Today on The Natural Birth Podcast we have Sami
Sami is descended from a long line of natural birthing women, intuitives, and midwives.
As the granddaughter of the founder of the Utah College of Midwifery, she has been surrounded by home birth her whole life, and didn't realize it wasn't the typical way for Americans to give birth until she was a teenager.
Sami is the mother of 5 children, four daughters and one son.
She is a stay at home mom who has dabbled in birth photography, birth support, personality typing, and writing romance novels.
She has always felt called to the sacred space of natural birth, and is waiting for her time to follow in her family's footsteps as a future midwife.
Today she shares all of her 5 births, including the partial placental abruption that brought her into the hospital from her home.
Still owning her birth every step of the way.
And the most amazing part of this story for me is that her grandmother and her mother in law were midwives for each of her births.
Something I just find absolutely amazing!
Sami has shared 37 photos with us from her 5 births that we will share inside the Podcast Inner Circle for you who are members of my Online Community The Maiden, Mother & Maga Village.
If you’re not a member yet please head on over and join us today!
Right now you can access the Village for 3 months for free!
Want to work with Anna or join The Sacred Birth Worker Mentorship?
Find Anna’s Website, about her Mentorship & How to Work with Her, as well as all Links & Resources she mentions in the episode here: www.sacredbirthinternational.com/links-podcast
Today on The Natural Birth Podcast we have Güte
Güte is a mama of one from South Africa, and a coach with a passion to support mothers with connecting to their intuition and a natural way of living, especially in the perinatal phase. Contrary to modern myths, Güte has found natural birthing and mothering, and the lead up to it, to be the most self-actualising process she’s ever experienced and that she continues to enjoy.
During her pregnancy she decided to pivot her coaching practice to support mothers, as she realised how isolated they tend to be. She is co-creating a world where mothers are part of a loving network, with the perspective and knowledge to find joy and meaning in pregnancy, birth and motherhood.
In today’s episode she shares about her pregnancy and home waterbirth in London as a South African Expat, and how it took her on a journey to lean into self-responsibility and intuition as a way of avoiding medical intervention, without needing to fight, but by creating a safe and nurturing environment, with support from wise mamas.
Her first surges came when her parents landed from South Africa early in the morning. She was supported by her loving husband and doula throughout her labour until she roared and raged and birthed her baby into the water shortly after the midwife had arrived.
Curious about Güte? Find her on instagram as @gute.immelman
Want to work with Anna or join The Sacred Birth Worker Mentorship?
Find Anna’s Website, about her Mentorship & How to Work with Her, as well as all Links & Resources she mentions in the episode here:www.sacredbirthinternational.com/links-podcast
Today on The Natural Birth Podcast we have Emily.
Emily is an author and mama of two under 2 from the Highlands of Scotland. She is known on social media as Prepping for Everything and has built an online following for sharing homesteading, prepping and motherhood.
I started following Emily for her homesteading reels and Emily found The Natural Birth Podcast when she got pregnant with her first 3 years ago.
And here we now are, full circle, as Emily comes to share her 2 birth stories.
Her first being a planned home birth turning into a long prodromal affair ending in a non emergent hospital transfer where Emily’s mama lioness was born. Her baby was born naturally, healthy, pink and screaming without the need of any interference from the hospital even though they tried their best.
And her second redemptive, normal home birth with physiological plateaus that in hospital would have been classified as abnormal and a bigger postpartum bleed without the bells and whistles of the hospital.
Curious about Emily? Find her on instagram as @preppingforeverything
Want to work with Anna or join The Sacred Birth Worker Mentorship?
Find Anna’s Website, about her Mentorship & How to Work with Her, as well as all Links & Resources she mentions in the episode here:www.sacredbirthinternational.com/links-podcast
Today on The Natural Birth Podcast we have Abby
Abby is a mama of one who’s always been in allopathic medicine as a nurse and in different areas of health care and business.
But even before she became pregnant, she was beginning to lean into a more holistic ways of living.
And after attending a womb healing, she felt this deep, undeniable call to motherhood, and with it came the knowing that she was meant to birth at home.
From there, she began a conscious conception journey, immersing herself in education and preparation, and developed a real passion for physiological natural birth.
She’s now here today to tell her story as a first-time mama who had a fast three-hour home birth at 41 weeks with gestational diabetes, and to her surprise, a breech baby.
Curious about Abby? Find her on Instagram as @of_earthandher
Today on The Natural Birth Podcast we have Amanda.
Amanda is a mama of 3, a stay-at-home, home-birthing mama with a passion for natural living.
Over the years, that passion grew into a mission of guiding women and mothers toward more natural ways of birthing, eating, and healing.
Since 2012, she’s been using social media to inspire thousands to live healthier lives, from reading food labels and making better choices to questioning the mainstream narrative around wellness.
Today, she’s the founder of @nuvitaglobal, a women-centered health and wellness brand designed to help women feel better, live better, and thrive naturally.
In today’s episode Amanda shares about her first hospital birth experience as a young 20 year old to her 2 home water births after that.
How she howled as a wolf and birthed her baby into the hands of her husband.
Curious about Amanda? Find her on Instagram as @supermodelmomma1
Today on The Natural Birth Podcast we have Phoebe
Phoebe is a pediatric acupuncturist and herbalist who supports families through natural healing. She’s also a gardener, a student of culture, and a lifelong learner. Phoebe lives off-grid in an intentional community, in a home her husband built, where she shares life with her three teenage step kids, two dogs, and their six-month-old baby girl.
Today she shares the story of birthing her breech baby girl, supported by her midwife, squatting as her husband catches their baby.
A story full of birthing wisdom I can’t wait to share with you all.
Curious about Phoebe? Find her on Instagram as @abundantnaturalhealing
Today on The Natural Birth Podcast we have Taylor
Taylor is a mama of two from Maryland, United States.
She has her bachelor’s degree in Environmental Studies and Psychology and along with being a stay at home mom, she spends her time seeking out new ways to fuse her passions for the Earth and the mind into a nourishing and well rounded lifestyle and career.
Whether she is dancing, creating native community garden spaces, foraging, or passionately sharing her love of sacred physiological birth, you can always find Taylor searching for deeper connections with the land and people around her.
Today she shares about her 2 birth stories. Her first in the hospital which Taylor found to be a positive experience, but still with lots of interventions and medicalisation and then her second, a freebirth with just her family present.
Curious about Taylor? Find her on Instagram as @t.schroyer21
Want to work with Anna or join The Sacred Birth Worker Mentorship?
Find Anna’s Website, about her Mentorship & How to Work with Her, as well as all Links & Resources she mentions in the episode here:www.sacredbirthinternational.com/links-podcast
Today on The Natural Birth Podcast we have Lucie.
Lucie is a mama of two from the Czech Republic.
She is a wife and a doula who has been holding space for women in the birth space and her community for over 10 years including pregnancy circles, birth blessings and different workshops.
Today we get to hear about her first pregnancy and birth as an expat in Ireland with only her doula present as her husband and home birth midwife didn’t make it on time and arrived shortly after the birth!
Her second baby was also born at home in the Czech Republic with her midwife and friend while her husband and son slept in the next room.
Lucie felt very inward during her births and trusted her process while knowing that she had her chosen support women around her if she needed it.
Both of Lucie’s stories show us the magic of home birth and to trust in your body's intuitive wisdom!
Curious about Lucie? Find her on Instagram as @dula_pribram
Want to work with Anna or join The Sacred Birth Worker Mentorship?
Find Anna’s Website, about her Mentorship & How to Work with Her, as well as all Links & Resources she mentions in the episode here:www.sacredbirthinternational.com/links-podcast
In this special update episode, I take you behind the scenes of my world right now. 🌿 I share about the beautiful in-person gathering I just hosted on my land with the women in my Sacred Birth Worker Mentorship — a weekend filled with sisterhood, ceremony, and deep connection.
I also share some exciting news: I’ve launched a brand-new podcast! 🎙✨
It’s called The Sacred Birth Work & Biz Podcast, and it’s dedicated to those of you who feel called to birth work or are already on the path. It’s where I’ll be sharing my personal journey, stories, and the wisdom I’ve gathered about building a soul-aligned, feminine way of doing both birth work and business.
If you’ve ever been curious about my story, the mentorship, or how to step deeper into your own calling, this update is for you.
Here are the 3 Episodes out Now:
Episode 3: From Midwife to Midwitch – The Dark Night That Birthed Sacred Birth International
Thank you for listening!
Connect on IG @sacredbirthinternational
Website sacredbirthinternational.com
I know I know, if you’ve been listening the last 2 weeks you are now expecting no 4!
And no 4 is epic!
It’s called “The Wisdom of Letting go and Lean into the Pain in Birth” with Stephanie. But I couldn’t retrieve the video recording of it and because the poddy is now on YouTube as well I decided to not share it.
But YOU can go to thenaturalbirthpodcast.com to find it at no 4 of the top 10 episodes of all time (meaning since 2020).
BUT don’t get too disappointed because this is truly one of my favs.
I interviewed Aimee just as I was about to start the first round of the Sacred Birth Worker Mentorship in 2023.
I didn’t know it was going to be called that at the time and used the working name the spiritual midwife program as I was still known as The Spiritual Midwife.
Anyway, today on The Natural Birth Podcast we have Aimee Aroha.
Aimee is originally from New Zealand, today living in Australia and she is a Wild Mother and Transpersonal Birth Mentor.
She generously takes us through her first hospital birth at the young age of 24 and her initiation into motherhood.
We then dive into red threads, birth imprinting, rites of passages and women’s power in her rites and birth.
Aimee continues to share how her life took a turn as she moved from the big city smoke of Sydney into nature in Northern NSW, meeting a new partner and then becoming pregnant again and how this time she made very different choices.
She employed an independent home birth midwife for her second pregnancy but ended up birthing before her midwife arrived, and when she became pregnant a third time she decided for a fully wild pregnancy and free birth with just her family.
Curious about Aimee? Find her on instagram as @aimeearoha
Want to work with Anna or join The Sacred Birth Worker Mentorship?
Find Anna’s Website, about her Mentorship & How to Work with Her, as well as all Links & Resources she mentions in the episode here:www.sacredbirthinternational.com/links-podcast
So you might be wondering why I’m not sharing our top 2 today but out top 3?
That’s because our top 2 is A Midwife's Top Tips on How to have a Natural Birth and I think its just time that has brought this episode up so high on the rankings.
My more recent Anna Solo Episodes are so much better than this first one which I shared in 2020 just a couple of months after starting out as a podcaster.
But if you wanna hear baby podcaster me sharing my midwifery tips back in the day, then head on over to thenaturalbirthpodcast.com to listen in.
Oh yeah, I have a new website for the poddy!
You can see and listen to the top 10 podcast episodes there, as well as all previous episodes of course!
Anyways, Today on The Natural Birth Podcast we have Kemi Joy Johnson which is our no 3 most loved episode.
The OG episode was called “6 Steps to a Natural & Empowering Birth with Kemi & Anna”.
Kemi is a Mother and a former registered Midwife turned Birthkeeper & Birth Activist.
She de-registered as a midwife a few years back and is now a Whistle Blower, Truth Speaker & Teacher.
And we are coming on the podcast today together to have an honest conversation about the reality of our current maternity system and what you need to know and the steps you need to take to optimize your chances of having a Natural and Empowering Birth Experience whether it is in the hospital, birth center or at home!
Get ready for some edgy talk and truth bombs.
To have a Natural & Empowering Birth in our modern world means taking full responsibility and claiming your rite of passage!
You can also download the 6 Steps that we talk about in the episode in a handy PDF to refer to as you prepare for your upcoming birth!
Find it in my free resources via the link below.
Curious about Kemi? Find her on instagram as @kemibirthjoyjohnson
Want to work with Anna or join The Sacred Birth Worker Mentorship?
Find Anna’s Website, about her Mentorship & How to Work with Her, as well as all Links & Resources she mentions in the episode here:www.sacredbirthinternational.com/links-podcast
Hi my loves!
I have something special planned for you for the next 3 weeks as I am stepping out of the podcast studio and into the Sacred Birth Worker Gathering here on my land. Tomorrow the first mentees and graduates fly in or drive on in to my land and for the next week we are going to have so much fun!
We are going on excursions to sacred sites and historical places I love and then spending the weekend in deep ceremony and sisterhood on my land.
I can’t wait!
And after the gathering I am taking a couple of weeks off to go to a spa with my best friend and then heading away for a midwifery conference in the south of Sweden.
But!
Do not despair! I’ve got you covered!
I thought I’d bring back some oldies but goldies!
I looked through my top 5 episodes of all time and thought “These are too good to not reshare!”.
So we are starting out with no 1, Ellen Fisher’s 5 Home Birth Stories.
If you don’t know Ellen, she is a mama of 5 living in Hawaii. She is a home birthing and home schooling mama who loves growing her own food and is a vegan of 18 years.
She’s also a podcast host of her own podcast called The Ellen Fisher Podcast.
In today’s episode you get to hear about each of her 5 natural and empowering home births. She dives on into the pearls of wisdom she gained from each and every one of them and the difference between them.
Being our no 1 this episode is not to be missed!
Curious about Ellen? Find her on instagram as @ellenfisher
Want to work with Anna or join The Sacred Birth Worker Mentorship?
Find Anna’s Website, about her Mentorship & How to Work with Her, as well as all Links & Resources she mentions in the episode here:www.sacredbirthinternational.com/links-podcast
Today on The Natural Birth Podcast we have Cassie.
Cassie is a birthkeeper, homeopath, yoga teacher, and devoted mama of two, based in the Midlands, UK.
With deep roots in holistic care and over a decade of experience, she supports women, children, and families through every season of life — offering homeopathic medicine, the frequency embodiment method, and powerful, intuitive birthkeeping. She's the only person in the world trained in all three disciplines.
Cassie’s path was forged through personal transformation. After a traumatic, medicalised first birth that left her with PTSD, postnatal depression, and breastfeeding grief, she committed to deep healing.
The first part of this episode explores this first traumatic birth if you don’t wish to listen to that part in your birth prep.
It is filled with wisdom packaged in beautiful story telling but if you want to prime your subconscious with just the redemptive positive home birth story then go ahead and listen in at around the 30min mark.
Her healing journey that she took between her first and second birth led her to reclaim her power and go on to have a completely sovereign, supported home birth with her second baby despite a broken maternity system and a difficult NHS experience up until 37 weeks when she chose to discharge herself and find a radical independent midwife.
Now, Cassie helps other women by guiding them to trust their bodies, reclaim their autonomy, and create deeply aligned, sovereign birth experiences.
Curious about Cassie? Find her on Instagram as @cassierosedudgon
Want to work with Anna or join The Sacred Birth Worker Mentorship?
Find Anna’s Website, about her Mentorship & How to Work with Her, as well as all Links & Resources she mentions in the episode here: www.sacredbirthinternational.com/links-podcast
Today on The Natural Birth Podcast we have Jenna
Jenna is a stay-at-home mom of two who finds joy in motherhood, creativity, and the beauty of everyday life.
With an English degree and a passion for writing, she explores themes of romance, faith, and family through poetry and storytelling. She hopes to one day publish her poetry and create short films that bring her words to life.
When she’s not writing, she enjoys reading, exercising, and spending time outdoors with her family and two dogs.
Through her work, she seeks to inspire and connect with others on the journey of motherhood and beyond. You can find her on WordPress at findingmatrescence.wordpress.com
Today she shares her two birth stories. One a hospital birth after navigating prodromal labour and coached pushing with her baby aspirating meconium (or so she was told) to a her dream birth that she had visualized - a day time home water birth.
Here are Jenna's pearls of wisdom for you.
Want to work with Anna or join The Sacred Birth Worker Mentorship?
Find Anna’s Website, about her Mentorship & How to Work with Her, as well as all Links & Resources she mentions in the episode here: www.sacredbirthinternational.com/links-podcast
Today on The Natural Birth Podcast we have Debra Pascali-Bonaro, the globally renowned speaker, filmmaker, author, doula trainer and host of the Orgasmic Birth podcast, where she opens door to exploring love, intimacy, and pleasure in the transformative journeys of birth and parenting.
Debra is a mother, grandmother, and a sought-after expert featured in parenting publications and media worldwide.
She serves as Co-Chair of the International Childbirth Initiative and Chair of the International MotherBaby Childbirth Initiative, advocating for safe, respectful and equitable maternity care.
A Lamaze International childbirth educator and DONA International birth and postpartum doula trainer, Debra directed the award-winning documentary Orgasmic Birth: The Best-Kept Secret and co-authored the book Orgasmic Birth: Your Guide to a Safe, Satisfying and Pleasurable Birth.
She teaches online classes for parents and advanced workshops for doulas and midwives and also leads the transformative Eat Pray Doula Retreats in Bali each year with Midwife Robin Lim, inspiring doulas, midwives and birth professionals worldwide to support and embrace the power of birth.
And today ladies and the 5% of gents listening to this poddy here is “The Orgasmic Birth Lady’s” Birth Stories.
Curious about Debra? Find her on instagram as @orgasmicbirth
Want to work with Anna or join The Sacred Birth Worker Mentorship?
Find Anna’s Website, about her Mentorship & How to Work with Her, as well as all Links & Resources she mentions in the episode here: www.sacredbirthinternational.com/links-podcast
Today on The Natural Birth Podcast we have Megan.
Megan is a mama of two who’s had two hospital births.
She really wanted a home birth but her husband was not comfortable with that and so she wasn’t either.
To have a natural birth in a hospital today is almost impossible, especially without a kick ass birth advocate by your side and lots of education beforehand.
You’re stepping into their territory that pathologises birth with their interventions, policies and guidelines. This is just a fact.
To have a natural birth today you need to get lucky with who’s on shift, have a really quick birth or for the birth suits to be really busy so they have to leave you alone or have a birth support person there to advocate and protect your birth space.
It’s important to understand the reality you are choosing in order to make informed decisions.
With this in mind, here are Megan's stories for all of you who are planning a natural hospital birth.
Both Megan’s births were with midwives but in different states. One in Alabama and one in South Carolina.
She shares that her first was empowering as it was vaginal birth after induction. And just because you have midwives does not equate a better birth outcome. It all depends on their birth philosophy, their education and experience as well as where they work and for whom.
Megan’s second birth was an even better experience because she got to labor and birth in the water. She did however agree to a painful membrane sweep and to IV antibiotics for GBS+ status, which we will dive deeper into for your knowledge as many women face this decision in pregnancy.
If you are, like many women, planning a natural hospital birth then please go and download my free ebook on the most common routine hospital birth procedures so that you can make a birth plan according to your wishes and that will help you optimize your chances of a natural birth.
Find it at sacredbirthinternational.com under free resources or via the link in the show notes.
Want to work with Anna or join The Sacred Birth Worker Mentorship?
Find Anna’s Website, about her Mentorship & How to Work with Her, as well as all Links & Resources she mentions in the episode here: www.sacredbirthinternational.com/links-podcast
Today on The Natural Birth Podcast we have Karina.
Karina is a mama of two from Australia and the creator of The Cosmic Mother Pregnancy Oracle.
After feeling disconnected during her first pregnancy, and ending up with a home birth transfer and a medicalized first birth, she sensed an opportunity for healing with her second.
She recognised in hind sight her disconnection and mind played a big part in her first birth experience.
So after doing the inner work during the second pregnancy and choosing an independent home birth midwife she really trusted her second was a 4 hour painfree birth experience.
This experience opened her to a deeper connection with herself, with something greater, and with the mysticism of motherhood.
The pregnancy and birth of her daughter became a return to inner knowing and a deep trust in both the experience of birth and her own capability.
Curious about Karina? Find her on IG as @cosmic__mother
Want to work with Anna or join The Sacred Birth Worker Mentorship?
Find Anna’s Website, about her Mentorship & How to Work with Her, as well as all Links & Resources she mentions in the episode here:www.sacredbirthinternational.com/links-podcast
Today on The Natural Birth Podcast we have Jessica
Jessica is a mama of one from Dorset, UK.
She is a first time mama who chose to have a wild pregnancy and a freebirth.
She has been obsessed with birth for about 4 years now after discovering she no longer wanted to have a relationship with the medical system and had to work out how to do that when it came down to pregnancy and birth.
She now works as a birth keeper and educator. Supporting mothers and educating them about physiological birth and helping them get their dream births. This work lights a fire in her belly!
Today we get to hear all about her undisturbed birth at home with just her partner. And she has a very interesting story about the birth of her placenta which I have never heard of before and I am curious to know if you have.
Pop into our FB natural birth podcast community and share your experiences! Join via the link in the show notes.
If you’re curious about Jessica. Find her on Instagram as @birthasdesigned
Want to work with Anna or join The Sacred Birth Worker Mentorship?
Find Anna’s Website, about her Mentorship & How to Work with Her, as well as all Links & Resources she mentions in the episode here: https://www.sacredbirthinternational.com/links-podcast
Today on The Natural Birth Podcast we have Jasmine
Jasmine is a mama of one from Auckland, New Zealand. She works as a HR Business Partner while studying law and she used to be a professional nanny which gave her a deep appreciation for caregiving and family dynamics .
She’s very connected to her spirituality, and that connection gave her the confidence to trust her body and have a home birth. It was the best decision for her and she is so proud of herself despite many opinions and comments made around her and to her during her pregnancy which continued post birth - the experience taught her many lessons and pieces of wisdom she wishes to share to inspire other women to chase their dreams as they can come true.
Curious about Jasmine? Find her on instagram as @mumwithnannywisdom
Want to work with Anna or join The Sacred Birth Worker Mentorship?
Find Anna’s Website, about her Mentorship & How to Work with Her, as well as all Links & Resources she mentions in the episode here: https://www.sacredbirthinternational.com/links-podcast
Today on The Natural Birth Podcast we have Carly
Carly is a mama of 3 from Australia. She’s a Midwife, Lactation Consultant and Parenting Mentor.
She’s had the privilege of supporting families from different cultures through the childbearing journey into parenthood and invite people to take ownership of their experiences during their childbearing, infant feeding and parenting journeys and recognise that they are the experts. She believes that people's intuition can be their greatest asset and I couldn’t agree more.
Today Carly shares her 3 fast unassisted free births. She shares that one was Epic, one was Challenging and one was Easeful.
I loved my conversation with Carly and I hope you do too.
Curious about Carly? Find her on instagram as @seed_pod_
Want to work with Anna or join The Sacred Birth Worker Mentorship?
Find Anna’s Website, about her Mentorship & How to Work with Her, as well as all Links & Resources she mentions in the episode here:
www.sacredbirthinternational.com/links-podcast
