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.

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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.