E103: A Series of 19 Unmedicated Births

Nineteen cousins, all born without medication, and not a single birth story was copy-pasted. Angie opens up about how a simple desire for unmedicated labor grew into a family pattern shaped by childbirth education, midwifery care, and steady partner support. What started as a personal preference became a repeatable approach: learn the physiology, choose a team aligned with your goals, and keep the plan flexible enough to adapt in real time.

We walk through three sisters-in-law with very different personalities who arrived at similar choices for their own reasons. One expected an epidural and induction because “that’s what everyone does,” then flipped after a powerful class and a supportive doula. Another navigated six births, including a surprise “caboose” during COVID and one labor that needed a small Pitocin boost. A third moved from hospital to birth center to home, even welcoming an 11‑pound baby, while her partner became an effective, hands-on advocate. Across these stories, midwives, education, and continuous support show up as quiet levers that change outcomes without heavy-handed rules.

The goal isn’t a gold star for going unmedicated. It’s informed choice, compassionate care, and a team that knows when to wait, when to move, and when to use tools thoughtfully. Angie shares candid reflections, practical insights for selecting providers and classes, and a grounded reminder that empowerment comes from consent and preparation, not perfection. You’ll leave with concrete ideas for aligning your birth plan with the right setting and people, plus renewed confidence that partners and doulas can make the room feel safer, calmer, and more human.

If this resonated, follow the show, share it with someone preparing for birth, and leave a review telling us what part shifted your thinking.

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Show Credits

Host: Angie Rosier 
Music: Michael Hicks 
Photographer: Toni Walker
Episode Artwork: Nick Greenwood 
Producer: Gillian Rosier Frampton
Voiceover: Ryan Parker

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:10

Welcome to the Ordinary Doula Podcast with Angie Rogier, hosted by Birth Learning, where we help prepare folks for labor and birth with expertise coming from 20 years of experience in a busy doula practice, helping thousands of people prepare for labor, providing essential knowledge and tools for positive and empowering birth experiences.

Why Unmedicated Birth Drew Me In

First Births And Growing Conviction

Family Dynamics And Expectations

Sister-In-Law One Chooses Natural Birth

Sister-In-Law Two And Six Unmedicated Births

COVID Caboose And A Rare Augmentation

Sister-In-Law Three: Big Babies, Home Births

Counting Nineteen Unmedicated Births

Different Women, Shared Outcome

Looking Ahead With No Pressure

Gratitude, Human Connection, Sign-Off

SPEAKER_01 1:02

As you know, the doula's the doula, you know, lifestyle, I guess, um is focused a lot on childbirth and and all the aspects of that. And I want to share kind of a little bit of a um interesting story, I think, um, from my life that spans actually many years, probably well over 20 years, about birth. Um, so a little bit of my history. I have five kids. Um, I happen to have had all my kids what we call unmedicated, right? Natural childbirths without any um medical like epidurals or narcotics, no interventions that way. Um, maybe someday I'll tell kind of a little bit about my birth stories. Um, but I had three babies in the hospital before I ever um became a doula, like shortly before actually. And I had, so that's in in some parts of the world, that's you know, kind of a big family, but um I had two kids, well, three kids, and then found out what a doula was, like very shortly after. But it was important to me for reasons that are varied. Um, it was important to me before I knew anything about this to have unmedicated childbirth. I couldn't tell you why necessarily. Like there's a few little things that pointed me in that direction and pointed me pretty strongly. I was young when I had my first baby, and I remember early in my pregnancy just a little desire. I'm like, hey, I want to have this without medication. Didn't know why, other than I just want to see if I can do it. And as I read books and learned and prepared and talked to other people on both sides of that um desire fence, if you will, as I took classes, my desire for that became stronger and my why got a little bit bigger. So that first baby I had unmedicated. It was very short, very um straightforward, no interventions. She was posterior, but just a nice first delivery, really. Not easy, but you know, not the longest, hardest thing either. Um, and then my whys got really big. And I'm like, oh, that was awesome. And you know, I did got into breastfeeding and you know, all these new journeys that I had not been on at that point in my life, but would go on um multiple times later. So had another baby unmedicated, and so this just kind of became what I liked, what I believed in, got a little bit of passion about it, didn't know the path that it would lead me on. So at this time in my life, I come from a pretty large family too. I am the oldest of six children, and I was being the oldest, I was the first one to have kids. And um, for quite a while, quite a few years, I was the only one that had children. And by then, I was um, I think I had uh yeah, I had two kids by the time any of my siblings were kind of um thinking about that in their lives. And then I had a third baby, and as I talked to my little self, we ever have self-talk, I'm like, all right, Angie, now you love this stuff, natural childbirth, like you're really into it. Um, you totally believe in it, you know, that's important to you, you're passionate about it. You could say I was very passionate about it. Um, but as people come into your life and in your family, like you can't assume they're going to be as well. And that was a little bit hard for my young little brain at the time to understand. And so I had a brother who got married, and um, and I I set my expectations, like, all right, this this new girl, this new sister-in-law was probably not gonna feel the same way you are about things and is probably not gonna give birth the same way you did, and may not even think she may think you're crazy, she may not believe any of this. And she got, you know, came into the family, got to know her. I'm like, yeah, she's probably not gonna like this type of thing. Um, and several years later, they had a baby, and I was a doula by this point. And by golly, do you know what? She wanted natural childbirth, and it all kind of started when she took a really amazing class that I referred her to um from Claire Stanley, who is a longtime mentor and dear friend of mine. Um, and as she learned in her pregnancy and talked to people, um, she was just planning on getting an epidural, getting an induction, doing whatever, you know, the mainstream that most people do. That's what her friends did, her sisters did, or her, you know, sisters-in-law, her mom and stuff. Um, but she changed her tune a little bit, and I was able to be her doula for her first baby, and she was phenomenal. She had an unmedicated birth, and I was like, wow, wow. So my my my first you know sibling to have a baby chose this way as well and did amazing at it. Um, she went on to have three more babies and no interventions, incredibly unmedicated, um, spontaneous labor every time with her four children. And then another one of my brothers um was ready at that time of life. He got married and um was ready to start a family. And and I thought, ah, there's no way. Yeah, it's probably they're not gonna um want or do this, you know, like this is not for everybody. Really, real realistically looking at statistics. Um, if we just you know grab a random woman out of the out of society, she's gonna say, Yeah, heck yeah, I'm getting an epidural and I'm I'd love to be induced it, whatever. That's you know, that's just kind of the going um sentiment for the the the general public, the general population. Um, but she she also took the same awesome class from my mentor, Claire Stanley, and um and in time, and I don't I don't remember as specifically what her plans were from the beginning or if they changed, but she her goal was also to go on medicated, and they all chose midwives as well. I kind of I I guess I I will admit, I kind of said, hey, you know, in the industry, and they did ask me, I didn't push it on them. That was very important to me, not to push anything on them, but um expectations or where they should go or anything. But they did ask, like, hey, what hospital um would be great, what provider? And so I sent both of them to a great midwifery group. Um, and the second sister-in-law uh she planned the same thing to go on medicated, to do natural, you know, a natural childbirth um with midwives. And I think that's big, like where you set yourself up to do and the providers you choose are going to impact that for sure. I was her doula. I was able to be her doula. Um, she ended up having six children. Um, my first brother had four children. This one had six kids in time. It took them a minute to get there. Um, and I was their doula after their first, and she was amazing unmedicated childbirth. Her second was born right after I had my fourth, so I was not their doula that time. And and they chose to kind of do their next few babies unmedicated um without me, which is so fine, right? Like great. I was happy they were doing it. I think they did have another doula at one point um for one of their deliveries. And then she and in those six babies, there's one that came super caboose. You know, they had a caboose baby during COVID, actually, about seven and a half years after they thought they were done having kids. Um, and he had some fun twists to his story, um, which I won't really get into here, but um, there was some some interesting stuff during that pregnancy that was a surprise pregnancy to begin with. And I mean it was a breach at one point, and he turned with aversion, all you know, as well as some other um kind of challenging things in her pregnancy. And he um was born unmedicated, but he is the only one of all my nieces and nephews who used a little bit and just a little tiny bit of Pitocin during labor to kind of get things going. Other than that, all the other babies, um, not even a drip of Pitocin was used during um the labor process. I'm sure some probably was after, if I look at the notes. So then I had a third brother who um sorry to have a family and start his family and got married, and um they also took this awesome class. Like, this is a shout out to childbirth education and the impact it can have. Um, they chose midwives, I think it was the same midwives the other ones started out with. They all, I think they all had midwifery care throughout. I probably had more OB care than any of them, actually. Um, having three babies with OBs. So this particular brother and his wife had their first baby, and he was a big baby. He was uh over nine pounds, and she did it unmedicated, um, no interventions, vaginal delivery. She went on to have three more babies after that. I was able to be their doula that first time and the second time, and then they lived out of state, um, or I lived out of state for the next couple, but she with her second baby shifted to a birth center. Um, with her third baby shifted to a home birth, and with her fourth baby, also had a home birth. So kind of cool. And she had one of her babies was an 11-pound baby, so pretty, pretty impressive. Um so if as we look at the numbers there, let me do some quick math. That is 19 babies. So my parents that you know have 19 grandchildren, and the probability of 19 babies being born with natural childbirth unmedicated is pretty slim. Um, so I look at that and I that's just a little uh a little joy I tuck in my heart sometimes when I do think about it. I don't obviously don't think about it often in life, but like, holy cow, as I look at my nieces and nephews who are hanging out together, and they're getting older, right? Like my oldest is 27, one of their oldest, he's 21, another one's 20, their oldest kids are obviously getting older. Um, but that cute little youngest, those couple cabooses, they're only four or five years old. So we still have some cute little kids around. Um, it's just cool as I look at them, like all of them were born in a kind of particular way, which is kind of an unusual way if when you look at childbirth in the United States. Um, other than that one little guy who had to get a little bit of Pitocin to augment labor, um, it was all done unmedicated, which is pretty impressive to me. And even more so, like every one of these of my sisters-in-law who I love dearly, are such different people. It's not like you could pick out of a crowd and say, Oh, that type of person will do this type of birth. Um, but it's not that easy to do. These are all very different women with very different strengths and very different personalities, very different um likes, desires, lifestyles. Um, and they all did that. Like I'm so incredibly impressed with them and so proud of them. Um, and and and just feel incredibly, I don't know, fortunate that um that we can, you know, say that the for the statist statistics for our family. Um, never a c-section, never an epesiotomy, never an epidural in um 19 kids. Now who knows if that will carry on, right? I don't have any grandchildren yet, but I do have some daughters who are that age of life. So we'll see what happens there. And again, I'm going into this with like zero pressure, like how to do this, like um what their desires should be or could be, like what their goals are. Um, they have asked me about different providers and things, and I'm happy to give them, you know, some some of what I've observed that way. But yeah, we'll see. It we'll see what continues on there. But anyway, I just wanted to share that little slice of story every once in a while. I think about that and think, wow, that's kind of remarkable. And I'm just pretty proud of my sisters-in-law and my brothers for that matter. It was cool to see in that case, each of my brothers being a support person and such an awesome one and um learning right along with um the woman, you know, like about childbirth and becoming an expert in their own right for their own situations as they navigated that. It's been really cool to watch that as um as us being a sister of theirs. So anyway, kind of cool. So little tiny slice of um my family story there, and maybe someday I will tell my own birth stories on this podcast. But wanted to thank you so much for being here today. Hopefully, hopefully you're having a good day, whatever it is that you're doing, and you can find a little bit of joy. And as I like to wrap up the Ordinary Doo podcast, um please make a human connection with someone today. Do something for someone else. Um, get some good eye contact, some good skin contact, give a big hug, give a handshake, a high five, whatever you can, but please make some human connection today. It's important for all of us. Thanks for being here, and we'll see you next time.

SPEAKER_00 13:34

And next time, as we continue to explore the many aspects of giving birth.