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At 35 weeks, I find myself finally in the “safe window” (according to me) to birth a child who has a good chance of surviving. I still don’t expect anything before 41 weeks, and I humbly accept the mantle of progressing to or past 43 weeks—but I also hold the excitement of being ready at…
This week I was teaching my first session of the Birth DIY Childbirth Education course, and we reviewed the principles of wild pregnancy: This differs from the official definition of wild pregnancy—which, according to the Free Birth Society, is “the intentional choice to not be engaged in or managed by the industrial prenatal care system,…
Call it a trick, call it a hack, call it intuitive eating, call it blood sugar management, call it “eating for two”—the strategy I’ve developed for maintaining sanity and vitality in the first trimester boils down to: eating frequently. Protein might be a key factor. During preconception, I habituated to eating protein every time I…
THE RELIEF OF THE WILD I’ve been so excited about DIY birth for so long, I hadn’t thought much about how awesome DIY pregnancy would be! Here’s the Thing about wild pregnancy: it prepares me for (free)birth because no one is coming to save me. No one else is telling me that “baby looks healthy”…
The night before my wedding, I was talking with my sister, who is a Greek Orthodox nun, about my preconception diet. She was happy to hear that I’ve been eating lots of red meat and such. She—a vegetarian, according to monastic practice—explained that in Europe at least, everyone understands the link between food and fertility.…
I spoke on the Wise Women Diaries podcast last week, and our conversation circled around the preconception phase as a “princess to queen” initiation. Listen to the episode: Spotify / Apple. We discussed my journey through learning the “truth of birth,” trusting my body, continually wanting to save the world, finding the rot in powerful…
I had an amazing experience with my womb during my most recent bleed. In the past, I’ve treated cramps as an opportunity to practice being in labor. I’ve practiced relaxing, softening, letting go with the sensations. I’ve practiced focusing on them with my whole being. I’ve found it to be pretty constructive—there’s something freeing about…
I wrote a very detailed post about six months ago, preliminarily gathering what I’d learned so far about preconception. It was aspirational and pretty well-informed. But how did it turn out? What have I actually been doing since then? As with most of my habits in life, I’ve gone in phases. I’ll break it down…
Why would birth professionals be more likely to choose unassisted birth? Could it be… because birth is actually safer and better unassisted? Or because fear is actually the main cause of interventions in birth? And knowledge defeats fear? I’m asking these as questions, but really they’re my answers.
This was supposed to be a year-end promotional post for my Self-Care Checklist (and maybe it still is), but it turned into an engagement story. This year produced the checklist; but the checklist was made possible by the stability of my relationship. When 2024 began, I had just moved in with my partner (now fiancé).…
Birth.DIY 