Ep 340: Freebirth Story: What Changed Between Her First Birth and Her Third

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/