What You Didn't Expect in Fertility, Pregnancy & Birth: Real Stories & Expert Insights

Paulette Kamenecka
  • 5.0 (24)
  • PARENTING
  • UPDATED WEEKLY
What You Didn't Expect in Fertility, Pregnancy & Birth: Real Stories & Expert Insights

Creating a family is a life transforming event that’s a lot harder than the culturally-generated marketing suggests. Relying on the glossy media depictions of this transition leaves many women feeling like they are broken or failing when their actual experience doesn’t match their expectation. I tripped over every step of this process: getting pregnant, being pregnant and giving birth on my way to having two kids.  This podcast showcases the really, really of people’s experiences: * what they didn’t expect when they were expecting * what they wish they’d known. You’ll hear shareable insights gleaned from time in the IVF gauntlet, ways to manage the flattening nausea and fatigue of pregnancy, 40 hour labors and much more including expert medical insights to remake our expectations, making them more real, more human and more useful.

  1. 6 DAYS AGO

    What Mindset helps you manage Miscarriage that Doesn't go as planned? Kristen's Story, Part II

    Today I finish my conversation with Kristen. This week we hear about:* two challenging miscarriages* drugs for miscarriage versus D and C procedure* Insights on how to think about the miscarriages* Her current pregnancy We pick up where we left off. Kristen is talking about getting pregnant a 4th time, around 9 months after the last birth, and how this time things don't go well...Must Watch video with Elizabeth Banks from the American Heart Associationhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_JI4...

    30 min

  2. NOV 12

    What Happens when Infertility Gives Way to Pregnancy Before IVF is started: Kristen's Story, Part I

    Today we hear from a woman whose experience ran the gamut from infertility, on the brink of IVF, to smooth pregnancies, quick births, and difficult miscarriages.Throughout this process she learns:* important lessons about the limits of her control over the complicated process of growing another human* the joys of outrunning medical predictions that pregnancy would be very hard to achieve. What follows is the first part of our conversation.Link about inductionshttps://evidencebasedbirth.c...

    27 min

  3. NOV 5

    What happens when you have to be your own Doula for an Accidental Home Birth? Darla's Birth Story, Part II

    This week I finish my conversation with Darla. She has another uneventful pregnancy, that ends in a bang--* An unintended home birth*Significant challenges when-- in the early thick of Covid-- Darla has to jump through hospital hoops shortly after delivering a baby. We pick up where we left off last week. Darla reflects on her first birth with appreciation, and is gearing up for the next birth, in a different setting.More on recurrence of retained placenta https://www.tandfonline.com/doi...

    37 min

  4. OCT 29

    What Difference can a Doula Make in a Case of Retained Placenta? Darla's Birth Story, Part I

    Today we hear from a mother of two who has a degree in public health and was trained as a doula before her first pregnancy. She didn't expect her water to break the way it didShe didn't expect a retained placenta or the hemorrhage that followed and thanks to both her resilience, and the skillful work of her doula, that experience was followed by a second pregnancy and birth. She also shares great tips about managing the chaos of postpartum with a whiteboardWhat follows is the first part...

    34 min

  5. OCT 22

    What Can Turn Around a Hard Hospital Birth? Jennifer's Birth Story, Part II

    In today's episode I finish my conversation with Jennifer, the Doula in RenoShe shares how she managed all the complications of her daughter's tenuous condition: * Born with RDS, a lung condition that has a high mortality rate* How lessons learned from that experience shaped her willingness to go on to foster babies who came into the world with other compromising circumstances and *How her experience in the hospital that first time led her into birth work. We pick up where...

    28 min

  6. OCT 15

    What Can Happen when Infertility gives way to that first pregnancy? Jennifer's Birth Story, Part I

    Today my guest, a DOULA and birth worker, talks about her challenging experience with INFERTILITY: * All the minor surgeries* How hard it was to manage at the age of 19 more or less alone *How challenging it was to go through a regrettably similar process with her grown daughterand how she managed the twists and turns of both the pregnancy and the birth, which included HYALINE MEMBRANE DISEASE (aka RDS) and a PDA.Unequal Investment in Women's Health: Nature, 2023https://www.nature.com/immersi...

    29 min

  7. OCT 8

    What happens when you decide to Bed Share with your Infant? Kim's birth story & Expert insight on Infant Sleep

    In today's episode I finish my conversation with Kim about her experience, both having kids and becoming a sleep coach. NOTE: I should mention upfront that we talk about a full term still birth and how Kim managed that very challenging experience.She also shares WHAT MAKES BED SHARING SAFE OR UNSAFE (generally speaking) and gives TIPS about what's generally considered NORMAL FOR INFANT SLEEP and WHY WE SEE DISRUPTIONS IN SLEEP even after things have been going well!We pick up where ...

    29 min

  8. OCT 1

    What happens when Your Birth Center Birth ends up in a C section? Kim's birth story, Part I

    In today's episode I speak with a woman who worked in the field of mother and infant health before she became pregnant. She shares the challenges she encountered in her birth--going from a planned birth center birth to a C section, what she might have done differently in that process, and how she managed that challenge.She also shares what led her to become a holistic sleep consultant, a story continued into the next episode.You can find Kim here: https://intuitiveparentingdc.com/The Responsi...

    28 min
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5
out of 5
24 Ratings

About

Creating a family is a life transforming event that’s a lot harder than the culturally-generated marketing suggests. Relying on the glossy media depictions of this transition leaves many women feeling like they are broken or failing when their actual experience doesn’t match their expectation. I tripped over every step of this process: getting pregnant, being pregnant and giving birth on my way to having two kids.  This podcast showcases the really, really of people’s experiences: * what they didn’t expect when they were expecting * what they wish they’d known. You’ll hear shareable insights gleaned from time in the IVF gauntlet, ways to manage the flattening nausea and fatigue of pregnancy, 40 hour labors and much more including expert medical insights to remake our expectations, making them more real, more human and more useful.

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