PODCAST · kids
Birthful
by Adriana Lozada
On Birthful, working doula and former journalist Adriana Lozada talks pregnancy, birth and postpartum with top experts and new parents. Every episode distills the overload of pregnancy information down to the most relevant and useful stuff. Adriana Lozada is a mom, author, speaker, birth doula, postpartum educator, and healthy-sleep consultant. Visit Birthful.com.Please note: Adriana has years of experience but she's not a doctor, and does not expect anyone to treat the show like medical advice. Please always consult with your care provider. This show does not dispense medical advice.
Episodes
-
9 Most Badass Birth Moments (From Adriana’s Doula Career)
Adriana celebrates a decade of podcasting by sharing some of the most badass moments she’s witnessed as a doula, including an unassisted waterbirth at the hospital, a uniquely calm and undisturbed physiological birth (in the hospital lobby!), and more moments where her clients embraced their…
more -
[Birth Stories] Triumphant Vaginal Birth of Twins Despite Preeclampsia and Triggering Interventions, with Michelle Rose
Michelle Rose describes her birth as that of her dreams, despite having a two-and-a-half-day-long induction for preeclampsia with a low platelet count, enduring a magnesium drip, a non-working epidural, a horrific vaginal check, hemorrhaging badly enough to require a blood infusion, and feeling...
-
[Birth Stories] Four Days After Her Water Broke and Still No Labor – Now What?!, with Sivan Dirks
What do you do when your water breaks and FOUR days later, there’s little sign of labor? For Sivan Dirks this meant almost drinking a castor oil smoothie! Instead, she leaned into the holistic and intuitive tools she’d gathered over her previous -and varied!- birth experiences, to have her most...
-
[Birth Stories] Celebrating Our 10 Years With Adriana’s Birth Story!
What better way to celebrate this incredible 10-year milestone than by having Adriana share her own birth story? But there’s a twist… actually more than one! First, it's Adriana’s daughter, Persephone (Seph), doing the interviewing. They’ll be sharing the evolving tradition Adriana started when...
-
[Birth Stories] Weaving Together Four Unmedicated Births to Reveal Her Authentic Self, with Ujarak Appadoo
One of the biggest surprises for Ujarak Appadoo when she first got pregnant was that she would need to prepare or adjust for living in a pregnant body and giving birth. She’d figure she’d just carry on doing life as she’d seen her peers do, and that everything would unfold without much fuss. So...
-
[Birth Stories] A Scheduled Surgical Birth and a Home VBAC: Both Based on Her Intuition, with Jessica Pinney
Even though 5 doctors had cleared Jessica Pinney for a vaginal delivery with her rare placental conditions of vasa previa and velamentous cord insertion, she listened to her intuition and decided to have a planned surgical birth for her first child. For her next pregnancy, listening to her...
-
[Birth Stories] Knowing All Was Well Despite Seven Hours of Pushing, with Tabitha DeLorio
Even though Tabitha DeLorio had a long pushing stage (and we’re talking 6 to 7 hours long!) at no point was she discouraged that something was wrong. She shares with Adriana how the trust she had in her body and her team, their loving support, and constant reassurance (as well as her baby showing...
-
[Birth Stories] Getting Baby to Flip From Breech With an ECV for a Flowing Vaginal Birth, with Kaitlin Moore
What happens when a baby suddenly turns breech at 36 weeks? For Kaitlin Moore, this meant a hard pivot and lots of research to weigh her options between trying to get her baby to flip back or having a surgical birth. She shares the difficulties of finding the right provider to do an External...
-
[Birth Stories] Fast Homebirths and Liminal Spaces With a Pregnant Funeral Director, with Anna Walsh
If birth and death are liminal bookends to our human experience, what conversations emerge as a pregnant funeral director is attended by a grieving midwife? Anna Walsh shares the story of her two fast births, and how she felt safe, heard, and respected as she transferred to the hospital for a...
-
[Birth Stories] Creating a Beautiful Birth Experience Despite 5 Days of Interventions, with Olivia Styons
Can a chaotic labor with a myriad of interventions for preeclampsia and several failed epidurals be a positive experience? Olivia Styons shares with Adriana the hard pivots she and her team had to make and how crucial it was for her to speak up for her needs - from getting a shower to holding her...
-
[Birth Stories] An Intentionally Unassisted Birth After Three Hospital Births, with Kemeera Nimahat
Doula and perinatal dance instructor Kemeera Nimahat has given birth four times and is the self-proclaimed queen of ignoring early labor. She shares with Adriana how tuning into her intuition has been pivotal in deciding where and with whom to give birth (she switched from homebirth to hospital…
more -
[Birth Stories] Can You Even Prepare for Baby Hiccupping While Crowning?!, with Danielle Fetty-Lovell
Danielle Fetty-Lovell has been through a lot in her births! But probably the most unexpected moment was when her first daughter had the hiccups while she was crowning for a really long time (making it both comical and excruciating). She shares with Adriana how being deeply focused on her labor...
-
[Birth Stories] An Unexpectedly Unassisted Blissful Breech Birth, with Toni Shama
Toni Shama’s first birth asked for movement, and her third birth asked for much vocalization. Her second birth, however, asked for tons of intimacy with her husband. She shares with Adriana how when they fueled that passion, labor became so fast they barely had a chance to call their midwife…
more -
[Birth Stories] When Place-Of-Birth Policies Keep You Thinking Instead of Birthing, with Emily Salahuddin
Emily Salahuddin set out to have an unmedicated birth at a birth center, but trying to remain within the risk boundaries of that facility turned into an all-consuming mind game, bringing with it an onslaught of non-medical interventions. Ironically, it was after being transferred to the hospital...
-
[Birth Stories] Two Non-Epidural Inductions: With and Without the Fetal Ejection Reflex, with Meredith Finch
Given that Pitocin contractions can be so intense, most people who have inductions also tend to have epidurals – but not Meredith Finch! Listen as she shares with Adriana how her preparation, flexibility, the crucial support from her husband and her doula, and a profound emotional release with…
more -
[Birth Stories] From Traumatic Cesarean to Healing (and Fast!) VBAC, with Morgan Moy
What’s more stressful: a panic attack right before a surgical birth that takes your breath away and leaves you with memory gaps, or your baby’s shoulders getting stuck on the pubic bone after the head is out and needing a manual placental extraction? For today’s birth story, doula, lactation...
-
Connecting with Your Baby in Utero through Song, with Penny Simkin
Figuring out a newborn’s needs can be tricky, and sometimes a baby will cry no matter what you do. Wouldn’t it be great to have a tool to help you automatically soothe your child? One that also reduces your stress? Join Adriana in this In Memoriam episode, as she revisits her conversation with…
more -
[Birth Stories] How Birth Took Her to Her Edge When She Least Expected It, with Vanessa Janek
A former labor and delivery nurse and childbirth educator, Vanessa Janek thought she knew what to expect from birth. Going into it, she was a bit leery of transition… but nothing could really prepare her for the exhaustion, fear, and overwhelm she felt when contractions went away, just after she...
-
Insider Tips From a Labor and Delivery Nurse, with Mandy Irby
Even though you may not have met them before, labor and delivery nurses are an essential part of your hospital birth team. In this episode, Registered L&D Nurse Mandy Irby talks with Adriana about why nurses may love and hate birth plans, how to navigate triage, the difference between hospital...
-
[Birth Stories] When the Curveballs Come Before and After the Birth, with Mandy Alexander
Mandy Alexander got pregnant at 40, having had bariatric surgery 7 years before that. During what she describes as her ‘bariatric-geriatric’ pregnancy, she worked through her fear of childbirth and ended up with the unmedicated and collaborative birth experience she was looking for. However,...
-
How Will You Show Up At Your Birth?, with Shalome Stone
Here’s the thing about preparing for birth: you can read all the books, take all the classes, listen to all the podcasts, set up a dream birth team, but no amount of preparation will get the birthing done for you. Shalome Stone tells Adriana why pregnancy is the ideal time for doing the inner…
more -
[Birth Stories] The Power of Having A Strong Advocate When Her Plans Derailed, Tara Langsdorf
What does a self-described Type A do when her birth plan derails? Tara Langsdorf (who finished her second master’s degree and took a promotion managing a team of 25 while pregnant!) shares with Adriana how leaning on the structures and support she’d set up during pregnancy allowed her to go deep...
-
How Your Birth Plan Impacts Your Birth Experience, with Stephanie Mitchell
Certified Nurse-Midwife Dr. Stephanie Mitchell shares with Adriana a few tools from her step-by-step guide to building a birth plan, and discusses why getting your plan together—and onboarding everyone on your birth team—can help ensure you are respected and heard during your birth experience.…
more -
[Birth Stories] How She Prepared Differently to Avoid Another Managed Birth, with Danielle Ford
Danielle Ford has had two very distinct births, with her first happening with minimal preparation and many interventions. It wasn’t until getting pregnant 10 years later that she realized she carried a lot of trauma from birth number one. She shares with Adriana how taking a deep dive into her...
-
Birth Principles: Enhance Your Birth Plan!, with Jessie Harrold
Today we’re going beyond the birth plan to talk about birth principles! Although a well-crafted birth plan can be a powerful tool, more often than not they're formulaic, and outcome-focused nature can give a false illusion of control, and even elicit eye rolls from jaded caregivers. Jessie…
more -
How to Set Up Your Childcare Options to Include Community Care, with Leslie Borrell
Great childcare— so, a solution that you can afford, has availability, works with your schedule, and can provide loving and safe care for your child— can be hard to find! Most often than not, you will have to concede some trade-offs. Leslie Borrell explains the different childcare options out...
-
How to Have a Great Hospital Birth, with Adriana Lozada
You can have a fabulous birth experience at a hospital, but it requires thoughtful preparation. Adriana Lozada helps simplify this process by going through some of the best practices to get you there. Get the most out of this episode by checking out the resources, transcript, and links listed on...
-
Milk Your Lactation Benefits!, with Adriana Lozada
Some people say that nursing your baby is "free” — and while there certainly are unique cost savings associated with feeding human milk, there can be expenses associated with it, too. How can you maximize your lactation-related benefits? And what does the law have to say? Adriana shares practical...
-
How to Organize Truly Helpful Postpartum Support From Your Friends and Family, with Michelle Peterson
Michelle Peterson shares with Adriana a fantastic framework for setting up your postpartum village of support that spreads the responsibility over many people (seven to be exact) so that you are well-resourced beyond the first few weeks of postpartum. She explains how to prepare and why you’ll…
more -
[Birth Stories] Leaning Into Peer Support After Her Unplanned Surgical Birth, with Dr. Amber Thornton
Dr. Amber Thornton worked hard for a healthy pregnancy and an unmedicated vaginal birth, but she didn’t expect her water to release before 39 weeks. Despite an early hospital admission, labor progressed right along… until it didn’t. She shares with Adriana the fears she had to contend with while...
-
Why You Deserve Professional Postpartum Support (And How to Afford It!), with Kaitlin McGreyes
When it comes to postpartum, EVERYONE needs support. And even after accepting that you WILL need the help, it can be tricky figuring out how to ask for it, especially when most of our friends and family members don’t really know how to help (nor have the time!). Kaitlin McGreyes talks with…
more -
[Postpartum Stories] When Anxiety and Panic Come Out of Nowhere, Kayla Sanmiguel
Having had two flawless postpartum periods under her belt, Kayla Sanmiguel didn’t know how to cope when postpartum anxiety and severe panic disorder came out of nowhere after her third birth. She shares with Adriana how being blindsided by the experience compelled her to bolster her future...
-
Working with HR to Maximize Your Employee Benefits for Postpartum, Katy Dahl
Understanding your parental leave benefits —with all its overwhelming fine print— can be a daunting task! To make the process easier, human resource professional extraordinaire Katy Dahl shares with Adriana how to approach the process so that you can not only maximize your benefits, but also...
-
[Birth Stories] Fast Birth, Hard Postpartum
Ivy shares with Adriana the overwhelming challenges of her postpartum experience after being overjoyed by her fast and furious unmedicated hospital birth. She explains the lactation issues that lead her to exclusively pump and the difficulties in healing her pelvic floor, as well as why she...
-
What You Need To Plan Your Parental Leave, with Arianna Taboada
Perinatal health consultant Arianna Taboada goes through the ins and outs of paid and unpaid parental leave in the United States. She shares with Adriana Lozada how to be realistic about your options for the best possible return to work for you and your family, while lessening the overwhelm. To...
-
[Birth Stories] How She Confidently and Calmly Gave Birth in a Moving Car, Laura Loos
Laura Loos has had two non-medicated vaginal births, with her second one happening so super fast, that it involved birthing while in a moving car! She shares with Adriana how connecting with her inner voice and trusting the abundant preparation she had done during pregnancy allowed her to be…
more -
How Your Baby Helps During the Birthing Process, with Adriana Lozada
Babies use a set of coordinated movements and specific reflexes that allow them to participate in the birthing process. Adriana Lozada explains how this fascinating process works, and how it helps get them earthside. Get the most out of this episode by checking out the resources, transcript, and...
-
[Birth Stories] How She Reframed Birth Toward Pleasure and Let Her Power Flow, with Maya Ehnat
Maya Ehnat was brought up to be comfortable with birth, and so from the get-go, her language and approach weren’t fear-based. Beyond that, much of the preparation she did during pregnancy was guided by a desire to minimize trauma and bring heaps of pleasure and joy into the experience. She shares...
-
How to Bring More Pleasure and Joy Into Your Birth (And Why It Makes a Difference!), with Debra Pascali-Bonaro
If you want to minimize sensations of pain and even move them into pleasure, this episode is for you! Debra Pascali-Bonaro and Adriana explore how you can bring more pleasure and joy into your birth, and why doing so can help you not only have a better experience, but also help support your birth...
-
[Birth Story] How Harnessing Her Birth Hormones Allowed Her to Forgo an Induction, Danellia Arechiga
When Danellia Arechiga became a gestational surrogate, she felt strongly about having an unmedicated birth at a birth center. Even as her labor plan derailed into an induction, she pushed for few interventions and worked with her physiology, ultimately experiencing the elusive Fetal Ejection...
-
Helping Your Mammalian Body (and Baby!) Have an Easier and More Connected Birth, with Dr. Sarah Buckley
During labor, you want contractions that are longer, stronger, and closer together. But why? Dr. Sarah Buckley and Adriana take a deep dive into the amazing and fascinating hormonal dance that happens during the birthing process, and how interventions such as synthetic oxytocin or an epidural can...
-
[Birth Stories] How Her Goals of “No Epidural and No Whining” Helped Her Befriend the Labor Pain, with Celeste and Claudiu Bancos
Celeste and Claudiu Bancos share their perspectives of their son’s birth (who chimes in too!), often surprising each other with moments the other didn’t remember or knew about. Ultimately, Celeste achieved her birth goals of not whining and avoiding getting an epidural, with the help of a...
-
The Purpose of Childbirth Pain, with Rhea Dempsey
Rhea Dempsey is one of the foremost thinkers on the topic of working with pain in childbirth. She shares with Adriana the physiological purpose of pain during labor, why it gets such a bad rap, and suggests the pain relief paradigm is a medical construct that undermines our capacity for peak...
-
[Birth Stories] Birth Is as Mental and Emotional as It Is Physical, with Megan Othling
Megan Othling explains how birth can happen as much in your head as in your body and how facing the unexpected feelings she was having during the birth of her third child was just what was needed for them to be born. She shares with Adriana the profound growth and transformation she experienced...
-
Getting Comfortable With the Intimate Nature of Birth, with Nekole Malia Shapiro
Pregnancy is a great time to realize what the heck motivates your choices as you venture into the great transformation of birth and becoming a parent. Nekole Malia Shapiro shares with Adriana how using the embodied approach of connecting with yourself and your body can help you find your own best...
-
[Birth Stories] So Was It a Waterbirth?, with Hailey McHone
Hailey McHone’s first birth was what her OB called "a textbook hospital delivery," which came with an epidural-Pitocin combo, and, frankly, little consent. She talks with Adriana about getting more intentional with her wishes and choices for her second birth and ending up with a...
-
Transformation Through The Holistic Stages of Birth (Part Two), with Whapio Diane Bartlett
We try to make birth practical by measuring, overseeing, and monitoring it… when really, it’s an experience that flows seamlessly from one stage to another, taking the birthing person deep into their physiology and intuitive altered states. Whapio Diane Bartlett shares with Adriana how to better...
-
Transformation Through The Holistic Stages of Birth (Part One), with Whapio Diane Bartlett
We try to make birth practical by measuring, overseeing, and monitoring it… when really, it’s an experience that flows seamlessly from one stage to another, taking the birthing person deep into their physiology and intuitive altered states. Whapio Diane Bartlett shares with Adriana how to better...
-
Best of Birthful: Why Pushing Too Early Might Affect the Baby and You, with , with Whapio Diane Bartlett
Welcome to the Best of Birthful. Creator and host Adriana Lozada curated and edited each selection in this playlist of the show’s most popular episodes. It's a tailored introduction to the expansive catalog she amassed over the first five years of Birthful's 300+ episodes (which is now in its 9th...
-
Best of Birthful: How an Anxious Mind Impacts You During Pregnancy, with Parijat Deshpande
Welcome to the Best of Birthful. Creator and host Adriana Lozada curated and edited each selection in this playlist of the show’s most popular episodes. It's a tailored introduction to the expansive catalog she amassed over the first five years of Birthful's 300+ shows (which is now in its 9th...
We're indexing this podcast's transcripts for the first time — this can take a minute or two. We'll show results as soon as they're ready.
No matches for "" in this podcast's transcripts.
No topics indexed yet for this podcast.
Loading reviews...
ABOUT THIS SHOW
On Birthful, working doula and former journalist Adriana Lozada talks pregnancy, birth and postpartum with top experts and new parents. Every episode distills the overload of pregnancy information down to the most relevant and useful stuff. Adriana Lozada is a mom, author, speaker, birth doula, postpartum educator, and healthy-sleep consultant. Visit Birthful.com.Please note: Adriana has years of experience but she's not a doctor, and does not expect anyone to treat the show like medical advice. Please always consult with your care provider. This show does not dispense medical advice.
HOSTED BY
Adriana Lozada
CATEGORIES
Loading similar podcasts...
Frequently Asked Questions
How many episodes does Birthful have?
Birthful currently has 354 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
What is Birthful about?
On Birthful, working doula and former journalist Adriana Lozada talks pregnancy, birth and postpartum with top experts and new parents. Every episode distills the overload of pregnancy information down to the most relevant and useful stuff. Adriana Lozada is a mom, author, speaker, birth doula,...
How often does Birthful release new episodes?
Birthful publishes regularly with 354 episodes available. Check the episode list for the typical release schedule.
Where can I listen to Birthful?
You can listen to Birthful on PodParley by clicking any episode. We provide an embedded audio player for direct listening, and you can also subscribe via your preferred podcast app using the RSS feed.
Who hosts Birthful?
Birthful is created and hosted by Adriana Lozada.
URL copied to clipboard!