth and midwife compared to an OB in the hospital, finding the right balance between consuming positive VBAC/HBAC stories but still being aware of the risks and possibilities associated with birth, the importance of setting boundaries with people in your life regarding your birth plans, not allowing unsupportive people into your birth space, the stigma around home birth and the lack of education around home birth and birth in general, and that your birth support doesn’t have to come from a certified doula.

HBAC vs. hospital VBAC study: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33583048/

Be sure to subscribe to The Home Birth After Cesarean Podcast on your favorite podcast app to be notified when new episodes are available, and follow us on Facebook and Instagram for all of the up-to-date information.

Want to share your Home Birth After Cesarean (HBAC) story? Send us an e-mail at hbacpodcast@gmail.com to get in touch.

This podcast is for educational and informational purposes only. It is not intended to replace advice from qualified medical professionals.

Kara’s Cesarean & HBAC Stories

In today's episode we meet Kara, who is a mother of two. At the end of Kara’s first pregnancy, she was told to go in for an induction while her blood pressure was normal rather than waiting for it to get high again, despite only having had one high blood pressure reading several weeks beforehand. What her provider had said would be a “gentle induction” quickly cascaded into a cesarean. When Kara became pregnant again, her hospital VBAC plans turned into HBAC plans when covid hospital restrictions became widespread. When Kara’s water broke she didn’t experience any contractions for almost 2 full days, but being fully supported by her birth team, she went on to give birth to her baby in the comfort of her own home.

Join us as Kara shares her birth stories, how her experience as an athlete and powerlifter carried her through labor, the differences in the care that she received during her pregnancies, how she learned to say “no” during pregnancy, and how healing her HBAC was not only for her, but also for her husband after he got to catch and be the first person to touch his daughter. We also discuss the lack of informed consent when interventions are presented as something that needs to be done, discrepancies in due dates and how they can have a negative impact when scheduling inductions and cesareans, the importance of connecting with your birth team and interviewing multiple midwives and doulas when possible, and the way that postpartum depression has become normalized and dismissed in our society.

Be sure to subscribe to The Home Birth After Cesarean Podcast on your favorite podcast app to be notified when new episodes are available, and follow us on Facebook and Instagram for all of the up-to-date information.

Want to share your Home Birth After Cesarean (HBAC) story? Send us an e-mail at hbacpodcast@gmail.com to get in touch.

This podcast is for educational and informational purposes only. It is not intended to replace advice from qualified medical professionals.

Callie’s Cesarean & UBA3C Stories

In today's episode we meet Callie, who is a mother of four and a holistic doula, lactation specialist, placenta encapsulator and un-schooler. Callie had a cesarean with her first baby after being put on a clock at the hospital. She was then scared into a scheduled repeat cesarean with her second after a third trimester ultrasound showed that her baby was “too big.” During her third pregnancy, Callie planned for a hospital VBAC, but then experienced a bait-and-switch from her provider and fired them when she was around 8 months pregnant. She planned to just labor at home due to not being able to find another provider, but ended up with a third cesarean after experiencing intense fear and going into the hospital for pain management during labor. For her last pregnancy, Callie planned an unassisted home birth from the start, addressed her fears and gave birth to her UBA3C baby in the comfort of her home.

Join us as Callie shares her birth stories, her journey as a doula and how she supports women now, how she decided to take responsibility for her choices in birth, and the process she has gone through of forgiving herself for previous choices that had been made out of fear. We also discuss the process of facing our fears in pregnancy and birth, how fears and the inability to feel safe can stall labor, the feelings of self-doubt when there are so many outside influences that sabotage a mother’s intuition and make a profit when the natural way doesn’t work out, all of the gadgets and devices that are marketed to mothers as things they need to have during pregnancy and in motherhood, the potential ramifications of inductions and scheduled cesareans when due dates are inaccurate, making choices based on intuition and self-empowerment, not compromising what you want during pregnancy, birth and postpartum, and how birth is just as much of a normal, biological process as having a bowel movement.

Be sure to subscribe to The Home Birth After Cesarean Podcast on your favorite podcast app to be notified when new episodes are available, and follow us on Facebook and Instagram for all of the up-to-date information.

Want to share your Home Birth After Cesarean (HBAC) story? Send us an e-mail at hbacpodcast@gmail.com to get in touch.

This podcast is for educational and informational purposes only. It is not intended to replace advice from qualified medical professionals.

Kori’s Cesarean & HBAC Stories

In today's episode we meet Kori, who is a mother of two and currently lives on the island of Maui. Kori is a wealth of knowledge and has her own platform, podcast and online course where she teaches women how to restore their metabolism, vitality and food freedom of their youth. Kori’s first pregnancy ended in a cesarean due to her son being transverse when her water broke. She had been receiving prenatal care at a birth center in Florida, and had a poor experience when they needed to transfer to the hospital for a cesarean. Kori immediately knew that she would be pursuing an out-of-hospital VBAC for her next pregnancy, and she and her family made the move to Maui in between her pregnancies, where she then planned an HBAC with a midwife. After not progressing past 4cm for the first 32 hours of labor, Kori persevered and fully dilated the remaining 6cm within 40 minutes, immediately felt the urge to push and gave birth to her 9lb 7oz daughter two contractions later at 42 weeks exactly.

Join us as Kori shares her birth stories, how defeated she felt during her HBAC labor and how she reflects on and perceives the experience now, the importance of sharing difficult labor and birth stories, and the feelings surrounding an unplanned cesarean, not experiencing yourself give birth to your baby and seeing your baby for the first time when they are on the other side of the room. We also discuss honoring your intuition as a mother and allowing ourselves to trust our instincts despite the constant unsolicited advice mothers receive, the taboo conversations around bedsharing and co-sleeping, differing opinions on what “safety” is in birth and how it impacts our choices, taking responsibility for our bodies and health, how trauma can expose itself during birth, that our babies can also undergo birth trauma, our body’s wise, built in protective mechanisms, the importance of communal female relationships before, during and after birth, the current trend of “pain free births” whether at home or in the hospital with an epidural, and the huge rise we are seeing in the surgical method of addressing oral restrictions. 

Find Kori on Instagram, here.

Be sure to subscribe to The Home Birth After Cesarean Podcast on your favorite podcast app to be notified when new episodes are available, and follow us on Facebook and Instagram for all of the up-to-date information.

Want to share your Home Birth After Cesarean (HBAC) story? Send us an e-mail at hbacpodcast@gmail.com to get in touch.

This podcast is for educational and informational purposes only. It is not intended to replace advice from qualified medical professionals.

Kelli’s Cesarean & Breech HBAC Stories

In today's episode we meet Kelli, who is a mother of two. Kelli’s first birth ended in a cesarean after it was discovered that her baby was breech when she arrived at the hospital in labor. When she became pregnant with her second baby, Kelli discovered that this baby was also breech, but she knew that she didn’t want to have another cesarean. At 39 weeks, just 3 days shy of going into labor, Kelli solidified the support of a home birth midwife and gave birth to her breech baby in the comfort of her own home.

Join us as Kelli shares her birth stories and takes us through her journey of finding support to give birth to her breech VBAC baby at home after the intense manipulation, bullying, coercion and unprofessional behavior from the hospital, how she finally found validation in feeling traumatized by her c-section with the women she was connecting with in online forums, and how she desperately wanted someone to actually take the time to listen to her and trust her knowledge of her own body. We also discuss the mourning and grief experienced when our birth plans don’t line up with what we had pictured, the loss of not getting to watch our babies come out of our own bodies when we have a cesarean, how our memories of traumatic events can be impacted and it often feels as if we are remembering events through the photos/videos that were taken, how common it is to just take a doctor at their word and the emphasis we put on a doctor’s opinion, how the unpredictability of natural birth vs. a scheduled cesarean is perceived in the hospital, how doctors can use scare tactics to coerce women into what is easiest for their schedules, a baby’s perspective of a scheduled cesarean, how finding a community of supportive women can impact our healing, and how impactful it is for a baby’s first sensory experiences to be in the safety and comfort of their own home.

Be sure to subscribe to The Home Birth After Cesarean Podcast on your favorite podcast app to be notified when new episodes are available, and follow us on Facebook and Instagram for all of the up-to-date information.

Want to share your Home Birth After Cesarean (HBAC) story? Send us an e-mail at hbacpodcast@gmail.com to get in touch.

This podcast is for educational and informational purposes only. It is not intended to replace advice from qualified medical professionals.

Stephanie’s Cesarean, Hospital VBAC & HBAC Stories

In today's episode we meet Stephanie, who is a mother of three and a physical therapist. Stephanie had a cesarean with her first baby due to a sudden and severe onset of preeclampsia, which was followed by a 3 week NICU stay for her baby and an emotionally difficult postpartum recovery. With her next pregnancy, Stephanie hired the same midwifery group, but ended up being transferred to the on-call OB during labor when none of the midwives showed up for her. Despite having a VBAC, this was followed by another difficult postpartum recovery, both physically and emotionally. For her third pregnancy, Stephanie hired a home birth midwife and gave birth to her almost 10lb baby in her bedroom.

Join us as Stephanie shares her birth stories, how OBGYNs and modern medical care have their place when there is a true emergency, and how labor and postpartum recovery can differ in a medicated vs. unmedicated state. We also discuss how our bodies will protect our babies if we feel unsafe during labor, how our perceived level of pain during labor can be impacted by our surroundings, the impact that a doula or supportive birth partner can have, and the feedback loop that our bodies are designed with in regards to all of the hormones associated with labor, birth and postpartum recovery.

Be sure to subscribe to The Home Birth After Cesarean Podcast on your favorite podcast app to be notified when new episodes are available, and follow us on Facebook and Instagram for all of the up-to-date information.

Want to share your Home Birth After Cesarean (HBAC) story? Send us an e-mail at hbacpodcast@gmail.com to get in touch.

This podcast is for educational and informational purposes only. It is not intended to replace advice from qualified medical professionals.

Dr. Sarah’s Cesarean, UBAC & 2HBAC Stories

In today's episode we meet Dr. Sarah, who is a chiropractor and birth educator, and she shares her three birth stories. After her first pregnancy ended in a missed miscarriage, Dr. Sarah stayed with the same OBGYN group for her next pregnancy after undergoing IUI to become pregnant. Despite a voice in her head saying to just stay home, Dr. Sarah went into the hospital and had a cesarean for no reason other than falling into a cascade of interventions and her birth not following the hospital’s timeline. Immediately knowing that she needed to do things differently next time, Dr. Sarah hired a homebirth midwife when she became pregnant with her next baby, but later decided to to have an unassisted birth (UBAC) at home instead. For her last pregnancy, Dr. Sarah hired a different set of midwives and had a 2HBAC.

Join us as Dr. Sarah shares her birth stories, how her birth experiences have inspired her to connect with other women and become an advocate against obstetric violence and abuse, how obstetric violence and abuse can still occur even if your care team is “nice,” the importance of taking responsibility for your choices, knowing why you’re making the choices that you are, not blindly following what anyone says, and that doctors are just a consultant and the woman should be the final authority regarding their care during pregnancy and birth. We also discuss the Prenatal Care Workbook that Dr. Sarah is currently working on, how statistics on topics such as uterine rupture can be skewed, the role of the husband/partner during labor and birth, and the importance of preparing for postpartum and having postpartum support.

Find Dr. Sarah on Instagram, here.

Be sure to subscribe to The Home Birth After Cesarean Podcast on your favorite podcast app to be notified when new episodes are available, and follow us on Facebook and Instagram for all of the up-to-date information.

Want to share your Home Birth After Cesarean (HBAC) story? Send us an e-mail at hbacpodcast@gmail.com to get in touch.

This podcast is for educational and informational purposes only. It is not intended to replace advice from qualified medical professionals.