Seanna shares the story of her healing VBAC and the strategies that helped her achieve this and heal from her traumatic first baby’s birth.
Read moreSavvy Self Advocacy in Birth: The BRAIN Acronym
If you’ve taken my class, you’ve learned more than one acronym for self-advocacy strategies in not just labor/birth, but in any medical scenario — prenatal, at the pediatrician, with your GP/PCP — really, anytime you want to make an informed decision. In my years of doing this work, these strategies have been a gamechanger for countless people I’ve worked with as well as for myself in my own first birth. Because it’s so powerful, I wanted to share it on the blog in a clear and concise way today.
So here’s the acronym and what each letter stands for. I talk about this acronym on episode 84 of the BIRTH MATTERS podcast (starting in the endnotes at around 49:00), so tune in there if you’d like to hear a detailed, more compelling explanation.
The BRAIN acronym for medical self-advocacy
Birth Matters Podcast, Ep 119 - Rapid Arrival: An Unmedicated Hospital Birth After Switch to Midwife
Upper West Sider Diana’s rapid, unmedicated birth story unfolds with her and partner Josh navigating spontaneous water rupture, fast labor, and timely hospital arrival with the help of doulas after switching from a large OB practice to much more personable midwife support.
Read moreBirth Matters Podcast, Ep 116 - The Power of Consent & Connected Care in Homebirth & Post-Birth Hospital Transfer
Sheyda and her partner Corentin share their experience of choosing a home birth. The homebirth is smooth, but then after birth, Sheyda makes an informed decision with the collaborative care of her midwife to transfer to the hospital so she could recover more efficiently from bleeding a lot after birth.
Read moreBirth Matters Podcast, Ep 115 - Chiropractic to Avoid a Cesarean with Transverse 2nd Baby
Tracy shares her challenges both with a harder 2nd pregnancy as well as with baby being in transverse position late in pregnancy, getting chiropractic care to flip baby and avoid a C-section, and how she confidently advocated to buy time and avoid unnecessary interventions in labor.
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