Genevieve, who you may know as Mama Natural has shared hundreds of hilarious and informative videos that have empowered millions of women to embrace natural pregnancy, birth, and parenting. Her YouTube channel gets over a million video views each month, and she has just released her first book The Mama Natural Week to Week Guide to Pregnancy & Childbirth. Her new book is a great resource for mamas to be coming from a natural perspective. What I love about Genevieve’s approach is that she recognizes that pregnancy and birth are normal and natural — not a medical crisis. She is on a mission to inform you of your choices, because as the saying goes…knowledge is power.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS
Topics discussed in today’s episode
- What was the inspiration behind the Mama Natural YouTube channel?
- Genevieve shares her experience birthing her first child and why she made completely different choices the second time around
- How to manage an un-medicated childbirth, how to stay focused without freaking out, and how to stay on top of the mental game during labour
- Recognizing that labour is temporary and the real work starts once your baby arrives
- The cascade of interventions — how interventions early on increased the chance that you’ll need more serious interventions down the line.
- Presenting the routine testing and procedures done in pregnancy as options that you can choose instead of mandatory actions you must take
- What you need to know in each trimester of pregnancy
- How to manage your risk of developing gestational diabetes, or having a positive test for Group B strep by developing healthy eating habits
- Setting yourself up for the healthiest pregnancy and birth from the start
Connect with Genevieve {Mama Natural}
You can connect with Mama Natural on her Website, on Facebook, Twitter, and on her YouTube Channel
Resources mentioned
- The Mama Natural Week-to-Week Guide to Pregnancy and Childbirth {Book} | Mama Natural {Genevieve Howland}
- The Mama Natural Week-to-Week Guide to Pregnancy and Childbirth {Website} | Mama Natural {Genevieve Howland}
- FFP 016 | Real Food for Gestational Diabetes | Pre-conception & Pregnancy Nutrition | Lily Nichols
- FFP 025 | How Much Should Women Exercise During Pregnancy? | The Good, The Bad and the Uncomfortable | Lily Nichols
- Misconceptions: Truth, Lies, and the Unexpected on the Journey to Motherhood {Book} | Anchor
- The Business of Being Born {Documentary} | Ricki Lake | Abby Epstein
Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS
Join the community! Find us in the Fertility Friday Facebook Group
Subscribe to the Fertility Friday Podcast on iTunes!
Music Credit: Intro/Outro music Produced by J-Gantic
Fertility Friday | Fertility Management Masterclass
This episode is sponsored by my Fertility Management Masterclass! Gain clarity and confidence using the Fertility Awareness Method and improve your cycle health at the same time! Click here for more information!
Hi Lisa,
I’ve been listening to your podcasts a little at a time daily for over half a year. You convey great practical information, but there is one question I have for you that I can not find the answer to in your podcasts yet.
In many of your podcasts you or your guests talk about and stress how special and spiritual giving birth should be, how if we think of birth as not a scary thing but as a natural beautiful process it can be such a wonderful, bonding experience. I agree with this which is why I always felt that I wanted to give birth naturally.
However, 2 years ago, my first pregnancy ended at 26 weeks with an emergency C-section, and my son wasn’t able to make it past more than 2 days in the NICU.
I am now 12 weeks pregnant again but because I had a vertical cut C-section, I am told I am not a candidate for Vaginal Birth After C-section. It’s eating away at me that I will never experience that spiritual natural birth that I always envisioned. I hear that for some mothers, not giving birth vaginally contributes to postpartum depression or guilt (even though they may have had no choice), and I feel that I can understand how that could come up.
So for those like me, how can we make a caesarean birth feel just as sacred and spiritual as a natural birth? I feel like I am missing out….
Perhaps you could mention something about this in a future podcast.
Hi Michelle. One way to think of pregnancy, birth, and motherhood is a transitional period. One where we are no longer completely in control as your new baby will come into the world with a personality all of his or her own, and there is no way of knowing ahead of time what that will look like. This includes birth. Some women are able to birth at home, others birth in the hospital, and many women require interventions even if they didn’t want them. There is no right way to give birth, and I don’t believe your birth won’t be an amazing and possibly spiritual experience for you just because you aren’t able to deliver vaginally. However your baby comes into the world is how it was meant to be. Perhaps consider connecting with other women who have had similar experiences to find out how they made peace with it also! Wishing you the very best. And CONGRATULATIONS!! 🙂 xo -L
Thank you Lisa, your response really put things into perspective for me…
C-section, here I come =)