• What Mindset helps you manage Miscarriage that Doesn't go as planned? Kristen's Story, Part II
    Nov 19 2024

    Today I finish my conversation with Kristen.

    This week we hear about:
    * two challenging miscarriages
    * drugs for miscarriage versus D and C procedure
    * Insights on how to think about the miscarriages
    * Her current pregnancy

    We pick up where we left off. Kristen is talking about getting pregnant a 4th time, around 9 months after the last birth, and how this time things don't go well...

    Must Watch video with Elizabeth Banks from the American Heart Association
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_JI487DlgTA

    References for Oocyte Aging
    https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/how-many-eggs-does-a-woman-have#puberty

    https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10080932/

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    30 mins
  • What Happens when Infertility Gives Way to Pregnancy Before IVF is started: Kristen's Story, Part I
    Nov 12 2024

    Today we hear from a woman whose experience ran the gamut from infertility, on the brink of IVF, to smooth pregnancies, quick births, and difficult miscarriages.

    Throughout this process she learns:
    * important lessons about the limits of her control over the complicated process of growing another human
    * the joys of outrunning medical predictions that pregnancy would be very hard to achieve.

    What follows is the first part of our conversation.

    Link about inductions
    https://evidencebasedbirth.com/evidence-on-inducing-labor-for-going-past-your-due-date/

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    27 mins
  • What happens when you have to be your own Doula for an Accidental Home Birth? Darla's Birth Story, Part II
    Nov 5 2024

    This week I finish my conversation with Darla.
    She has another uneventful pregnancy, that ends in a bang--
    * An unintended home birth
    *Significant challenges when-- in the early thick of Covid-- Darla has to jump through hospital hoops shortly after delivering a baby.

    We pick up where we left off last week. Darla reflects on her first birth with appreciation, and is gearing up for the next birth, in a different setting.

    More on recurrence of retained placenta
    https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14767058.2019.1688294
    https://obgyn.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/ijgo.14800

    To find more about Darla:
    Website:

    howtoaffordeverything.com

    Socials:

    instagram.com/my_finansis

    youtube.com/@my_finansis

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    37 mins
  • What Difference can a Doula Make in a Case of Retained Placenta? Darla's Birth Story, Part I
    Oct 29 2024

    Today we hear from a mother of two who has a degree in public health and was trained as a doula before her first pregnancy.
    She didn't expect her water to break the way it did
    She didn't expect a retained placenta or the hemorrhage that followed

    and thanks to both her resilience, and the skillful work of her doula, that experience was followed by a second pregnancy and birth.

    She also shares great tips about managing the chaos of postpartum with a whiteboard
    What follows is the first part of our conversation

    Doula care is currently covered by insurance in 21 states:
    https://www.kff.org/medicaid/issue-brief/challenges-and-strategies-in-expanding-non-traditional-pregnancy-related-services-findings-from-a-survey-of-state-medicaid-programs/#:~:text=Endnotes,reimbursed%20through%20a%20bundled%20payment).
    To find more from Darla:
    Website:

    howtoaffordeverything.com

    Socials:

    instagram.com/my_finansis

    youtube.com/@my_finansis

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    34 mins
  • What Can Turn Around a Hard Hospital Birth? Jennifer's Birth Story, Part II
    Oct 22 2024

    In today's episode I finish my conversation with Jennifer, the Doula in Reno

    She shares how she managed all the complications of her daughter's tenuous condition:
    * Born with RDS, a lung condition that has a high mortality rate

    * How lessons learned from that experience shaped her willingness to go on to foster babies who came into the world with other compromising circumstances

    and

    *How her experience in the hospital that first time led her into birth work.

    We pick up where we left off last episode. Jennifer is in the hospital after birth waiting to hear about the fate or her fragile newborn.

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    28 mins
  • What Can Happen when Infertility gives way to that first pregnancy? Jennifer's Birth Story, Part I
    Oct 15 2024

    Today my guest, a DOULA and birth worker, talks about her challenging experience with INFERTILITY:
    * All the minor surgeries
    * How hard it was to manage at the age of 19 more or less alone
    *How challenging it was to go through a regrettably similar process with her grown daughter

    and how she managed the twists and turns of both the pregnancy and the birth, which included HYALINE MEMBRANE DISEASE (aka RDS) and a PDA.

    Unequal Investment in Women's Health: Nature, 2023
    https://www.nature.com/immersive/d41586-023-01475-2/index.html

    PDA: Patent Ductus Arteriosis
    www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/conditions-and-diseases/patent-ductus-arteriosus-pda

    Connect with Jennifer:https://doulainreno.com/

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    29 mins
  • What happens when you decide to Bed Share with your Infant? Kim's birth story & Expert insight on Infant Sleep
    Oct 8 2024

    In today's episode I finish my conversation with Kim about her experience, both having kids and becoming a sleep coach.

    NOTE: I should mention upfront that we talk about a full term still birth and how Kim managed that very challenging experience.

    She also shares WHAT MAKES BED SHARING SAFE OR UNSAFE (generally speaking)

    and gives TIPS about what's generally considered NORMAL FOR INFANT SLEEP and WHY WE SEE DISRUPTIONS IN SLEEP even after things have been going well!

    We pick up where we left off last week. Kim is talking about the benefits of starting to understand what cultural anthropologists and others define as normal sleep patterns for infants.

    AAP Guidelines
    https://safesleep.mo.gov/american-academy-of-pediatrics-recommendations/#:~:text=Infants%20should%20be%20placed%20in,position%20as%20soon%20as%20possible

    Academic work that contest elements of the AAP Guidelines
    https://publications.aap.org/pediatrics/article-abstract/153/4/e2023064675/196919/The-Tension-Between-AAP-Safe-Sleep-Guidelines-and?redirectedFrom=fulltext

    Connect with Kim
    Website: https://intuitiveparentingdc.com/

    The Responsive Family Sleep Podcast: https://intuitiveparentingdc.com/podcast

    https://www.instagram.com/intuitive_parenting_dc/

    https://www.facebook.com/intuitiveparentingdc

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    29 mins
  • What happens when Your Birth Center Birth ends up in a C section? Kim's birth story, Part I
    Oct 1 2024

    In today's episode I speak with a woman who worked in the field of mother and infant health before she became pregnant.

    She shares the challenges she encountered in her birth--going from a planned birth center birth to a C section, what she might have done differently in that process,

    and how she managed that challenge.

    She also shares what led her to become a holistic sleep consultant, a story continued into the next episode.

    You can find Kim here: https://intuitiveparentingdc.com/

    The Responsive Family Sleep Podcast: https://intuitiveparentingdc.com/podcast

    https://www.instagram.com/intuitive_parenting_dc/

    https://www.facebook.com/intuitiveparentingdc


    And some references for infant sleep:
    Dr. James McKenna’s work and Baby Sleep Info Source, a wonderful website out of the UK: https://www.basisonline.org.uk/

    Kim's blogpost on infant sleep:
    https://intuitiveparentingdc.com/blog/2018/7/6/developmentally-appropriate-sleep-expectations-birth-to-age-5

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    28 mins