Reframe Your Birth Story & Empower Your Birth

In this unique episode, Dr. Sneha Gazi turns the mic on her own birth story with the help of Risa Klein, a certified nurse midwife and the founder of Manhattan Midwife. With over 30 years of experience transitioning from attending home births to working in hospital settings, Risa has dedicated her career to empowering mothers and advocating for low-intervention, high-satisfaction deliveries. Risa shares her journey from working as a TV news producer to discovering her true calling in midwifery, explaining how she now focuses on birth consultations and medical record reviews to help mothers process, understand, and heal from challenging birth experiences.The conversation takes a deep dive into Sneha’s 45-hour labor, allowing Risa to clinically and emotionally reframe the extended timeline. Risa unpacks the reality of "back labor," explaining how a posterior fetal presentation likely caused Sneha’s prolonged early contractions without significantly dilating the cervix. She emphasizes the crucial need for early communication with care providers, noting that simple positional shifts, like getting in a tub or adopting a polar bear position, can often help turn the baby and save mothers from severe energetic depletion. The episode also clarifies the medical difference between labor induction and augmentation, validating Sneha’s intuitive decision to get a restorative epidural upon reaching active labor.Finally, Risa and the host explore the broader, often disconnected landscape of modern hospital births. They discuss the pitfalls of navigating large obstetrics practices where mothers might end up with rushed, unfamiliar, or unsympathetic providers who treat birth as a strict schedule rather than an individualized experience. Risa passionately advocates for continuous, trusting relationships between providers and mothers, encouraging listeners to speak up, ask questions, and secure a care team that truly listens to their needs.Connect with her:manhattanmidwife.comClick here and use your exclusive 20% listener discount (Code: Fit20) to enroll in Master Your Pelvic Floor, our signature self-paced course that will change the way you understand and care for your body.