Happy Homebirth

Have you ever looked at something in front of you and thought, "there's just no way"– no way that's going to fit, no way that's coming out, no way I can do this… and then watched it happen anyway? In this episode, Rebecca walks us through six births, and not one of them looks the same. A 38-hour first labor that ended in a hospital transfer. An eight-hour second birth she almost didn't believe was real. A three-and-a-half-hour third birth that woke her out of a dead sleep. A dreamy fourth birth with three answered prayers. A fifth where she had to do something she'd never tried to bring her baby down. And a sixth– a peaceful water birth where she found herself smiling through the contractions, whispering "birth is easy." We talk about surrender, about God's provision, about the difference between shallow positive thinking and real honesty, and about what it means to stand at the edge of life and death and choose trust. Episode Roundup: Let's start with the variation, because goodness– six births and not one of them matched. Thirty-eight hours and then three and a half. Ten pounds and then eight. Forty-two weeks and then thirty-nine. If you came into this episode hoping Rebecca would hand you a pattern– this is just how my body does birth– she gently took that out of your hands and gave you something better. She gave you a wide, wide field of normal. Your body does not owe you a formula. It's allowed to surprise you every single time, and that's not a problem to solve, it's just the truth of how individual each of these experiences really is. Next, I can't stop thinking about the surrender. Because underneath all that variation, there was one thing that never changed. Every birth, Rebecca came back to the same place– open hands. And with her sixth, she said out loud the thing that all her positive thinking had never let her say. Walking laps around her driveway with a toddler on her hip, she told the Lord that if He wanted to take her life, or her baby's, that day, she trusted Him with it. And what came on the other side of that honesty wasn't fear. It was peace. She said it herself– surrender and peace, they go together. I don't think that's a coincidence, my friends. I think those two always travel side by side. And finally, I want to sit with what she said about fear, because it's so important. There's no moral failing in being afraid. Everything we know about fear and tension in labor is still true– and also, you are allowed to come to your Father and say, "I'm scared." That's not weak faith. That's confession. That's honesty. And He can carry you right there in it. Now, does that mean if you just surrender hard enough your birth will be easy and pain-free like Rebecca's sixth? No, of course not– she'd be the first to tell you a peaceful birth isn't a reward for doing it right. But whatever your birth looks like, fast or slow, at home or transferred, it can still be one of the most sacred places you're ever called into. Rebecca called it a privilege. To be called into those places over and over again. I just love that. Bonus episode this week: Katelyn's solo episode, WThe Moment in Labor Nobody Warns You About, releases Wednesday 9/2. Links: FREE Peaceful Birth Reset: https://www.myhappyhomebirth.com/birthreset Whole Mother Homebirth | https://www.myhappyhomebirth.com/wholemotherhomebirth (use code PODCAST for 10% off) Youtube Episode Link: https://youtu.be/O9FZWWODUqk?si=6nY-6Bvwa1myBBzg Learn more about Samaritan Ministries: https://samaritanministries.org/happyhomebirth Bonus solo episode (releases 9/2): Rebecca's Instagram: @wellspringfamilywellness Facebook: Wellspring Family Wellness Website: www.wellspringfertility.com

What if you could do all of it right– read every book, listen to every episode, interview the midwife, make the plan… and still walk into your birth completely unprepared? Emily Swann is a wife to John, a mama of three, and the woman behind For the Love of Breastfeeding, where she teaches a bodywork course for babies and toddlers and runs a six-month program for mothers called Guided and Grounded. She's a nurse, an IBCLC, and holds a master's degree in public health and nutrition. She also binge listened to every episode of this podcast before her first baby was born. In this episode, Emily shares three births that look nothing alike. Her first: a planned homebirth that became four days of labor, a house full of onlookers, and a transfer to the hospital. Her second: a baby born at 35 weeks after eleven days of an unexplained 105 degree fever, followed by the NICU and a readmission– and a mother who protected breastfeeding through all of it. Her third: a baby born at home, unassisted and en caul, on the evening she cooked an entire Thanksgiving dinner in labor. We talk about the difference between being informed and being formed, about drama versus transformation, about where a woman's authority goes when she hands it off, and about why the magnifying glass in the lactation world is pointed at babies instead of mothers. Bonus episode this week: Katelyn's solo episode, Why More Research Isn't Making You Feel Ready, releases Wednesday 8/26 and picks up exactly where Emily's first birth leaves off. Links: FREE Peaceful Birth Reset: https://www.myhappyhomebirth.com/birthreset Whole Mother Homebirth | https://www.myhappyhomebirth.com/wholemotherhomebirth (use code PODCAST for 10% off) Youtube Episode Link: https://youtu.be/9QcQb_Sg7Qc?si=bp9JQG4yJPGeqey0 Learn more about Samaritan Ministries: https://samaritanministries.org/happyhomebirth Bonus solo episode (releases 8/26): https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ep-341-why-more-research-isnt-making-you-feel-ready/id1446934537?i=1000785946382 Emily's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theloveofbreastfeeding For the Love of Breastfeeding: https://www.theloveofbreastfeeding.com/

What if the most powerful birth preparation isn't a course, a class, or a stack of books at all, but a mother who's simply willing to go first, so everyone behind her can follow? Today I'm speaking with Cynthia Cruz, known to some of you online as Mama RAC. Cynthia is a wife to her husband Ron of 36 years, a mother, a grandmother, and a woman who chose homebirth in California more than 30 years ago, back when almost no one was talking about it. Her daughter Sabrina and her son Robert Anthony were both born at home. And if you have a baseball lover in your house, you may already know her son as Coach RAC of the Savannah Bananas. In this episode, Cynthia takes us back to a time before social media, before the million courses and videos, when preparing for a homebirth meant finding a lay midwife in the Yellow Pages and filling your mind with Ina May Gaskin, Weston A. Price, and every birth story you could get your hands on. She shares the spiritual breakthrough that ended five years of infertility, a first birth surrounded by twelve onlookers, a second birth so fast and primal that it was over in about an hour and a half, and the family legacy of homebirth that her children are carrying now. You're going to love her heart for going first. This podcast is sponsored by Samaritan Ministries. As a paid Samaritan member content creator, I receive compensation for sharing about the ministry. Samaritan Ministries International is not an insurance company and does not guarantee that medical bills will be paid by SMI or other individuals. Participation in health care sharing is voluntary. Members remain personally responsible for their own medical expenses. Required legal notices for residents of certain states are available at: https://samaritanministries.org/about/transparency-legal Links: FREE Peaceful Birth Reset: https://www.myhappyhomebirth.com/birthreset Whole Mother Homebirth | https://www.myhappyhomebirth.com/wholemotherhomebirth (use code PODCAST for 10% off) Youtube Episode Link: https://youtu.be/9lYbyLWaP7g?si=v5rrR9BtDzc9IIKj Learn more about Samaritan Ministries: https://samaritanministries.org/happyhomebirth

Have you ever sat in that strange, sacred in-between, when labor has whispered its beginning but hasn't fully arrived, and felt something rise up in you that you couldn't quite name? What if that feeling wasn't fear to push away, but power to say yes to? Petronella is a mother, a wife, and a lover of nature, art, and creativity, joining us all the way from Sweden. She grew up with one of the rarest gifts a woman can carry into her own birth: a mother who *loved* to give birth, and who told those stories with such joy that they shaped how Petronella saw birth her whole life. Long before she was ever pregnant, she was steeping herself in birth. Assisting at her friends' homebirths. Witnessing her sister's birth. Listening to birth stories nearly every single day. In this episode, Petronella shares what it looked like to birth at home in a country where homebirth is deeply uncommon. Finding private midwives outside the system, stepping back from routine checks, and trusting her own knowing. She tells us about her water breaking under the biggest full moon of the year, the moment of fear that turned into the words *you're going to meet your power*, and a birth she experienced not as pain, but as wave after wave of intensity and surrender. And she shares the tender, grounded peace of meeting her daughter, and discovering, as she put it, a brand new heart. You're going to love her presence and the way she tunes inward. Episode Roundup: First… I keep coming back to the power of preparation. Petronella didn't start getting ready for birth when she got pregnant. She started years before. She assisted at her friends' homebirths. She witnessed her sister's birth. She listened to birth stories nearly every single day, so many that her husband would laugh, another birth story? By the time labor arrived, trust wasn't something she had to summon in the moment. It was already woven into her. What a picture of how preparation works. Not as control, but as a foundation you get to stand on when the day finally comes. Next… I was so moved by the moment Petronella described as meeting her power. Early in labor, before things had fully begun, a fear rose up in her. Quiet. Deep. And instead of pushing it away, she got still and asked it what it was. What came back to her was an invitation: you're going to meet your power. She said yes. And from that yes, the fear was gone. No doubt. No question. How often do we treat fear as a stop sign? Petronella's story is such a reminder that sometimes the fear we feel in birth isn't a warning at all. It might be a doorway. And finally… The theme that stayed with me most was surrender. Petronella prepared more intentionally than almost anyone I've spoken with. And still, she said it so simply: even when we know, we don't have any control over it. It's a miracle. And a miracle asks us to surrender. This podcast is sponsored by Samaritan Ministries. As a paid Samaritan member content creator, I receive compensation for sharing about the ministry. Samaritan Ministries International is not an insurance company and does not guarantee that medical bills will be paid by SMI or other individuals. Participation in health care sharing is voluntary. Members remain personally responsible for their own medical expenses. Required legal notices for residents of certain states are available at: https://samaritanministries.org/about/transparency-legal. Links: FREE Peaceful Birth Reset: https://www.myhappyhomebirth.com/birthreset Whole Mother Homebirth | https://www.myhappyhomebirth.com/wholemotherhomebirth (use code PODCAST for 10% off) Youtube Episode Link: https://youtu.be/SvtI4BWYfMM Learn more about Samaritan Ministries: https://samaritanministries.org/happyhomebirth