In this beautiful episode, I sit with my dear friend Mariela, a traditional Mexican midwife whose story flows from the heart of Mexico City to borderlands birth centers and beyond. We talk about the journey of becoming a midwife, from learning placenta medicine at sixteen to catching babies across cultures, and how midwifery bridges both ceremony and clinical care. Together we explore what it means to practice birthwork as both political and sacred, how to read a laboring woman’s cues through sound, scent, and intuition, and how the rebozo carries generations of wisdom, like a grandmother’s embrace woven into cloth.
It’s an intimate, honest reflection on the art of traditional midwifery, the rise of doulas, and the remembering that birth is the most universal language on Earth.
If this episode nourished you, follow and rate the show, leave a review, and share it with someone who loves birth.
Come find us for courses, trips, and community at wombsoftheworld.com and on Instagram @wombsoftheworld.
Connect with Mariela on Instagram @amor.primalparteria.
And travel with us in Mexico! Learn more wombsoftheworld.com/mexico
Today we remember. We talk about birth as ceremony- for the mother, the parents, for the village, the land, the waters, and all our ancestors.
Rosa Amarilla joins me to share Andean-rooted wisdom on naming rituals, caring for the placenta, the medicine wheel, and what it really means to decolonize our care.
We also get practical: how to weave altar work, dreamwork, and small acts of reverence into day to day life.
How accountability can be love in action.
How mushrooms and plants can hold us through postpartum and pleno pausa.
This one is a blessing for birthworkers everywhere.
May it remind you that you are the medicine.
Follow @ikake.medicina to learn more from Rosa’s work.
Follow @wombsoftheworld and visit www.wombsoftheworld.com for upcoming trainings, global trips, and our maternal health initiatives.
If this conversation nourished you, please follow, rate, and share it with a birthworker or mother you love.
Charlotte is joined by South African birth pioneer Theoni Papoutsis to explore conscious birth, postpartum care, and the realities of South Africa’s maternity systems. Together they talk about doulas and independent midwives, liability culture and rising cesarean rates, and why trust and surrender are central to birth. Theoni shares her wisdom on postpartum support, belly binding, closing rituals, and practical tools for labor like breath counting and the yes mantra. This conversation offers both global perspective and personal insight, showing how conscious birth is about more than labor itself, it is about how we care for mothers, families, and communities long after birth.
Find Theoni and her book on Instagram @papoutistheoni
Charlotte sits down with Berlin-based birthworker and policy researcher Clara Arenas to explore why birth is both the most intimate act and a deeply political one. They trace how postpartum care reflects a society’s values, compare community care and paid leave across cultures, and unpack what it really means to decolonize birth, pluralizing perspectives, respecting sovereignty, and keeping ceremony authentic rather than performative. Expect real talk on advocacy, shame and language, doulas as postpartum protectors, and practical ways to center mothers, babies, partners, and community.
The conversation also sets the stage for the Wombs of the World Summit in Berlin (October 15–17, 2025), a three-day gathering with traditional midwives and birthworkers from around the world. Join us to listen, reflect, and help reimagine how we welcome families.
Follow Clara on Instagram @claarush and learn more about the Wombs of the World Summit at wombsoftheworld.com/summit
In this very first episode, Charlotte Brielle, founder of Wombs of the World, sits down with doula and communications manager Kyndrick Peachey to ground us in the basics of birthwork. Together they explore what a doula is, how doulas and midwives differ, and why the doula’s role is such a vital bridge between ceremony and medicine.
From the rise of doulas worldwide to the traditions of rebozo and closing ceremonies, to the realities of hospital systems and white coat authority, this conversation weaves global perspectives with practical insights. You’ll also hear the story of how Wombs of the World began, why travel changes the way we see birth, and what’s ahead for trainings, trips, and the Berlin Summit.
Whether you’re brand new to birthwork, training to become a doula, or simply curious about how culture and care intersect in the most universal human experience, this episode sets the stage for what’s to come.
Learn more at wombsoftheworld.com