E136: The 50-Mile Birth Mindset

Fifty miles on foot sounds like a birthday stunt until you’re deep in the dark hours, doing the mental math, managing fatigue, and realizing the hardest part is simply continuing. That’s why I’m sharing a personal story that surprised me: training for and attempting a 50-mile walk instantly brought me back to what my clients experience in labor, especially when they’re preparing for an unmedicated birth and trying to hold onto confidence when conditions are not ideal. 

We talk about what “preparation” really means, and why perfection is a trap. Pregnancy gives you time to train your mind and body, but you can’t fully replicate the intensity of the real thing. I break down the parallels between packing the right tools (hydration, snacks, backups) and building your labor toolkit, plus why your plan has to be rooted in autonomy. If avoiding or delaying an epidural is your goal, it needs to be your choice, not something anyone else hands you. 

The heart of the episode is continuous labor support. A friend joined me for the first stretch of the walk, and it changed everything: safety, momentum, problem-solving, and the feeling of not being alone. That’s the same power a steady birth team brings during long labors, overnight labors, and transition. We also get honest about the moment you pivot, whether that’s stopping a walk to protect a knee or choosing an epidural to rest and keep the experience positive. Recovery matters too, and postpartum healing deserves as much respect as the birth itself. 

If you’re pregnant, supporting someone who is, or you just want a smarter way to think about endurance, pain, and decision-making, hit play. Subscribe, share this with a friend planning a birth, and leave a review so more families can find practical, grounded doula support.

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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

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Welcome And Show Purpose

SPEAKER_00 0:10

Welcome to the Ordinary Doola Podcast with Andy Roger, hosted by Hatchton Last. Here, we explore the many layers of pregnancy, labor, birth, breastfeeding, and postpartum life, to the lens of more than 20 years in a busy Doula practice, supporting thousands of families. Whether you are preparing for birth, navigating feeding, or adjusting to life of a new baby, this podcast is designed to offer practical knowledge, thoughtful conversation, and empowered support for the real experience of a parenthood.

SPEAKER_01 0:55

Hey, hey, good to see you again, hear you again, be with you. My name is Angie Rosier. This is the Ordinary Doula Podcast. I am so happy to have you with you here today as we chat about all things about birth. We are hosted by Hatched and Latched. Check us out at hatched and latched.com for a lot of birthing, birthing and postpartum and lactation services. So today's episode surprises me a little bit. I did not plan on doing this. It kind of cropped up in the middle of planning some other episodes, and it wasn't something I meant to do, but I am kind of excited about this episode. And I want to share a little bit about

Why I Walked 50 Miles

SPEAKER_01 1:35

an interesting experience I had recently. I talked about this on a previous episode, and that's what brought me to do the little tidbit about more details about what I had mentioned before. So if you heard a previous episode, I talked about doing a hard thing, about doing a 50-mile walk for my 50th birthday. So this summer I turned 50, and for a long time, for several years, I've been planning to do a 50-mile walk for my 50th birthday. So I knew it was coming up this year. Um, and I kind of had a route planned out like a long time ago and did some training this year, kind of getting ready for it leading up to that. And it was interesting as I did that, and since then, and as I've gone to births since then, my brain is like going back and forth between all these similarities, and it's been really refreshing for me actually to um have done this and I put myself in the shoes of my clients, those who are having babies, um, preparing for labor for birth, going through the labor and birth process. And the analogies I think line up pretty well. And I used to do this in my head all the time when I was um younger, when I was having babies myself, and I was running a ton back then, that point of my life, I ran a lot. And I trained for marathons and half marathons and triathlons and um I did some half ironmans and loved all of that, loved all of those kinds of things, and because I was also in um the years of myself having babies, I was, you know, I was pregnant sometimes, I was training sometimes and toggling back and forth between those two things. It was a really easy parallel. It's been a while in my life since I have um done a big physical event, I guess, and a while, about 12 years, since I have um delivered a baby. So it was kind of interesting um to do this again and draw some more parallels. So that's what I want to do in this episode is just draw some parallels between a big physical event and labor. So the event was walking 50 miles, right? And so I want to like, as we draw parallels, the event is to to labor and delivery is delivering a baby, right? The birth process. Um my big event was for my birthday, so I kind of knew it was coming. And with a labor and delivery, of course, we have a due date, an estimated due date, so they kind of know when it's coming. Um, and we have time to prepare for that, right? We have nine months leading up to that to get ready for that big event. And I knew when my birthday was. I've been thinking about this event for years. Um, didn't really start training and preparing for it until last December, so from December to August, and just started walking miles. You know, I'd just start walking five, six miles, seven, eight, nine, ten, um, and just preparing for that. And I had laid out a preparation plan for myself that I knew would get me to 50 miles. I actually wanted to do 100, truth be told, but um I knew I didn't have the time to prepare for that. Um, so I did my best and planned for 50, and I didn't do it well. Well, I didn't do it perfectly, let's put it that way. I did not do it perfectly based on just lifetime constraints and a lot of it due to my work, being on call, doing odd hours, um,

Prep Without Perfection

SPEAKER_01 4:45

and and having strange sleep schedules sometimes. So fitting long walks in when I could. So I got my longest walks were 16 miles. I got up to 16 miles, oh, three or four times, did lots of 10 miles, um, lots and lots of five miles, and those were all fine. Like, you know, I had a blister, I think, after my first 15 mile, but then nothing after that. Um, feeling pretty good about those things. So I wasn't too, you know, terribly worried. I'm like, well, let's just see how it goes, kind of thing. So as you're pregnant and you prepare, you have months to prepare. Sometimes you might take a class, read a book, listen to a podcast, talk to other people, research some stuff on Reddit, um, talk to your provider, talk to your partner. Like, there's a lot of prep work you do, and you might not do it perfectly. You might want to take all the classes and only take one. Um, you might want to read a book and get through the first chapter. You might want to um follow and keep up with your app every single day and just check it once a month. So, so perfection isn't the key in preparation, but some preparation is vital, of course. So preparing, and a lot of that is head prep, right? There's mind, body, and head prep. So preparing your mind to know realistically what to expect during labor. Um, I haven't done it before, right? I I've like covered miles in my life. I've done a lot of miles on bikes, I've done all, you know, miles, swims, and stuff. I've done um several 80-mile bike rides. Um, I've done some long hikes, you know, like backpacking trips, um, some marathon. Marathon's probably the longest distance I've covered on foot until this event. So kind of getting a grasp, but never having done the actual thing, right? Like never having actually done 50 mile. You've never, if it's your first baby, never having given birth, you don't know exactly what to expect, but kind of thereabouts, how to prepare. Um, so it's and it's hard to perfectly replicate, like it's impossible with birth, no matter all the prep you do, the classes you take, the you know how many articles you read, how many um books you read, what whatever many people you talk to, no matter how well you prepare, you're not quite prepared for the real thing. Um, and I found that for myself to be true, preparing for this mile. Now, this was for this 50 mile walk. Now, this is something that I wanted to do. Um, and I want to compare this especially to going unmedicated. So, if your goal is to not use an epidural, delay an epidural, avoid an epidural, that's kind of um my easiest analogy here. So, walking this 50 miles was my own idea. Like nobody said, hey, you should do this. Um, my husband didn't suggest it, my kids didn't, my friends, like nobody would have put that upon me. It was something that um I came up with myself. I like to challenge myself on every 10th um decade year um and do something I haven't done before and kind of take some time, take some time training and preparing for it. So it was my choice. And same thing when when someone chooses to go on medicated, it should definitely be their choice, not something that is imposed on them by someone else. Um someone else's idea, if your partner want to do it, your friend, your sister, your um your midwife. Um you know, it should be something that that you purely and um and from an autonomous space want to do, or else it'll never, it'll never work out. It's uh it it would be terrible if somebody said, happy birthday, you need to walk 50 miles. That's imposing something pretty terrible. So it wasn't anything I was forced to do. Um, it was my own idea. So it should be similar for you. This should be your own idea, and you've got to want it. If you don't want it, that's fine. Like nobody says you have to do this. There's lots of other options. So when it came down to the actual event, I wanted to do it on my birthday or thereabouts, but just with timing of life and schedules of work and and due dates, really. Like, I'm like, oh sweet, I have a sweet spot where I don't have um a due date for a little while, so I can spend some time

Autonomy In Unmedicated Birth

SPEAKER_01 8:40

um doing this because I knew it was gonna take some time and the recovery time. So I did it on my birthday and it was so hot. So there's imperfect, um, sometimes there's imperfect situations, there's imperfect surroundings, there's an imperfect setting, imperfect climate, imperfect um, there's some imperfections around that. So I kind of decided within a day or so, um, even with my prep, I'm like, all right, I'm I'm gonna start at the night of my birthday, which is a Thursday, and um and I contemplated, now you don't get this luxury generally when going into labor, like, when do I want to start? When do I want my labor to start? That's not how that goes, um, unfortunately for us. So um I kind of got to choose that, which was a luxury. So I chose to start at night partially because it was so very hot now. My birthday's in August, right? So towards the end of August. So not a super cool time of year. Um temperatures were were warm, um, and I knew I wanted to do it at night because of that. And I'd done a lot of my training at night. A lot of times I would walk my 15 miles and get done at like midnight or one in the morning. Um, so that wasn't foreign to me. And a lot of times babies come at night, right? Labor starts late at night or um as you're going to bed anyway, which is kind of frustrating. So I I I was kind of anticipating to do this at night, which was fine. I've worked overnight many, many times. Um, so I thought, okay, I can do an overnight. So I got up that day, lived my day, did work on this, that, and the other, just a regular old day. Um, and I'm not a good napper, so I didn't like prepare with a nap to go into this. I'm like, well, I'm just gonna go into the night and do my best. Um, so that's what I did. I my goal was to start at 7 p.m. I think I started at, I think my goal is even six, and I started at like almost 8 p.m. I think it was like 7.40 or something like that. Um, but which is fine. I'm like, okay, we're not gonna have tons of of daylight and sun. Um, but it was a hundred degree day. So when I started, it was pretty dang hot. And it's not like I came right out of a night of sleep. I came after a day of work. And that's what you might find when with your labor conditions. They start when you're not quite ready for them. Like it might start a little later than you want or earlier than you want, and it won't be perfect conditions. So I knew my goal. I knew my starting point and my ending point. I had my um I had my course laid out with a little bit of variation as needed, with some flexibility, and of course. Um so you know that you know you want to start labor and end labor by having a baby. And if your goal is to go unmedicated, that's kind of the 50 mile comparison, right? Doing doing it unmedicated. And I

Labor Never Starts On Schedule

SPEAKER_01 11:18

prepared for that in my practice, my training walks, um, as I did those, I kind of learned what I would need um for for my 50 mile. And I had a um, I I kind of took notes as what I would need. I'm like, all right, I'm gonna need these water bottles, these electrolytes, I'm gonna have these snacks, I'm gonna need um these phone chargers, I'm gonna need these. I I took a white umbrella in case it was really hot. I took a hat, I took um chapstick, I took um what else did I have? Lots of water. I had a pretty heavy little um setup for myself. Um, and I was prepared. And you can do the same thing as you prepare your hospital bag as you um put those tools in there. I did not use everything in my bag, quite the contrary. I was surprised when I didn't use and what I did use, I did use all the water and got restocked on that. But um I had everything I thought I might need, and at certain points I did need um those on my training walks. So prepare your hospital bag, prepare your tools, literally, figuratively prepare those and so that you'll have them if you need them. And you may need all of them, you may only need some of them, but kind of do some prep work that way. Um, one really golden thing that happened, um, and this just touches my heart deeply, actually. I was not planning on this, um, and I planned my route, you know, during 15 miles through um a trail in my town. It's not a hard trail, it's flat, it's like mostly flat, it's um paved, it's by a river, like it's treed, it's shaded pretty well. Um, but it goes through some sketchy parts of town, some industrial parts of town, some um there's some pretty lonely expanses on there, and my goal was to get through that portion of the trail before it got dark. Um, and I had been on this whole trail before, right? So as I trained, I'd been on everything before. And here's my bonus factor that really to this day um really touches me deeply. I have a friend, like a dear dear friend who I've known for over 20 years. I've actually been her doula a couple times, um, and she works for me now. She's totally amazing. Um, she's kind of my ride or die friend, and I can ask her to do the craziest things, and she'll do them. Like we've done some wild things in our life together, things that normal people say,

Tools, Bags, And Backup Plans

SPEAKER_01 13:36

uh, no thanks, but she'll do them with me. So I appreciate that. And I didn't ask her because this is crazy, but she offered. She's like, hey, I'll go with you. I'll go with you as long as I can. So she hadn't been planning on this, she hadn't been training for this. It's not like she was, you know, getting ready for this for many months like I was. And I'm like, Are you serious? You don't have to. She's like, Yeah, I totally want to. And it was kind of a last-minute decision for her, like day of, day before. She said, Yeah, let's all go. Um, and I'll tell you what, that little bonus surprise, I enjoyed it and needed it far more than I thought. Um, she started out with me and we went about 17 miles together. We got through that sketchy part of town, the industrial part of town where you're just um around kind of warehouses and the lonely part of town, and and I got into a much um better part of the trail. Um, and and then that 17 miles, she we had to we we always we could talk about everything forever. So we talked about everything, had great discussions, um, supported each other. We got lost a couple times, we lost the trail a little bit. Um we filled up our water bottles, we got our hats wet, like um, we changed, you know, we got rocks out of our shoes, we we did all that stuff, we um stopped at a gas station, got some milk, you know. Um, and it was there was like also strength in numbers. So the time that she was with with me was very enjoyable and went remarkably fast. Um, due to her not preparing for this crazy event that I she didn't even need to do with me. Um and she knew she goes, I'll go as far as I can. And she she was, you know, she got to uh I don't know, several miles in and she's like, Okay, I can keep going, I keep going. I'm like, you can tap out whenever you want, you know, and um she kept going, she kept going. I was so amazed with her strength and tenacity and um just really touched by her friendship and support. So finally at about 17 miles, she had um somebody come pick her up. It was about 1:30 in the morning by that point. Um,

The Gift Of Early Support

SPEAKER_01 15:36

and uh she came prepared too. She came with a a bag full of stuff, and um, we used some of her things, some of mine. Um, and she hugged me and said, good luck, and sorry, can't keep going with you. I'm like, you know, it's totally cool. I was a you know, I'm planning on doing some of my own. So she left and I continued on um as I had planned to do. And a lot of this, as I have done physical events before, is so much of it is a head game. Like it's just a head game. And it was easy to play the head game when she was with me because I had company, there was something to do, the miles went fast, um, the time went fast, it was feeling good, feeling companionship, feeling safe, like feeling supported. And then she left and I I set out to do what I meant to do. Um, but it it the head game started playing with me a little bit because I had a long ways to go and no conversation stuff. I still had other plans and I listened to music and I listened to a book, like I had you know plenty of things to do, and I actually just love being outdoors and seeing the beautiful moon on the water and um seeing some critters here and there, and um, I saw a raccoon that night and a snake and a deer and um a rabbit and some anyway, it was kind of fun to see. I love that too, so that was awesome. But the miles they just keep going and they keep going. So as you compare this to preparing for birth, who's your support people? Like, uh don't do a night of thing like, hey, you want to walk 17 miles with me, but um prepare ahead of time. Who's gonna be with you? Um, are they preparing? Are they training? What's gonna be in their bag literally figuratively? How are they gonna be able to support you with their knowledge, with their how are they gonna make it easier for you? Make that first 17 miles just easy, breezy, feeling good, feeling safe, feeling supported. Um, your team, your team is so important. You've heard me say that so many times over and over in different ways on on this um podcast. So, yeah, that's support, get continuous support, and maybe your support needs to switch out, right? Like I could have gotten some other crazy friend to walk another 17 with me. Um, if I have friends that crazy, which I probably do, and I love it. Um so support is huge and it helps alleviate a lot of the challenges that you'll be going through. So as I'm continuing on through the night, uh playing the head game, continuing, continuing, feeling pretty good, like doing what I set out to do, feeling great, feeling energized in my mind, my body, just keep going, keep going. That's the hard part though, the keep going part. And so often during labor, you just gotta keep going. You gotta keep going, you gotta keep going, right? Like you don't have a choice to really stop. These this labor pattern, these contractions will keep coming. Um, so I got a little bit bored, um, but I had I had some um support there. I got a bit tired, but the goal was just to keep going. And as the night wore on, um, it was cooler. It got down to like 85 that night, you know, from 100 to like 85. Not ideal. I was hoping it would be like a 70-degree night, but it that was not my luck that night. But I knew this was when I had to fit it into my life because I had to work and stuff uh and had you know things coming up. Ironically, um, in the first few miles, I got call a call from someone um who said, Hey, um, today is my due date. Um, will you be my doula? So I took this call as I was walking. I said, Um, sure, yeah, my team

The Lonely Miles And Head Game

SPEAKER_01 18:56

and I, we can do that if we meet soon. Like we kind of gotta get on our prep and we can meet. Um, I happen to have a little tiny window in my opening right now, so yeah, I can fit you in. Um, so that will come into play a little bit later. Um, but uh I I got hired right while I was on my walk actually for for a client um who was doing some last minute prep, which that happens sometimes. I've been hired on the on the day of due day or after sometimes a few times. Um so as I was going and going and going, the night's wearing on, I'm waiting for that pinkishness to come into the sky during morning time. Um I closed my eyes a few times, honestly. I kept walking, kept plodding along, kept walking. Um, but sometimes like, man, I am tired. Like my brain's feeling good, my head's feeling good, but my body's a bit tired. So I'd close my eyes. It's a nice wide trail, keep on the trail, um, and take a quick nap. I did have a refueling. My husband came and met me about 4:30 in the morning, gave me, he brought me new water bottles, um, filled with um all the good stuff I'd put in them. We swapped that out. I changed my socks, I changed my shoes, um, a lot of prep on the feet because I knew that they would be um hot spots there. So fueling while I was going. And so same with yourself, like pacing yourself and in labor, um, fueling yourself. Um, if I ever got tired or something, I'm like, all right, just like a little, I had some um gummy chews with me. I'm like, all right, let's take a few of these. I had some dried fruit, um, I had some trail mix, just different snacks. So I take just a little bit, not not a lot. Same thing in labor, like eating just a little bit can change your energy, which it certainly did for me. So to keep going, enduring, like that's a big part of labor, just to keep going. The baby's not there yet, right? So you gotta keep going. Um, and it was getting long, for sure. It was getting long, and it it you play the long game in your head for sure. Um, and then as the the sky was getting a little bit pink and the sun was starting to rise, the birds were coming out. I'm starting to see joggers on the trail and bikers on the trail in those early morning hours going through trail that I I was familiar with and I'd I'd seen before in my training runs. Um, I started slowing down. So I was I was definitely slowing down. I was tracking my miles, my pace, tracking all the things. Like, man, I'm kind of slowing down. And somewhere along those hours, I started getting a familiar little pain in my knee. And when I train for marathons, sometimes I train too aggressively and I train too hard, thinking I was an some elite athlete, which I certainly am not. And um, I've trained too hard before and had IT band issues where there's this just nagging a little outer knee pain um that pretty soon makes it so you can't walk. So I that I felt that nagging a little bit in the early morning hours, but was fine. Feeling good in my head and my body kept going, kept going. But over time, that just kind of ate at me and got a little bit worse and a little bit worse. And I noticed I was slowing down, my pace is slowing down quite a bit. Um, and fatigue can happen during labor, obviously, right? If it's going overnight, if it's going long, if it's um Consistent that fatigue kind of sets in. So I still had, I think at this point I was like at 30 miles. I still had like 20 miles to go. Now I'd walked 16 many times before. I'm like, okay, all I gotta do is knock out just about a 16-mile walk. I've done that before. I can do that. My head is feeling going up. I got that, I got that. Um, so I got to 31, 32, 33 miles, um, 34, and that that aching pain just got a little bit worse and I got a little bit slower. Um, and as we're we're in labor and consider the parallels I

Fueling Through Fatigue

SPEAKER_01 22:31

want to draw with labor, is like we're getting to that transition part, right? Where it gets harder. The end, I had most the distance behind me. I had less, far less than half of it to go. Um, and same thing with dilation, with the labor progress. You can get to seven, eight centimeters, have most of the time behind you, most of the dilation behind you, but what's coming up is kind of the the hard part, right? And it's hard because you're tired, and it's hard because you've been doing the work, um, and it's hard because it gets harder, right? Because it's at the end and a little bit more intense. And my knee was making things a little bit more intense for me, and I was frustrated by that. My feet were hurting, but not bad. Not too bad at all. Um, and I knew the heat of the day was coming up too. So I was like, okay, shoot, like um the temperatures are gonna be climbing, we're gonna be hitting 100 degrees again today. That sun is coming out and it was gorgeous. I loved watching it. The um pinking and brightening of the sky over the mountains was beautiful, and I was at a very different place in the valley that I live than I was when I started. Um, so I love to see the scenery change, and that was pretty awesome. But I'm in my head, I was doing my math, right? I'm like, okay, at this pace, it's gonna take me to like noon to do this. Um, I did have obligations later that day. Couldn't put my now in labor. You need to put your whole life on hold. Obligations don't matter, right? Yours or anyone else's that baby needs to be born. Um but I was just kind of carve out this time to do this. I'm like, if I want a ride home pretty soon, my husband had a bunch of meetings he couldn't get out of. Um, and I had some meetings I had at like one o'clock. So I'm like, all right, if I'm gonna call it, I need to call it soon so he can pick me up. And it was a difficult decision. I fought it in my head for miles, actually. I'm like, should I stop? Should I keep going? Um my head was tenacious enough to do it. I'm like, I want to keep going. I totally want to keep going. But my worry was, I'm like, is my knee getting damaged? Am I gonna regret this next week, next month, next year? Um, like, I don't want to push through, nobody's making me do this. I know it's my own decision, and I'm pretty dedicated to it, really dedicated to it, but at what cost? Um, and sometimes that happens during later. You want to be so dedicated to it, something you want. Um, and your reasons don't matter to anybody else. They're your own and they're personal, and as long as you have your reasons, that's good enough. Um, but I started to weigh things. I'm like, it's gonna get hotter. Um, I'm gonna burn through a lot more water in the heat, which is fine. I was prepared for that. Um, I am tired, but I can keep going. But I just want to damage uh my knee. Um, so I did call it like, and he I had my husband come get me at 7:30-ish, eight o'clock in the morning. Um, and that was hard. It's kind of like uh, and I compare that to like, man, what if you know you're in labor and you call it, you're like, all right, forget it, I'm getting an epidural. Um, some people might look at that as failure. You know, you wasn't what you wanted to do, wasn't what you set out to do, and not all of you wanted to do that, but um, the

Transition: When It Gets Harder

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louder part said, okay, let's look at the common sense of the thing. You're tired, you got a long ways to go, it's getting hot, your knee's hurting, um, you're slowing down. Maybe this is a good call to make. So um, that can happen sometimes. An epidural, that the funny thing about this, oh, sorry, sorry, I'm getting ahead of myself. An epidural can be a good tool, right? So allowing for rest, allowing for um a positive experience to keep it positive. And that's kind of what me calling it did. I'm like, you know what? Um, I don't, yeah, I'm gonna rest, but um I just don't want to damage my knee and have uh regrettable pain. So same thing in labor, like we don't want people to have negative experiences. I don't want people to slide into suffering, like true suffering, which could be emotional, which could be physical, which could be um social sometimes. Like I just don't want them to slide into um any kind of suffering that's abnormal, right? That's gonna leave a mark, um, so to speak. So um I waited for my ride to come get me. I by this time I was hobbling. Like, I don't know, if you've done a big event, like stopping is harder than um keeping going sometimes. I guess you stop and then it's come stiffness that's in, and I hobbled over to the car. Not not feeling terrible, my knee hurt pretty good, but um feeling pretty good overall. Um, and tired, of course, pretty tired. And I um, and this is nobody's choice but my own, right? Like nobody said, Hey, I think you should stop. Um, my husband didn't say, I'm gonna come get you. Like it was my own choice, and I contemplated for quite a while for miles, actually. Um, and um there's parts of this as I think about it, there's parts that you have to do alone when you are the one having the baby. You can have all the support around you, but nobody can do it for you, right? Same thing with my walk. I could have had somebody come finish the 15 for me, but if I don't do it, it doesn't count, right? Um, so nobody can really do this for you nor make decisions for you. Um so my husband picked me up. I fell asleep hardcore in the car. It surprised me like before we had like a 15-minute drive until we got to our house, and I was in like deep sleep state. Um, and and sometimes we'll see that someone gets an epidural and they go this into this awesome deep nap. Um, I love that. I love that rest for them because that can help them get the energy they need for the final push, literally, the final push to be able to birth their baby. Um and when I got home, I, you know, got out of the car, kind of hobbled into the house, and uh as soon as I got inside the door, I laid down on the floor, on the hard floor, and just slept for like 15 more minutes before I felt like I could get up. So I I went upstairs and um I made it upstairs slow in a slow manner. I'm like, should I sleep? Should I shower? Should I eat? I didn't feel like eating. Actually, I kind of felt like throwing up. Um, and so I'm like, should I shower? I'm like, no, I don't feel like showering, I feel like sleeping. So I did. I just slept um all gross and sweaty and slept for a little while and then took a glorious shower a little bit later. And then let's talk about postpartum here. Um, recovery, right? Like the recovery after the event, after your 50 mile or after your 100 mile, or after whatever. I've I have

Changing Course Without Shame

SPEAKER_01 28:26

a friend who uh did the Coca-Dona 250 miler um earlier this year, and gosh, that's amazing. I loved watching her progress, and I'm so so proud of her and impressed with what she did. That's not in my wheelhouse, I wish it was. Um, but you know, not to compare and not to judge everybody has different capacities, but um after delivery, after my 50 miler, like a lot of times we don't give enough credit to the recovery process. And I did not give enough credit to the recovery process. The psyche of recovery a lot of times doesn't come in yet. We're not planning for that, we're not hyped up for that. We we have a goal in mind, and the goal is to get the baby out, to deliver the baby, and we're kind of talking on medicated here. After that, we don't really have a plan. We didn't really plan what that would be like because we we want to get that big event done. So after my 50 mile hour, I didn't really have a plan. I was curious to see how it would go. Um, I'm like, well, I don't know if I can work the next day, like maybe, you know. Um, I did have some meetings. Um, and the client that hired me the night before my walk, I had to meet with her that night. We had to do a pretty quick meeting since her new date was already coming. Um, so that recovery caught me off guard. And that next day um and the day after, I regretted my decision, honestly. Like I was in a lot of pain. Um, my knee hurt, I iced it, um, my hips hurt, my feet hurt, ah, these blisters cropped up. Although I did really good at watching for hot spots, taping and retaping and stuff, and changing shoes and using shoes and socks that I trust and know. Um, but pretty gnarly blisters came up on my feet, um, which I was kind of expecting, but um that was pretty crazy. So I iced my knee for a couple days, and you know that got better quick, like by day two. It was awesome, feeling good. Joints took a little bit longer. Um, honestly, going to my appointment that night, I showered and got to be like a normal human again. Um, I hobbled into my my brand new client's house, did our appointment with her, um, and they walked me out to my car and watched me walk to my car, and I really was like, oh gosh, please don't watch me walk to my car. I'm hobbling so bad. Um, but it taught me a lot. And I I I th I don't know, when you when you're in pain like that, it teaches you a lot to appreciate not being in pain. And I thought about people who struggle with that. Um, my my dad is older and he has a hard time getting around and standing up and moving and sitting, and um I thought, gosh, what you know, this is what that could be like. It helped me not take for granted um what that feels like. So that's a good teacher. Um and to remember in recovery, like it is legit, right? Remember no matter how well you did in labor, no matter how good you felt, recovery is a real true thing. Um, my feet took the longest to recover, like there's they're they're feeling great now. I could go out and and uh do a lot of miles, but um those those uh blisters are pretty gnarly and they're still kind of healing

Postpartum Recovery After The Finish

SPEAKER_01 31:21

up. So you might have stitches that um you might be healing from. You might have a cesarean delivery that you might be healing from, and that's legit, right? Like it should get better every day, but taking the time and allowing for that space for you to recover is gonna be very important. And you might have blisters figuratively that take a little longer to heal from when some things are gonna get better quicker than others. Um, your mobility might get better, but um, maybe actually some sexual function might take a little bit longer, and please, you know, we're not having sex right after, obviously, but down the road there might be some things that take a little bit more time. Um, so being patient with yourself, getting the support you need, um, giving attention and intention to recovery is huge. Um, can be very, very, very huge. Um, so I I guess like um as I look back on it, I called that night very fun. Like it was very fulfilling to me. I set out to do something just I wanted to do, and I didn't get there. I didn't accomplish my goal, which I was bummed about, but I'm not gonna dwell on that. I'm gonna dwell on the fact that I did 35 miles. I attested my limits. I'd never attempted that far on foot before, and maybe I can I know I can continue to work on that and get further. So, same thing with your labor, with your delivery, with your birth, however it goes, you can be proud of it. Even if it doesn't go how exactly how you think it will, because I promise you it won't. Um, you could enjoy the journey and be proud of what you did do, whether you got to three centimeters before you made a choice, um, whether you got to 10 or whether you got to pushing, um, and consider, you know, all factors. We can't judge on like, man, you did not finish your 50 miles, but we can also look at like, well, you started out at night, um, it was hot, um, you didn't prepare perfectly. Like, there's a lot of reasons why and the nuances why, and who cares if you didn't walk 50 miles on your 50 birthday? That's not a um milestone that every anyone else is putting on you. So if your goal is to go on medicate and you didn't quite get there, who cares? Um, hopefully you feel good about the work you did, the preparation you did, um, and knowing that you can do differently if there's a next time for you as well. Um, especially if it's your first baby. Those first babies are the tough ones. So if people have a goal to go on medicate on their first and they don't quite do it, that's fine. Um, let's test again on your second one. That's it, you know what you're getting into and you can prepare a little bit differently. Um, so be proud of the work that you've done. Be proud of um however your labor and delivery goes. I like people have it it's a hard thing that they're doing, and I absolutely recognize this. So I want to the whole thing that prompted me to do this podcast is my client that hired me on her due date. I met with her the day after my walk, kind of the day of, I guess, hobbled away from her

Redefining Success After Plan Changes

SPEAKER_01 34:11

appointment, was hoping like crazy she wouldn't go into labor the next day because I was still hobbling pretty good. I did go to work and hobbled around the hospital a bit. Um, she went into labor like two or three days later. I was feeling great by then, so I could support her well. Um, but it was fascinating to me having just done my walk, all these parallels I was drawing. Um, she labored through the night, overnight. She was tenacious. She, um, as I was walking, walking, walking on the path during the night and would close my eyes even while I walked, um, she dozed off between contractions. She handled contractions beautifully. She had a smile on her face. Um, she was doing it. Her goal was to go unmedicated. First baby, had never done this before, had prepared, she had taken classes, she had done uh some great preparation in her mind and her heart and her body. She was in a good space for that. Um, and that she had some unfair things. She had um a bladder that was very difficult for her to empty her bladder for a long time, which gave a new quality to the contractions, a new quality and sensation of pain to contractions. That was bothering her more than anything else. Just like my knee was bothering more me more than the miles or the temperature or even the fatigue. It was my knee that was nagging me that made me make a decision. For her, it was her bladder, and she made a decision eventually to get an up and roll. And you know what? She went to a hardcore nap. Um, I had uh another a kodula come in with me for a portion of this, uh, one of my backup doulas. And so we were there together for a little while, and um, gosh, we just fell in love with this couple, such a great couple. Um, so we had she just rested pretty hardcore. Like I came in from the back door and laid down on the floor and took a 15-minute nap. She um got up earl and took a nice lovely nap and continued to work, continued to work until she gave birth um to her baby in a very beautiful fashion. And I hope, and I know I've talked to her that she's proud of the work she did. I got to I've seen her a few times since um

A Real Birth Story Parallel

SPEAKER_01 36:06

doing lactation support and some postpartum in-home support as well. Um she did remarkable. She set out to have a baby, she did it. Maybe didn't look exactly how she thought, maybe she didn't quite get to her 50 miles, but she did a remarkable job. She had great support. Um, her partner was amazing, and what an honor to watch somebody go through that process and find out their own their own journey. And she had joy in her journey. She got to her destination with a baby, um, which was a baby, a cute little one at that. So um that's it was very poignant to me once again, the parallels that can be drawn between um doing a big physical event and giving birth, um, going through labor and giving birth, because there's they're very similar. So if you've done anything like that in your life or know somebody who has, and maybe it's a it's not physical at all, maybe it's a dissertation dissertation you've written or a um production you've been in, or um something you've composed, a piece of you know, some art, uh, some artwork you've done, something you've painted, um a big project you've worked on. Um, as you take these life hard things and practice doing hard things, they can translate pretty well, and the skills that you gain in doing them can translate into other parts of your life, such as giving um giving birth. So, anyway, that's all I have to say about that. This episode, gosh, it's getting a little long, sorry about that, but it kind of just cropped up in the middle of other episodes as um had this experience. Um, I wish you the very best in your journey, whatever that is. Hopefully, your preparation has been satisfactory to you, and hopefully your support is there, that you have that do-or-die friend who will walk 17 miles with you and make it so much easier. Um, support is important, preparation is important, grace is important, um, grace to yourself through the process. So hopefully this helps. I um am excited for you and the journey you have lying ahead if you're anticipating an upcoming labor or delivery for yourself. Please do it with um joy and um confidence that you're gonna do an amazing job because you are, no matter how it goes, you are gonna do an amazing job. I promise you that. Thanks for being with me here today on the Ordinary Doola podcast. We are hosted by Hatched and Latched, and um I am happy to spend this time with you. As always, please reach out to someone else, make a good human connection in our life, give someone a hug. I had a great hug today from a past client, and um, it was uh really awesome to have that hug make a human connection today. I know it'll help you and it'll help someone else. Thanks for being with us, and we'll see you next time.

Final Takeaways And Thank You

SPEAKER_00 38:56

You can find episode credits in the show notes and more information by visiting HatchtonLabs.com. If this podcast has been helpful to you, please leave a rating wherever you listen to a podcast. Your support helps us to continue having thoughtful conversations about birth, breastfeeding, and other part of life. We start to the next time as we continue exploring the many experiences, questions, and realities surrounding the journey into parenthood.