Lottie shares her birth story and discusses how important fetal movement monitoring was to her story.

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Sarah shares her birth story and discusses her positive NICU experience.

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Angela shares her pregnancy and birth stories.

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This is a preview of our Partner Podcast series from The Birth Hour. These episodes release every Friday for our listener supporters at the $10+ level via Patreon.

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Christi shares her birth story and discusses being diagnosed with gestational diabetes, delivering at 36 weeks, and postpartum phototherapy jaundice treatment.

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Chae shares her conception and birth stories, and discusses going in for an induction due to gestational hypertension that turned into an unscheduled c-section.

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Hadar shares her gentle cesarean birth story.

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Allison shares her birth story, her experience with the Know Your Options Childbirth Course, and about hiring a postpartum doula for her 4th trimester.

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Jill shares her three, very different, birth stories and discusses the challenges of pandemic postpartum.

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Lauren shares her two, unmedicated hospital birth stories.

Taylor shares her birth story and discusses her struggles with breastfeeding.

Aubrey shares her waterbirth story.

After planning for a baby for years, the time finally came for Kayla and her husband to start trying. They successfully got pregnant fairly quickly, but found their timing to be all but perfect as news of the pandemic began to spread. Although adapting to this new way of life during pregnancy was difficult, Kayla had a relatively normal pregnancy and planned for an unmedicated hospital birth with midwives.

Jasmine shares about being induced at 37-weeks for pre-eclampsia and discusses her postpartum treatment experience as a black woman.

Bert Anderson had three positive vaginal births in hospitals. She used epidurals for all three births and for the most part she had uncomplicated pregnancies. After her first birth she was diagnosed with postpartum depression when her son was four months old. Since then she has become aware of her mood and depression so she can recognize the warning signs.

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This is a preview of our Partner Podcast series from The Birth Hour. These episodes release every Friday for our listener supporters at the $10+ level via Patreon.

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Logan and Brian are parents to five, four girls and their newest arrival, their son Maverick Moon. This was Logan's third homebirth and one of the goals was for the midwife to make it this time! Logan shared her previous birth stories on episode 441. You can listen to those at here.

Camilla shares three birth stories and discusses postpartum during covid.

Today's birth story comes from mom of two, Monet Moutrie, who shares her experience giving birth at a birth center in Denver, Colorado. Monet comes to birth with the unique perspective of having photographed hundreds of births as a birth photographer—in other words she's pretty much seen it all! 

Sarah shares her empowering hospital birth story.

Shauna shares her two very different hospital birth stories.

Emelie shares her two birth stories: the first, an induction due to preeclampsia; the second, an emergency c-section due to a placental abruption.

Brenna shares her epidural-free birth story and discusses testing positive for GBS, but not receiving antibiotics due to the rapid onset of active labor.

Keelie shares her two different birth experiences, one with and one without an epidural.

On this episode, Annie shares her three birth stories, and having postpartum depression and pelvic floor issues.

This is a preview of our Partner Podcast series from The Birth Hour. These episodes release every Friday for our listener supporters at the $10+ level via Patreon.

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Madison shares her two cesarean birth stories, and how her preparation for the second made for a positive birth and postpartum experience.

Aubrey shares her two brith stories. Find her birth videos on the show-notes page!

This is a preview of our Partner Podcast series from The Birth Hour. These episodes release every Friday for our listener supporters at the $10+ level via Patreon.

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A few days before Jenny was 41 weeks with her fifth baby, she came to the Midwife Center to start a natural induction - pumping and walking. After a few hours, her water broke and her labor began.

Lori shares her 2- year pregnancy journey, birth story, and discusses her postpartum complications.

Before she was even pregnant, Loi had read all there is to read about pregnancy and childbirth. She knew that she wanted an unmedicated birth, and began to prepare herself by learning all she could about labor and delivery. After a smooth pregnancy, Loi had a home water birth with a midwife attending in Nairobi, Kenya!

Nikki shares the birth of her twins and shares advice for NICU parents.

This is a preview of our Partner Podcast series from The Birth Hour. These episodes release every Friday for our listener supporters at the $10+ level via Patreon.

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Arden is a grief and bereavement doula who found her calling to help others through pregnancy loss after a long fertility journey to her son, Cameron. In this episode, she opens up about pregnancy and live childbirth after infertility and loss.

This episode is sponsored by Fairhaven Health, which is generously offering 15% of all of their products with the code BIRTHHOUR at www.fairhavenhealth.com.

Hattie shares her two birth stories and discusses birth and postpartum resources in a rural community.

This episode is sponsored by Baby Cube. For a limited time, BabyCube is offering 20% off to birth hour listeners with the coupon code BIRTHHOUR20 at babycubeglobal.com

Lola worked during most of her pregnancy and walked 6 km a day. She was quite scared about going into labor, so she chose a doctor who really made her feel confident about herself. The doctor had a reputation of standing back during most of the delivery and letting things follow their natural course, and would step in as needed. Another important factor that made things easier was that the hospital was only a 3 minute walk away from their apartment.

Sponsor: grove.co/birthhour

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This is a preview of our Partner Podcast series from The Birth Hour. These episodes release every Friday for our listener supporters at the $10+ level via Patreon.

Go to patreon.com/birthhour to become a patron and receive access to these weekly partner episodes as well as other bonuses such as access to over 350 archived episodes, membership in our private Facebook group, and other bonus content.

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Brittany shares her two birth stories.

Today’s episode is sponsored by Advanced Nutrition by Zahler. Visit https://amzn.to/3sGzFYY for an exclusive 25% off toward your purchase on Amazon using code PREDHA25.

Caroline and Matt tried everything under the sun to turn their baby head down in an effort to avoid a c-section: moxibustion, acupuncture, Spinning Babies, flips in the pool, and two ECVs. Ultimately, Caroline found acceptance in a scheduled c-section and loved her birth experience. She was able to advocate for all of the gentle cesarean practices including immediate skin to skin, a clear drape, arms free, music playing, etc.

This is a preview of our Partner Podcast series from The Birth Hour. These episodes release every Friday for our listener supporters at the $10+ level via Patreon.

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Meghan shares about her molar pregnancy and loss, and her subsequent hospital births with a midwife.

Victoria shares her three birth stories.

This is a preview of our Partner Podcast series from The Birth Hour. These episodes release every Friday for our listener supporters at the $10+ level via Patreon.

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After being faced with needing to transfer care at 34 weeks, Georgiana wound up letting go of the “hypnobirth of her dreams” due to the need for an urgent caesarean section at 37 weeks.

After a fairly normal pregnancy, Nicky developed high blood pressure at 37 weeks and had to be induced. Despite a long labor she was able to have the epidural-free birth she’d hoped for. Postpartum, she struggled with triple feeding and was diagnosed with Insufficient Glandular Tissue.

This is a preview of our Partner Podcast series from The Birth Hour. These episodes release every Friday for our listener supporters at the $10+ level via Patreon.

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Rachael shares the stories of her hospital birth and brain surgery a few weeks postpartum.

January Harshe shares her first four birth stories: a cesarean, a homebirth transfer to cesarean, a hospital VBAC after being dropped from care by her homebirth midwife, and a very healing unassisted homebirth. You can hear her 5th and 6th birth stories on her podcast that she hosts with her husband, The Harshe Podcast.

This episode's sponsor is Pharmaca. Go to pharmaca.com/birthhour for 20% off your first order!

Kayla shares her the story of her unmedicated hospital birth.

For a special offer from this episode's sponsor, Grove
Collaborative, go to grove.co/birthhour

This is a preview of our Partner Podcast series from The Birth Hour. These episodes release every Friday for our listener supporters at the $10+ level via Patreon.

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Kalen shares about the birth of her son with hearing loss and her VBAC birth of twin girls.

Charlotte found out she was pregnant with her 2nd child in December 2019. In January, while still in her first trimester, it was confirmed that she was moving to Singapore from London with her 2 year old daughter and husband in May. However, due to coronavirus their moving plans were changed and they ended up spending 6 months in her husband's home country of New Zealand.

This is a preview of our Partner Podcast series from The Birth Hour. These episodes release every Friday for our listener supporters at the $10+ level via Patreon.

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Hannah shares her birth stories and struggles breastfeeding.

A doctor told Chelsea there were no trophies for women who have an unmedicated birth; but, Chelsea felt passionate about having a serene, med-free experience in the hospital. When she had to be induced at 38 weeks with gestational hypertension, her preparation and self advocacy paid off for a successful hypnobirth experience.

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Jerika shares her experience birthing with the assistance of her husband and a 911 operator.

This is a preview of our Partner Podcast series from The Birth Hour. These episodes release every Friday for our listener supporters at the $10+ level via Patreon.

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Genny shares her birth stories and discusses hypnobabies and switching care providers. Her husband, Dave, shares his experiences on TBH's Partner Podcast at patreon.com/birthhour.

This is a preview of our Partner Podcast series from The Birth Hour. These episodes release every Friday for our listener supporters at the $10+ level via Patreon.

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Following an ectopic pregnancy that ruptured one of Shana’s fallopian tubes, she unexpectedly got pregnant almost immediately after her first loss. At the time, she was living in London, England and preparing for her husband, Doug, to move in early 2020.

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Sarah shares her birth and postpartum stories.

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Elise Hurst shares her three birth stories—two unmedicated hospital births and one homebirth. She also shares some fun and interesting tidbits from pregnancy and her struggles with breastfeeding and postpartum. 

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This is a preview of our Partner Podcast series from The Birth Hour. These episodes release every Friday for our listener supporters at the $10+ level via Patreon.

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We are so appreciative of your support!

Brittany and Mickey worked with a team of 2 midwives who delivered at their local hospital. COVID threw a wrench in their baby plans, and she ended up needing a medically required induction. When the first two induction methods didn’t work, Brittany was started on Pitocin. Thanks to their doula (who the hospital made a one-time-COVID exception for), they were able to make it through 19 hours of labor without an epidural.

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At Nathalie’s twenty week ultrasound, she learned that she was at high risk for placental challenges and pre-term labor. In the eighteen weeks between her twenty week ultrasound and birth, she would make over 52 visits to various doctor's offices, including twice-weekly non-stress tests and dopplers. The gravity of Nathalie’s health challenges and her desire to make it to term caused an overwhelming amount of stress. To cope with her anxiety, Nathalie turned to Expectful's meditations and hypnobirthing. Within one week of using Expectful, Nathalie saw her condition stabilize, and she was able to make it to term.

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Andrea used hypnobirthing for her two births. Her births were similar in that they both lasted about 8 hours with 20 minutes of pushing. Her first birth to her daughter ended with meconium presenting and a third degree tear. Her second birth was started via induction. After a failed epidural, Andrea gave birth to a surprisingly huge 10lb 12oz boy.

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After a 20 hour labor, Liesel delivered her son epidural-free at the hospital (and department) where she worked.

This episode is sponsored by Grove Collaborative. Go to grove.co/birthhour for a special offer!

After learning she had fibroids shortly after she started her TTC journey, Mabel decided to have a laparoscopic myomectomy done to remove multiple fibroids from within her uterine wall. The journey to get pregnant continued on for another 2 years before she got a positive pregnancy test. She had a relatively smooth pregnancy except for fibroid degeneration and gestational diabetes. Her son was born vaginally after a 36 hour labor.

On this episode, Lauren returns to share her second birth story.

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This is a preview of our Partner Podcast series from The Birth Hour. These episodes release every Friday for our listener supporters at the $10+ level via Patreon.

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Hillary shares her birth story and about her postpartum challenges with nursing and gallstones.

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Along with sharing her birth story, Danielle discusses experiencing several early miscarriages and being diagnosed with preeclampsia.

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Jane shares about her unexplained infertility issues, adoption, pregnancy via IUI, and homebirth.

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After an uncomplicated, swift, birth center birth with her first son in 2018, Lauren was caught off guard when her second son was still breech at 36 weeks.

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Sarah planned an unmedicated hospital birth with her first child, but eventually got an epidural after becoming frustrated with a difference in cervical checks done by the nurse and the on-call doctor. For her second, she decided to try again for an unmedicated birth and decided to hire a doula for extra support.

This episode is sponsored by Grove Collaborative. Visit grove.co/birthhour for a free gift with your first purchase!

This is a preview of our Partner Podcast series from The Birth Hour. These episodes release every Friday for our listener supporters at the $10+ level via Patreon.

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Kaitlyn was worried that her PCOS and irregular cycles would be a problem when she and her husband Brett started trying to conceive their first child. The day before she planned to start her first round of fertility drugs, they found out they were expecting.

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On this new episode of our Know Your Options series, we are discussing COVID-19 and what we are seeing in regards to care during pregnancy and childbirth as well as planning for postpartum.

We have added content to our Know Your Options course covering COVID-19 and are always talking about this in our bi-weekly Zoom calls for our students. 

Sign up for the Know Your Options Childbirth course at thebirthhour.com/course and use the code 100OFF for $100 off enrollment.

Rachel had a textbook pregnancy and planned an unmedicated hospital birth with the support of her husband, midwife, and doula. Her labor began in the intimacy of her home as desired, but after arriving at the hospital, it was determined that scar tissue on her cervix was stalling progress. After 39 hours of labor, she was able to deliver her son.

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This is a preview of our Partner Podcast series from The Birth Hour. These episodes release every Friday for our listener supporters at the $10+ level via Patreon.

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After a happy and straightforward birth with her first child, Priscilla, Katherine started thinking about the idea of home birth.

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Courtney became pregnant with her first child and quickly began researching all the ways to prepare for a healthy natural birth. After seeing one of her favorite YouTubers have a beautiful home birth it opened her eyes beyond hospital birthing.

Elana's birth story went as she hoped - she had a planned hospital birth with an epidural that was 12 hours start to finish. The doctors & hospital were kind & compassionate, and really helped create a special experience.

This is a preview of our Partner Podcast series from The Birth Hour. These episodes release every Friday for our listener supporters at the $10+ level via Patreon.

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After a bad experience with a small town OBGYN and switching care providers at 35 weeks pregnant with her first pregnancy, Amanda knew the importance of finding the perfect care provider during her second pregnancy.

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Kaitlin shares the story of her fourth homebirth, which she calls a "wildcard."

This is a preview of our Partner Podcast series from The Birth Hour. These episodes release every Friday for our listener supporters at the $10+ level via Patreon.

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In this replay, Sasha shares two birth stories as well as three losses. Sahsa will be back soon to share her most recent to births.

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Lauren shares the birth stories of her three children, who were all conceived via IVF.

Today’s episode is sponsored by March of Dimes, in honor of Birth Defects Prevention month. During this month, March of Dimes is partnering with the CDC to generate awareness among women of childbearing age, families, and health care providers about things they can do to help prevent birth defects. You can find out more at marchofdimes.org/TheBirthHour.

After conceiving quickly, Jeni had an easy pregnancy apart from fear and changing plans due to COVID-19. She planned a unmedicated childbirth at the birthing center in the University Hospital System where she worked. Two days before her due date, she went for two two-mile walks and did some prenatal yoga, only to start to have some irregular contractions that evening.

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Having her first baby at 25 years old as a single mom, Michelle thought she was done having children until she got married and gave birth to her second child at 41 and her third child at 43.

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Kate shares her two birth stories.

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On this episode, Jana tells several stories, which she describes as: devastated by a 21-week loss due to multiple congenital anomalies, followed by a miscarriage at 8 weeks, blessed by two, unmedicated births (one at a hospital and one at home during the pandemic).

This is a preview of our Partner Podcast series from The Birth Hour. These episodes release every Friday for our listener supporters at the $10+ level via Patreon.

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Anita and her partner, Brian, were initially surprised by their pregnancy. After six months of trying to conceive, they both weren’t sure they could. After delivering her son via a vaginal birth (with an epidural) in 2009, Anita desired to have an unmedicated birth with her next child.

On July 28^th, 2016 Alexis gave birth to her first child after 8 hours of labor. Despite dealing with back labor, she was able to have an unmedicated labor and delivery with the support of her husband Kurt, their doula, and midwives at the local hospital. 

In the spring of 2020 Alexis and Kurt were preparing for the birth of their second child. The plan was to again have a hospital birth with the same midwifery group and be supported by a doula. When the world started rapidly changing due to the COVID-19 pandemic, they found themselves navigating the unimaginable.

With the use of technology, Alexis was able to have her doula support her virtually as well as help coach her husband to support her throughout labor and delivery. That combined with the calming expertise of her midwife and nurse, Alexis was able to have the birth that she wanted feeling fully supported by her birth team. They welcomed their second daughter into the world on April 28^th, 2020. 

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Find out how to get maternity compression garments and the Luna breastpump from Motif for free through insurance at motifmedical.com/birthhour.

This is a preview of our Partner Podcast series from The Birth Hour. These episodes release every Friday for our listener supporters at the $10+ level via Patreon.

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After a traumatic experience with postpartum Hellp Syndrome, two blood transfusions, a 24 hour magnesium drip several hours after the birth of her daughter in 2017, and a miscarriage in 2019, Vered and her husband had garnered a solid and trusted medical team in her new OB and Doula, and felt mentally prepared to safely welcome their son in 2020.

Amanda had a smooth, yet uncomfortable, pregnancy but then had to navigate giving birth and finding support during the pandemic. She experienced a day of prodromal labor before real labor started the day after her due date. After arriving at the birthing center, she labored most of the day in the water supported by her husband and sister. Labor was intense yet peaceful and she progressed steadily throughout the day. She delivered her baby on a birth stool and after a short scare with the baby not immediately breathing, they had an immediate bond. Postpartum was the happiest time of her life and loved breastfeeding from the start. She had a significant tear but had a great experience working with a pelvic floor physical therapist to heal.