In today's episode: Books: The Nourishing Traditions Book of Baby & Child Care, Smart Medicine For a Healthier Child, How to Raise a Healthy Child in Spite of Your Doctor, Homeopathic Medicine-Children and Infants To Have at Home: Pulse Ox, Nebulizer, Nose Frida, Feel Better Fast (6m+), Elderberry Elixir (12m+), Cod Liver Oil, Teeth Tamer (for teething) Holistic & Homeopathic Remedies: FEVER: Ferrom Phos 6C (low grade fever), Belladonna 30C (high fever), Chamomilla 30C (teething fever...

Amazingly, Matthew and Monika went on to have their second child relatively quickly after she was finally healed from her first, and again had another smooth pregnancy. But all of her plans would come crashing down as her due date approached, and it seemed as if all of her hopes and dreams were slipping out of her hands. Her biggest fear was tearing again…and for good reason! Tune in today to find out what happens and how birth number two (and postpartum number two) ultimately unfolded! • ...

When you have a relatively smooth pregnancy, and a spontaneous, quick, uncomplicated and unmedicated birth at 39 weeks, you seem to have won the pregnancy and childbirth lottery, right? That’s what Matthew and Monika thought as well until she hit postpartum. And it wasn’t postpartum depression that took her out. It was the tear she endured during delivery that was unable to heal. For six months Monika had to return to her doctor every few weeks for more painful procedures and eventually surge...

Sometimes getting pregnant is easier than you expected, but then the pregnancy itself ends up being much more difficult. So learning to trust God and expect the unexpected is the name of the game! Alyssa and Daniel, while experiencing a difficult pregnancy with terrible nausea and vomiting, blood sugar issues, random rashes, the works, were pleasantly surprised when God redeemed the pregnancy through an early, relatively short, unmedicated water birth that they’d been praying for! • ...

Wild pregnancy...free birth... Are you familiar with those terms? While Katelyn had a home birth for her first, she went one step further and planned a free birth for her second. Unlike some moms, she’s not married to the idea, and it’s not a hill for her to die on, and if at any point she felt the need for assistance, she would have some, but as she said, until God told her otherwise, a free birth it would be. The Lord again taught her a lesson of patience, but this time it was in a totally ...

In today's Q&A episode, I'm going to answer several of the most commonly asked questions we've gotten as of recently. Tune in to find out how to keep your water from breaking too soon, how to prevent tearing during delivery, what episiotomies are and why you don't want one, what is placenta encapsulation and is it biblical, and the most asked question I've had as of late, why NOT to get an early ultrasound! RESOURCES FROM THIS EPISODE: "50 Human Studies in Utero" Book by Jim West: h...

For her second birth, Miriam realized the amount of support she truly needed, and that instead of isolating herself, surrounding herself with like minded women was what she needed in order to be able to fully surrender to the Lord and lean on Him through the process of an unmedicated home birth. And what an incredible difference that would make in her postpartum and in her relationship with her husband as well. Tune in to find out exactly how it all went down! • Interested in sharing your ...

I’ve heard of many moms who plan an unmediated hospital birth for their first, and then some who even plan a birth center birth for their first, and then the handful of moms who plan a home birth for their first, but it’s rare I find somebody who plans a free birth for their first. While Miriam’s heart started in the right place, as the planned free birth inched closer, so did her pride. And she would be humbled. Her first birth was 49 hours long and not anything like she had planned, and whi...

For your first birth, you end up having an elective induction that goes relatively smoothly with a very strong epidural and no major complications, other than a huge headache that was able to be resolved, albeit in a strange manner. Why then, would you choose to do it differently the next time? For Emma, she was blessed to be able to experience a pain-free natural birth with her second delivery when she chose to go to a different location for her birth. Listen today to hear why she chose to g...

The Lord is always speaking…if only we will listen. As Ariana took the journey of having five kids in eight years, God taught her so many incredibly valuable lessons. By the time she had her fourth, His voice was so clear and her trust in Him was so strong that He gave her the birth she never even knew she wanted. But He knew. Just because we’re obedient to God in one season though, doesn’t make it easy when He tells us to do something we didn’t expect in another. Hear how Ariana’s latest bir...

Listen in as I share three different stories from my time as a doula, starting all the way back to my first year over a decade ago. Today you’ll hear how I had the honor of being the eyes in the room for a blind mother as she met her baby for the first time, how I had two first time mom clients go into labor at the same time, and at the same hospital, but who ended up having two very different experiences. And lastly, how I had to literally save a mom from having a completely unnecessary epis...

Have you ever tried to do something alone, when you knew God designed you to do it in community? Christine was looking for like-minded friends during her third pregnancy that she could be in deep relationship with, and God answered her prayers. So much so, He even gave her a doula through one of those friends, and thank Him that He did, for she was the calming presence Christine would need during her overwhelmingly fast, precipitous birth. She’s already said after this experience she would de...

When you've been trying to conceive for months, and then you finally do, you think you’d be grateful for every part of pregnancy. But that’s rarely the case for a mom with Hyperemisis Gravardarium, also known as HG. When HG hit hard for Alexandria, not only did she lose a massive amount of weight in a short amount of time, but she lost her faith too. If God was a good God, why didn’t He take this thorn from her side? To top it all off as she prayed for a girl but she found out it was a boy, s...

When your first labor is faster than lightning, what can you expect for your second? Well, apparently the same! Erin goes against the norm with her birth stories as you’ll hear today. She only full realized she was in labor for about fifteen minutes before she was holding her baby in her arms. She was physically alone, other than her toddler who was right next to her, but God had fully prepared her for this situation and was right there alongside her. And thankfully, help was right outside, n...

We’re told first labors can be long, and on average, the first labor left undisturbed is roughly 25 hours long, but can you mentally prepare yourself for a 70 hour labor? That was Mary Kathryn’s experience, and I know it’s been the experience of many other first time moms out there. Making sure you have a solid care team around you from your husband to your doula to your midwife can make such a huge difference in your experiences as Mary Kathryn found out in her second and third labors (that ...

I asked and you answered! To celebrate our 100th episode, we are running through 100 quick tips for pregnancy, labor, postpartum and breastfeeding! Some of these you may have heard before, and some of them may be brand new to you. Whether you're pregnant or know somebody who is, please share this episode and spread the news about Surrendered Birth Stories' 100th episode milestone! • Interested in sharing your story on the podcast? Click HERE! • Take the SURRENDERED BIRTH ONLINE COURSE! C...

When you’re told you need to be done having kids by the time you're 25, that can feel like a lot of pressure, especially when you haven’t even gotten married yet, but trusting God and His plans always surpasses trusting in the world. On top of that, when your experience in pregnancy and birth doesn’t go anything like you had planned, prepared for, hoped or prayed for, it can seem like your world is toppling, but perspective makes a huge difference in how we interpret what plays out in pregnan...

Not many couples these days aim to get pregnant as soon as possible after marriage, but Matalin and Shane aren’t your average couple. With the understanding that children are blessings from God and wanting to have many of them, they were blessed to conceive on their honeymoon and start their family immediately. While that part of their plan worked out, the birth is a slightly different story. Be inspired by Mattie’s perseverance through some hard curveballs in labor, and how, despite things b...

When you have a copper IUD in place, you don’t expect to get a positive pregnancy test. But, at 16 weeks along, that’s just what happened for Mary and her husband! The surprise you must feel at news like that, being told you’re four months pregnant, but also the peace you can feel knowing it was obviously God ordained! And then God blessed her with an easy pregnancy and delivery as well! Not every first-time mom births in a hospital, not every first-time mom goes way past her due date, not ev...

When your first two birth experiences are filled with lots of prodromal labor and a very slow going dilation process, you should expect the same for your third, right? Wrong! Often third babies are called “wild cards” for a reason, they typically are different from your first couple of times, and that was very much the case this time for Cayla. Hear her and Joel recount the birth story of their third born, and every twist and turn along the way, and how they were able to see God’s miracle wor...