The first episode of the Human Realm Podcast dwells on the very first human experience: Birth. This experience is intricately linked with the themes of pregnancy, motherhood, infancy and caregiving. Our guest in this episode is someone who has supported 20,000 families through these stages. I had the privilege to listen to Yogyata Wadhwa, founder of The Birth Life, share her own journey to finding her path and calling with this work, the challenges she faced as well as meaning she continues to find along the way. The same self-guided instinct which she applies to her own life is helping families connect with theirs during a life stage where it is easy to become overwhelmed by all the noise- from the internet, from wellwishers, from experts, and even from within one’s own mind. While the social and medical aspects of birth and motherhood are relatively more spoken about, we also discussed some of the mental, emotional as well as spiritual aspects. In a happy coincidence, this episode comes out during the Navratri festival celebrating the Goddess and her various forms. About Our Guest, Yogyata Wadhwa Yogyata is an IBCLC (International Board Certified Lactation Consultant), Physiotherapist, and Paediatric Feeding Therapist. She is the founder of The Birth Life and is based in Gurgaon, India. She has supported over 20,000 families across India, the US, UK, and Australia, helping with breastfeeding, baby sleep, and feeding transitions. Website: www.thebirthlife.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thebirth.life/ The Human Realm podcast is available on Substack and Spotify podcasts. Do hit “Subscribe” on the platform of your choice to get updates on upcoming episodes. Episode Time Stamps 00:00 - Welcome to The Human Realm and the episode’s focus on birth as the universal human experience 01:09 - Introducing Yogyata Wadhwa and The Birth Life 03:06 - Supporting the fourth trimester after birth 04:01 - How this work became personal healing for Yogyata 04:17 - Childhood experiences that shaped her view of postpartum care 07:02 - Becoming a birth educator, doula, and hypnobirthing practitioner 08:02 - “How can I help these mothers?” as a lifelong question 12:43 - Following gut instinct over trends and career pressure 15:31 - The social cost of choosing breastfeeding and birth support work 17:45 - Belief plus action: why intuition still requires hard work 18:40 - How birth changed Shefali’s own relationship with the body 20:09 - Why motherhood is often reduced by patriarchal culture 22:32 - Pregnancy and birth as mental, emotional, and spiritual work 23:30 - Interoception and the body’s signals during pregnancy 26:20 - Shefali’s own experience of feeling transformed by pregnancy 27:57 - The growing noise around pregnancy, babies, and “the baby market” 30:41 - What helps some mothers stay connected to instinct 34:54 - Why witnessing birth feels sacred and spiritual 35:51 - A mother walking out of the hospital in labor 38:01 - Witnessing the fierceness and divinity of in another birth story 41:26 - Birth does not look the same for every woman 43:40 - Why birth is uncertain and must be met without preconceptions 45:08 - What people miss in the emotional landscape of early infant care 48:48 - The fourth trimester as a metamorphosis 52:10 - Yogyata’s message: celebrate motherhood and listen for your own rhythm This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thehumanrealm.substack.com
