MyMaine Birth

Angela Laferriere
  • 4.8 (15)
  • Documentary
  • Updated Weekly

MyMaine Birth is a space where we share the real life stories of families and their unique birth experiences in the beautiful state of Maine.  From our state's biggest hospitals to Birth Center Births, and home births, every birth story deserves to be heard and celebrated.  Whether you are a soon to be mom, a seasoned mother, or simply interested in the world of birth, these episodes are for you.  As part of my commitment to capturing these incredible moments, I offer my services and support to families throughout the state of Maine.  I also offer virtual birth coaching worldwide.   As an experienced photographer I am dedicated to capturing the beauty and emotion of this special moment in your life.  Thank you for tuning in, and I look forward to bringing you more amazing birth stories.  Don't forget to subscribe and leave a review! 

  1. 1d ago

    156. MyMaine Birth: Katie's planned home birth turned cesarean followed by two free births

    Send us Fan Mail A home birth plan can unravel fast when fear, deadlines, and other people’s priorities start driving the room.  Katie joins me to share three very different birth experiences that span from Maine, to France, and then Connecticut and what those births taught her about informed consent, and physiological birth. We talk honestly about her first pregnancy during COVID, the move to midcoast Maine, and how pressure when she was overdue shaped her options.  Katie walks through a castor oil induction, a manual water break, a hospital transfer, and a cesarean birth, then names the real postpartum fallout: recovery limits, breastfeeding pressure, and the emotional weight that can linger for years after a C-section. From there, the story turns toward redemption and self-trust. Katie describes preparing for a VBAC abroad when providers won’t support her, using education, movement, rest, and a calmer environment to create the conditions she wants for labor. She also shares the side of free birth that rarely gets discussed: the bureaucratic and legal intimidation that can follow an out-of-system birth, and the hard choices families make to protect themselves. Additional Resources: MyMaineBirth.com Closing song by Kate Sutherland.  You can find Kate's community songs and deep nature connection work online at KateSutherland.ca The Guardian Article - Title: Infludencer's made millions pushing 'wild' births - now the free birth society is linked to baby deaths around the world The Guardian Article - Title: She was like a deer in the headlights': How unskilled radical birthkeepers took hold in Canada The Guardian Article - Title: Five Key Findings from our investigation into the Free Birth Society  The Guardian Article - Title: Friday Briefing: How the free birth society's philosophy contributed to a preventable death  Interview - Exposed: the business linked to baby deaths around the world The Guardian Podcast - the BirthKeepers

    1h 54m

  2. 2d ago

    155. The Free Birth Society Scam: Keely returns to share her sixth birth story

    Send us Fan Mail A pregnancy can look “low risk” on paper and still feel like walking through a storm. Keely, a nurse and mom of six, joins us to tell the full story of her sixth baby, including why she chose a home birth with an unassisted plan while carefully distancing herself from the most extreme corners of freebirth culture. We talk candidly about the unraveling of the Free Birth Society midwifery training community, and the weight of scary stories circulating online.   Keely shared her first five birth stories as well as her experience with the MatriBirth Midwifery Institute back in episode 123, so go check that out for her full story.  Additional Resources: MyMaineBirth.com Closing song by Kate Sutherland.  You can find Kate's community songs and deep nature connection work online at KateSutherland.ca The Guardian Article - Title: Infludencer's made millions pushing 'wild' births - now the free birth society is linked to baby deaths around the world The Guardian Article - Title: She was like a deer in the headlights': How unskilled radical birthkeepers took hold in Canada The Guardian Article - Title: Five Key Findings from our investigation into the Free Birth Society  The Guardian Article - Title: Friday Briefing: How the free birth society's philosophy contributed to a preventable death  Interview - Exposed: the business linked to baby deaths around the world The Guardian Podcast - the BirthKeepers

    1 hr

  3. 2d ago

    154. The Free Birth Society Scam: Isabel's experience with the MatriBirth Midwifery Institute

    Send us Fan Mail In this episode I talk with Isabel about how the free birth society's  “sovereign midwifery school” promise turned into confusion, missing transparency, and a culture that punished questions.  We also unpack what it looks like to unlearn judgment, protect informed consent, and support physiologic birth across the full spectrum from hospital to home. In this episode we discuss: Isabel's early fear of medicalized birth stories and her pull towards home birtha traumatic injury as the turning point toward becoming a birth workerhow Free Birth Society and MMI marketing sold legitimacy and titlesearly wins from self-mastery tools followed by disappointment with coursered flags around legal risk and the pressure to use labelswhy demonizing the word doula harms clarity and informed consentstudents organizing concerns, then being kicked out or leaving en masseGerman New Medicine as a central lens that felt undisclosedrebuilding with nuanced education and practical postpartum and holistic doula trainingdeveloping a new lens on physiologic birth as unfolding best in the place where the mother feels safest Additional Resources: MyMaineBirth.com Closing Song by Kate Sutherland.  You can find Kate's community songs and deep nature connection work online at KateSutherland.ca The Guardian Article - Title: Infludencer's made millions pushing 'wild' births - now the free birth society is linked to baby deaths around the world The Guardian Article - Title: She was like a deer in the headlights': How unskilled radical birthkeepers took hold in Canada The Guardian Article - Title: Five Key Findings from our investigation into the Free Birth Society  The Guardian Article - Title: Friday Briefing: How the free birth society's philosophy contributed to a preventable death  Interview - Exposed: the business linked to baby deaths around the world The Guardian Podcast - the BirthKeepers

    39 min

  4. 2d ago

    153. The Free Birth Society Scam: Emma's experience with the MatriBirth Midwifery Institute

    Send us Fan Mail A glossy website, a “world's leading” tagline, and a $12,000 price point can make an online school feel vetted and legitimate.  Then the curtain lifts.  I sit down with Emma Moore, a fellow Mainer who grew up in Bangor and enrolled in the Free Birth Society’s Matribirth Midwifery Institute (MMI), to share what it felt like to walk in hopeful and leave alarmed, embarrassed, and determined to tell the truth. We talk about the emotional setup that makes programs like this so compelling: the hunger for sisterhood, the desire to reclaim birth, and the promise of a “sovereign midwifery” path that blends freedom with structure. Emma shares her early experience of imposter syndrome inside what was supposed to be a high-intensity cohort, the moment a traumatic birth story from Nicaragua shifted the tone, and how simple questions about terminology, risk, and integrity were treated as threats instead of openings for honest dialogue. From there, we get specific about what was missing. Emma describes a birth-focused quarter that never actually taught birth skills, a reliance on anecdote labeled “evidence-based,” and a dynamic where dissent gets reframed as “gossip.”  We also trace what happened when mentors left, and students started comparing notes.  Emma says she was removed quickly after calling out leadership’s denial, losing access to separate paid content and a MRF festival ticket. We close with the nuance that matters: freebirth can be a valid option for some families, but ideology that blames mothers for complications is dangerous. If you care about home birth, midwifery education, informed consent, and how to vet online birth courses, this conversation offers practical insight and hard-earned perspective.  Additional Resources: MyMaineBirth.com Closing song by Kate Sutherland.  You can find Kate's community songs and deep nature connection work online at KateSutherland.ca The Guardian Article - Title: Infludencer's made millions pushing 'wild' births - now the free birth society is linked to baby deaths around the world The Guardian Article - Title: She was like a deer in the headlights': How unskilled radical birthkeepers took hold in Canada The Guardian Article - Title: Five Key Findings from our investigation into the Free Birth Society  The Guardian Article - Title: Friday Briefing: How the free birth society's philosophy contributed to a preventable death  Interview - Exposed: the business linked to baby deaths around the world The Guardian Podcast - the BirthKeepers

    1h 3m

  5. 3d ago

    152. MyMaine Birth: How We Birth Matters, Katelyn's First Home Birth Story

    Send us Fan Mail In this episode I talk with my niece Kately about becoming a mom at 19 and choosing a home birth in rural Maine where options are limited. We unpack a rapid, induced labor, unexpected third-degree tears, early breastfeeding struggles, and what it feels like when support stops being transparent and starts feeling like control. In this episode we discuss: finding out she was pregnant at 18 and the decision to parentwhy a home birth felt safer than the local hospitalnavigating prenatal care in a maternity care desertlate pregnancy pressure to inducetinctures, castor oil, and a labor that moved too fastbaby's first momentsthird degree tears and choosing no stitchesboundaries in the birth space and questions about consent and experience Additional Resources: MyMaineBirth.com  Closing Song by Kate Sutherland.  Kate's community songs and deep nature connection work can be found here at KateSutherland.ca

    1h 4m

  6. 3d ago

    151. MyMaine Birth: How we Birth Matters, Angela's story

    Send us Fan Mail In this episode we discuss:  Trigger warning for discussion of traumatic birth and maternal deathchildhood medical experiences that train compliance and silence intuitionprenatal care without real informed consentfear based hospital child birth education classesa first hospital birth shaped by interventions, coercion, and postpartum separationpostpartum struggles, sleep training pressure, and a threat from a pediatrician that changed everythinghome birth in Maine during reports of maternal deaths at a local hospitalwhy undisturbed labor and birth matters and how coached pushing can derail the processMy positive experience inside the Birthworker.com community and The Beauty in Birth, birth photography online community and courses.My experience in the freebirth society's MMI programwhat I learned from Whapio about understanding everything Additional Resources: MyMaineBirth.com  Closing song by Kate Sutherland.  Kate's community songs and deep nature connection work can be found here at KateSutherland.ca Matt Nichols shares his wife's Heather's story from August 2013 Remembering Heather Ann Nichols ❤️ The Guardian Article #1 regarding Free Birth Society titled "Influencers made millions pushing 'wild' births - now the Free Birth Society is linked to baby deaths around the world The Guardian  Podcast - The BirthKeepers  Addelaide Meadow - YouTube Video, Woman's Care: How good care paves the way for bad care

    44 min

  7. Apr 3

    150. MyMaine Birth: Kelly's Story of How a Family-Centered Free Birth rewrote her View of Birth after three Hospital Experiences

    Send us Fan Mail Are you a soon to be mom, a seasoned mother, or simply interested in the world of birth?  You’re in the right place!  In this episode, we discuss: medically managed breech pregnancy care and a C-section experienceprocessing disconnection after birth and rebuilding bonding through breastfeedingplanning a hospital VBAC with a doula and staying hoe longer in laborhow hospital coaching and limited options shape pushing autonomy ( or lack thereof..)hospital water labor without water birth and the exhaustion of advocating mid-contractioninformed consent concerns around Pitocin for placenta deliverypostpartum recovery realities including rest, meal support and co-sleepingchoosing a Maine home birth midwife and feeling equal in carepeaceful family centered home birth where Dad caught the baby just after they made the first call to their midwife to let her know labor was happeningdelayed cord clamping, cord cutting as a family and nursinghow respectful care and feeling seen can prevent birth trauma….and a whole lot more! You can find Kelly on Instagarm @Cardinal.birth.movement Stick around for the end - there are some little changes you'll notice coming to the podcast and one of those is the closing - this is the first episode featuring a beautiful new closing song "Walk of the Wild Ones" by Kate Sutherland.  You can find Kate's community songs and deep nature connection work online at katesutherland.ca Additional Resources you’ll LOVE… MyMaineBirth.com If you are ready to prepare for an autonomous birth experience, where you’re respected as the authority over your body and your baby…  regardless of where you plan on birthing - CLICK HERE for 10% off  the MyAutonomous Birth self-paced, online course!  Not sure where to start?  I’ve got you covered!  Check out my FREE resource, 37 Questions to Ask Your Care Provider.   Whether you’re interviewing new providers or have already established care, this FREE resource offers guidance on important topics to discuss with your provider.

    1h 17m

  8. Mar 11

    149. MyMaineBirth: Choosing Home Birth with Confidence, Hannah's Three Birth Stories

    Send us Fan Mail Are you a soon to be mom, a seasoned mother, or simply interested in the world of birth?  You’re in the right place!  In this episode, we discuss: Home birth in MaineHannah's Three Birth Stories  - from a COVID-era hospital birth with the midwives at Maine General in Augusta, to two powerful home water births with care from her loving midwives from MotherSeed Midwifery - we talk through fear, logistics, postpartum anxiety, and what it looks like to "lean in and let go" when life with babies gets loud and messy.We get into how birth shapes your confidence, your marriage, and your mental health….and a whole lot more! Hannah's Midwives - MotherSeed Midwifery  Additional Resources you’ll LOVE… MyMaineBirth.com If you are ready to prepare for an autonomous birth experience, where you’re respected as the authority over your body and your baby…  regardless of where you plan on birthing - CLICK HERE for 10% off  the MyAutonomous Birth self-paced, online course!  Not sure where to start?  I’ve got you covered!  Check out my FREE resource, 37 Questions to Ask Your Care Provider.   Whether you’re interviewing new providers or have already established care, this FREE resource offers guidance on important topics to discuss with your provider.

    1h 33m
See All (156)

4.8
out of 5
15 Ratings

About

MyMaine Birth is a space where we share the real life stories of families and their unique birth experiences in the beautiful state of Maine.  From our state's biggest hospitals to Birth Center Births, and home births, every birth story deserves to be heard and celebrated.  Whether you are a soon to be mom, a seasoned mother, or simply interested in the world of birth, these episodes are for you.  As part of my commitment to capturing these incredible moments, I offer my services and support to families throughout the state of Maine.  I also offer virtual birth coaching worldwide.   As an experienced photographer I am dedicated to capturing the beauty and emotion of this special moment in your life.  Thank you for tuning in, and I look forward to bringing you more amazing birth stories.  Don't forget to subscribe and leave a review! 

Information

  • Creator
    Angela Laferriere
  • Years Active
    2023 - 2026
  • Episodes
    156
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © 2026 MyMaine Birth
  • Show Website
    MyMaine Birth

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