Welcome to the Free Birth Podcast, a supportive space for people who are learning,

exploring and celebrating their autonomous choices in childbirth.

Together, we'll unpack truths, share personal stories,

and claim our ability to birth freely and intuitively. Here's your host, Emily Sal day. We have a special episode this week on discussing the experience of and then the healing of birth

trauma. As we know far too well, women across the globe are routinely victimized

by normalized obstetrical violence and left traumatized

from the many ways in which they and their babies were harmed in the system.

I am joined today by Diana, who experienced the unnecessary yet systemic

cascade of interventions in her home birth transfer resulting in both a

surgical birth she knew she didn't need and soaked in trauma

with a deep fear of ever having a second child.

Surprised by an unplanned pregnancy, Diana faced her trauma, took her healing into her own hands, and birth-dem power.

If the way you were treated in your birth experience has left you feeling traumatized, this episode is for you.

We are here for you, we see you, you are not alone, and you are certainly not broken.

My first birth was a totally shattering experience.

I was a person who came to my first birth, really trusting birth, really not afraid of the experience.

I really, I understood that,

you know, our culture we tend to look at birth as a means to an end to have a baby

and it's expected to be challenging, have some degree of trauma or suffering to it but I never really felt that I

always kind of knew from the beginning that birth in and of itself is an amazing

experience that I really wanted to have.

So that's how I approached my first birth and I, to make a long story short, I had a planned home

...