Meet Lauren: A Vaginal Breech Birth & Introducing Full Circle Birth Collective

We sit down with our business partner, Lauren, to demystify breech birth, explain why it’s not automatically an emergency, and name the real reasons families feel pushed into one path. We share Lauren’s personal breech story, talk through ECV and provider training gaps, and come back to informed consent and what it means to feel safe while making birth decisions. 

• who Lauren is and why breech birth shaped her path into doula work 
• what “breech” means and why the panic is often bigger than the facts 
• how vaginal breech birth became rare as training and support declined 
• what an ECV is and how it’s typically done
• the stress of being late in pregnancy and suddenly losing your planned setting 
• why choice matters and how different families carry different risk thresholds 
• how we think about safety, support, and provider willingness in any birth plan 
• specialty consults, breech consults, and finding reliable resources 

AND....our official announcement of Full Circle Birth Collective!

If you love this episode, like it, share it, tag it, leave a review. 
And if you know somebody who’s navigating pregnancy and maybe they just found out their baby is breach, please share this with them. 

The Birth Hour (Lauren's full birth story)

MamasteFit (Lauren's full birth story)

Breech Without Borders (Find a breech provider & learn more about breech birth)

Full Circle Birth Collective website (Lauren's 1:1 breech consult)

Thanks for listening!  Always feel free to message us for more information or, if you have information you feel we should see, please send that. We LOVE to hear and learn from you!

Transcript

Disclaimer And Welcome

Speaker 0:03

I'm Misty, and I'm Tammy. And we're the doulas on call. Remember, mamas, we're not doctors, midwives, or magical birth wizards, I wish. Just two passionate birth workers with microphones, sharing personal experiences, trusted information, the best snacks for labor, and a whole lot of heart. What you hear on this podcast is meant to educate, encourage, and connect, but it's not medical advice.

Speaker 1 0:34

Please consult your trusted healthcare provider when making decisions about your health, your birth, or anything clinical. Basically, don't sue us. We're just here to talk birth, spill some tea, and share the love.

Meet Lauren And The Collective

Speaker 1 1:29

I didn't start good today, but it's gotten better since y'all are here.

Speaker 1:33

Oh well, we do have a special guest today.

Speaker 1 1:39

Hi, hi.

Speaker 1:42

Let's introduce her. Mystic go for it. Well, everyone, this is Lauren. Hello, hello. Nice to be here. She's the third of our third wheel of our tricycle. Yeah, you go.

Speaker 2 1:56

You're probably you're probably wondering why they're doing the podcast without me. It's because I'm so popular. I'm so busy.

Speaker 1 2:02

We can barely book her. I just can't get on their schedule. She's really cool. Infinitely smooth. And actually, it's a really big episode for us because we are not only having Lauren on because she's amazing and uh expert on I consider her an expert on breach birth and one of the only duelists that's attended multiple breach births in Denver. But she's also the other member of Full Circle Birth Collective.

Speaker 2:28

Which is which, if you don't know yet, uh Tammy, Lauren, and myself have formed our very own um collective in Denver, Full Circle Birth Collective.

Speaker 3 2:41

Yeah.

Speaker 2:42

Um, so it is the three of us. Yeah.

Speaker 1 2:44

So go to our website, find us on Insta while you're listening to our episode. Do all the things like and share, repost. What else did I forget? Check that box. Okay. Anyway, um, but honestly, we couldn't ha think of a better person to have this conversation with um because Lauren's not only an incredible doula and birth worker, but she has also personally experienced a vaginal breach birth, which completely changed the way she views birth. Am I right about that?

Speaker 2 3:13

Um, definitely. And also my breach birth is kind of the reason why I became a doula, if I'm honest. So it's why I'm here with you guys. That's awesome.

Speaker 1 3:21

So before anyone listening panics and throws their phone across the room, today is not about telling anyone what kind of birth they should have. We don't do that.

Speaker 3:31

We don't do that here.

Speaker 1 3:32

It's all about education, and it's all about knowing your options. That's right. Because there's no one way to birth. And it's about hearing a real story from somebody who's actually lived it, which is pretty awesome.

Speaker 3:44

Yeah, and that's what we like. Real life stories. Thanks for coming on, thanks. Thank you guys. I'm so excited. Yeah, and welcome officially to the podcast. Yay!

Speaker 1 3:56

Yes, I love it. Um, how was your day?

Speaker 2 3:59

My day was decent. Um we came over to Misty's house where we're recording to do some social media stuff. And so my heart rate's a little elevated because I just did stuff where I looked

Roles, Values, And Birth Calm

Speaker 2 4:12

goofy, but you know, I'm good, good, nice. Calm and chill, calm and chill for the law.

Speaker 4:17

Calm and chill. It's all for the gram. Um, just also so you know, so you're aware, Lauren does our Instagram. Woohoo! So I do.

Speaker 2 4:25

I'm in charge of social media and community events.

Speaker 1 4:28

Yeah, let's talk about our roles.

Speaker 2 4:29

Let's talk about Misty is the business manager. We like to call her the Bow Movement, the BM. So we just send her poop emojis. I came up with that and I'm very pleased with myself.

Speaker 1 4:39

Yeah, it's actually really convenient because if we need something from our BM, we just send a poop emoji and she's like, I'm on it. Yeah, it's perfect.

Speaker 4:48

BM is on duty, right?

Speaker 1 4:52

Which is really important both, actually. It is, it is. Okay, Roll again. You are I was like, do you do you need us to tell you the business manager, like, keep her in line? The business manager needs to needs to re-grade. I'm in the fields. I I'm gonna go talk to you.

Speaker 2 5:10

I'm marketing for our target audience, pregnant families, and you're marketing for providers. That's why I want it.

Speaker 5:17

Yeah, Tammy's excellent with face-to-face. She has amazing relationships with people, so it's just a very natural role to have Tammy in. Yeah, people always love her, it's kind of annoying.

Speaker 2 5:28

Just saying.

Speaker 1 5:29

Thank you. I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding. Okay, well, first things first, um, tell us just a little synopsis, just a little bit about you, because they're tired about hearing about us.

Speaker 2 5:38

Yeah, so I'm Lauren. I I'm from Texas. I moved to Colorado in 2018 when I was pregnant with my oldest. I have two boys, they're five and seven. Awesome. Um, I was a teacher in my former life and then slowly transitioned to birth work, kind of after my youngest Jameson, was born in 2020. Which also I should come back on for what was pregnancy like during 2020? Because that was absolutely a really horrid time to have a child, in my opinion. Some people liked it. Oh, yeah. First, first, with your second. Yeah. Nobody was 2018, Jameson 2020. Yeah.

Speaker 1 6:17

Okay, so pre and during pandemic. Okay. Um, what do you love most about serving families? As a birth worker.

Speaker 2 6:27

I think um a lot of people, when they think of doulas in general, they think we love babies. And sure, I love babies, right? But I really love watching people grow their families, and I love working with women and watching them make that transition from maiden to motherhood, if you will.

Speaker 3 6:48

Yeah.

Speaker 2 6:48

Um, I don't know, it's just really special. It is I'm here for the mommies, if I'm honest.

Speaker 6:53

Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Well, one thing I love about Lauren is how calm and grounded she can be.

Speaker 2 7:01

I think I'm spazzy, so how kind and thoughtful.

Speaker 7:06

I feel like you have a good balance. I think you're a very good balance.

Speaker 1 7:10

You definitely make people feel safe. Like even when I've backed you up and I walk into the room and I'm pretty like empathic in spaces, that space, it's just always so calm. Like it never feels emergent and never feels scary. It just feels safe. Like we're really, really good at making people feel safe. And that's super important when people are having a baby.

Speaker 2 7:31

I think I am honestly calmest in the birth space. I think in my real life, I'm calm or spazzy. But in the birth space, I think I'm always calm. Calm. Yeah.

Speaker 1 7:42

I think I could say that about Misty, you as well. Yeah. I think that's what makes us really good at um backing each other up too.

Speaker 7:49

I think I think that's really a good balance to have, like in general, but especially like in the birth world. Like knowing when to be quiet, knowing when to be calm. Um that's very important. So I think it always is good skill to have.

Speaker 1 8:05

Yeah, I think it always shocks people how quiet birth is. Even the person birthing.

What Breech Means Medically

Speaker 1 8:10

It takes them a minute because I think they just think it's a lot of commotion, especially the partners. Um, okay, we're gonna start at the basics. Let's do it. We don't want to assume today our episode is about um breach birth, but um, a lot of people honestly need that. We should explain. You might be thinking, what is breach? I don't know. It's an emergency. Baby's breach.

Speaker 8:33

I think that's what I hear often when you hear a breach. Like I've had clients who they panic. Um they're like, I'm breatch my baby's breach and I'm 32 weeks. You know, and it does feel kind of like a panic to them. While I've never had personally had that experience, so I can't quite understand it.

Speaker 1 8:49

But I think I yeah.

Speaker 8:53

Well, and I think kind of being in the space as long as I have, and also you know, learning a lot, you know, from Lauren is knowing that it isn't that emergency thing that we think that it is, right? So right? So Lauren? Yeah, sorry, answer that.

Speaker 2 9:09

Is it is breach an emergency? Yeah, it's not just one. Is it an answer?

Speaker 1 9:13

Yes or no?

Speaker 2 9:13

No.

Speaker 1 9:14

Okay, okay. So let's talk about breach. What is what does it mean if your baby is breached anatomically, physiologically, clinically?

Speaker 2 9:21

Okay, so most babies are head down. The head is going to be birth first, but with a breach baby, they are essentially flipped, so their butt or their foot would be the presenting piece when they're born. Um, and what kind of rubs me the wrong way is the way it was presented to me, and the way I think most people still have it presented to them. It's like your baby is naughty, or your baby's not following the rules, or your baby's doing something wrong. And I do think this is what I always tell my clients that it is your job as the person growing the baby, as the mother, to create space, and it is your baby's job to find that space and to figure out the safest way to be born. And I truly think that that is the way my youngest needed to be born, and I don't think he was being naughty. I don't think, you know, like he he was just finding the space available, and he was like, This is the way I'm gonna come out, and it doesn't have to be this whole horrible thing. Right.

Speaker 10:19

No, we can talk about well, and historically, like

Why Breech Feels Like An Emergency

Speaker 10:24

way back when, like having a vaginal breach birth was like it was a variation of normal, right? And providers were taught this skill. Yes, and then they kind of just lost that and stopped teaching the providers the skill about five other episodes.

Speaker 2 10:40

And that is that's why breach is now an emergency, yes, in quotes, because providers do not receive training in medical school on how to do breach delivery. So if you find a provider that has experience, it's because they're either really old and so they had experience, they were trained, and I'm talking like 70s, 80s, or they took it upon themselves to go and do a breach without trainings border or a Dr. Stew training, and they paid for it themselves and they put forth effort. Um it's just not something that is automatically given to them when they're it's not, and so you can see how you'd panic if you don't know what to do. And I have gone to a training that was intended to be for midwives and obese. It was a weekend long training. I was the only doula there. I went last May. It was with Dr. Sue with Birthing Instincts, and I will say my biggest takeaway was it's not that hard. Like, truly, we practiced on mannequins, like how to do the maneuvers. And I'm like, I'm not trained in any of this. I'm not supposed to do any of this. I am a birth doula. Also, I feel like I could just walk up to the side of the road and help you if need be. So it it it enraged me even more that everyone was telling me almost six years ago, like, you've had a vaginal birth, but now you need to have a cesarean. And I'm like, did I? I don't know. The more I know, the more angry it makes me at what my previous providers were telling me, honestly.

Speaker 1 12:04

So in reality, I think you could actually say that um people assume that it's impossible when in reality it's just that people are not trained to do it. Correct. Yeah, yeah.

Lauren’s Breech Pregnancy And ECV

Speaker 1 12:15

So um backing up, let's let's dive into something a little more personal. Okay. Okay, mistakes.

Speaker 12:22

You've mentioned your birth story. Let's talk about it.

Speaker 2 12:24

Yeah. So my oldest was born in 2018, vaginal delivery, like it overall was like a pretty good first-time birth. Um, and my biggest takeaway from that birth was oh my gosh, I am stronger, more badass than I ever imagined. And I truly I hated being pregnant, but I loved giving birth.

Speaker 1 12:46

I think a lot of women feel like that. I do.

Speaker 2 12:49

I wish I wish more women at least felt positive about giving birth because I I tell clients that a lot. Like, I truly would give birth a million times. It's hard. It's hard.

Speaker 12:59

Yeah, yeah. Especially with multiple, like when you have already had a kid, it affects their and it affects everybody differently, yeah, for sure. You know, pregnancy like has its uh different effects on everybody.

Speaker 1 13:12

So, in your experience, initially, what options were you presented? What did they tell you?

Speaker 2 13:17

I'll backtrack a little bit. So I went into this thinking I had a great birth, I want a vaginal birth, I want a medicated vaginal birth to be specific at a birth center. And I was like, I'm just gonna do the same thing again.

Speaker 3 13:28

Right.

Speaker 2 13:28

And then I was 2020, so everything was automatically a little bit different. Um and then I went in for a 36-week ultrasound to see if baby was breached. And me and my friend Caitlin were joking about it because at our other birth center where Bodhi was born, they didn't even do that ultrasound. And I was like, why are they doing this? It's so unnecessary. And then I'm sitting there alone because it's COVID, and my husband had to be at home with our toddler. Yeah, and they're like, baby's breached. And I was like, no, no, that's such a funny joke. Because you you know when you're at a birth center that there are some things that will risk you out, yeah, and that is most definitely one of them. And I had never you knew that you yeah, I had never birthed in a hospital. Oh my god. I knew I I knew I would risk out of there, and I knew it was gonna become like this sudden, stressful journey. And so I was just I cried a lot. The first 24 hours I cried a lot, and I was just like, oh my gosh.

Speaker 1 14:23

I'm so sorry. That's rough. It was rough, yeah. I wish I would have known you back then. I do too. Yeah, no, actually. But you've done a lot of work on your own. So you weren't presented like initially. It was scary because that's what you had learned.

Speaker 2 14:38

I will say the first week the midwives were like, You're gonna come back next week, don't worry about it, baby might still turn. They didn't even give me any spinny babies or any movements to do. They gave me nothing. They were like, Don't worry about it, come back next week, we'll see. Okay. Which no one's gonna do that. I got on Google and I'm like, acupuncture, I'm gonna keep seeing my chiropractor. Okay. And I had a great chiropractor. And her second son was uh cesarean for being breached. So like I also knew that. Um I went down the rabbit hole of what can I do to flip him? And then I went in the next week, and they were like, huh, shucks, he didn't flip. And then they were like, Well, now you're gonna call this number and you're gonna do an ECV. And if he does flip, you can come back. And if he doesn't, oh my god, I guess we just will never so you again. What is an ECV, Lauren? Yeah. So ECV stands for external cephalic version. So there are different ways to do it, but the main medicalized way that most people are discussing, you go into a hospital, it's billed as a surgery, you can do it with or without an epidural, but they manually try to rotate baby head down. Um, and some it requires monitoring a baby. Some people place an epidural first, like every everyone does it a little bit differently and they have their different reasons, but it's not by any means, in my experience, gentle. I have had some people tell me it was super easy. And over the years I've come to believe that either your baby's gonna flip super easily, and maybe your baby was gonna flip eventually on their own, or it can be really uncomfortable and stressful and painful, which unfortunately was my experience.

Speaker 1 16:22

I had an ECV scheduled for my second Maysay was breached at 32 weeks. She ended up flipping with uh Moxie Bushnum and make this about me. But I had a I had the ECV scheduled and I canceled because one of my best friends had just done one and it hurt her so much. Like it was scary and it was so painful that I was like, Yeah, I'm not doing it. I'll do anything but that.

Speaker 2 16:42

I will say it was more painful than both of my unmedicated deliveries.

Speaker 16:46

Now, did you have without epidural? Because you said some because you said some people do them with epidural, some without. Did you have no epidural?

Speaker 2 16:54

So the provider I did it with liked to do it without an epidural, and at the time I did not know you could do it with an epidural, so we tried without an epidural. He tried three times, and every time he kept saying, like, oh, I'm almost there, I've almost got a baby, and every time hurt worse, and every time I was like, this isn't working. But when that was unsuccessful, I was trying to find other providers who might be willing to help me with the vaginal delivery.

Speaker 1 17:20

And who did you find? Who did you end up finding?

Speaker 2 17:22

I mean, honestly, no one.

unknown 17:23

Yeah.

Speaker 2 17:24

No one. But there were a few people, like Denver Health, for example, were like, well, you could try coming in here with an epidural and see if it's different. Okay. But because my ECV was so painful the first time, I in no way wanted to do a second. Wow.

Speaker 1 17:39

I can't even imagine. So what led you to step two? Because clearly the baby's not gonna turn.

Speaker 2 17:44

Yeah. So then I didn't give up trying though. I became obsessed with it. Like all day long, I'm swimming, doing inversions, mox abusion. Yeah, I saw two acupunctures just in case one wasn't actually good and the other one was better. Like this is like warn't. I was trying to play my odds. I I went a little crazy. And what I warn my clients now is I honestly ruined the end of my pregnancy because that's all I thought about.

Speaker 18:10

I was so obsessed with fixated on that. You couldn't enjoy the and it was COVID.

Speaker 2 18:15

I was either gonna be obsessed with this or hang out in my basement with my toddler. Like wow, it was peak COVID. There was no vaccine yet. Like, totally what else was I gonna do with my time?

Speaker 1 18:23

Totally. That's really interesting. Because I think even if babies aren't breached, a lot of women do that. Yeah, and it just takes one one person to say, Oh, your baby's naughty, or your baby's just in a really funky position. That was during labor too. But yeah, that's really interesting.

Speaker 18:39

Or they lose faith like in their body. Yeah, like what's wrong with my body? Why why is my body not working? I always try and remind people like your baby's smart, they know way more about what's going on inside than we do.

Speaker 1 18:54

So just like they're telling us a story. Yeah, just like you said at the beginning, you really believe that's where he was supposed to be. That's the space he found, and he wasn't being born anyway. So you ended up getting to term and then so I was just I risked out of the birth center.

Speaker 2 19:10

Okay, and so my new provider was technically the OB who did um the ECD that was unsuccessful. Okay. And even though I was a multip, a multip is someone who has had a previous vaginal delivery. He was like, You should have a cesarean. And I was like, should I? Um, and I was calling all around Denver asking if anyone would see me. There used to be a provider named Dr. Hall who would openly do vaginal breach deliveries, but he was retired and had moved away. And it felt like in his absence, everyone else who sometimes did them was just a hard no. Wow. And I'm also, you know, 36, 37, 38 weeks. I don't want to take on some random lady calling.

Speaker 3 19:51

No.

Speaker 2 19:51

Right. Um, so I was just I was supposed to go in for a scheduled cesarean on a certain date, but that was never actually my plan. I was like, I'm just gonna figure it out. It's gonna, I don't know what's gonna happen.

Speaker 1 20:03

So that's a good question. In the Denver metro area, are there home birth midwives that would entertain a bachelor of age birth?

Speaker 2 20:10

So I will say that if you guys don't know this, every

Choice, Risk Thresholds, And Consults

Speaker 2 20:14

state has different regulations surrounding what midwives and OBs can do in hospitals at home birth centers, whatnot. Um, so the issue so much isn't where can you do them? I believe they can be done safely anywhere, as long as you have a provider that has the experience, the training, and honestly the willingness. Some people are trained, some people might have a handful of birth experiences, but because it is seen as such a liability issue, they don't want to put their neck out. What if something bad did happen? What if they get in trouble? And that's truly why people aren't offering it. It's just become a liability issue. The hospital's like, meh, if they have a cesarean, we can guarantee XYZ will happen. So we're gonna make XYZ happen. Gotcha.

Speaker 20:59

Well, and so can you talk about why understanding all available option matters so much or why it can matter so much to moms?

Speaker 2 21:08

Yeah, I think a big problem I had is I hated that I didn't feel like I had a choice. People were just saying you have to have a cesarean. I was like, but why? Because the more you learn about breach birth, you realize that it can be done safely. And something I walk through with my clients is that everyone has a different risk threshold. So someone might learn about vaginal breach birth and be like, nope, I'm out. This feels too risky for me. I'm too uncomfortable with this. No. But someone else might say, I've had a vaginal birth before. I remember how empowering it was. I loved it. I know my body can do this. I'm not scared. I have this provider that makes me feel safe. Totally. Um, one of my clients that had a vaginal breach birth this year, she was a multip. So her first was at a birth center, and she felt the same way. She's like, I don't want a cesarean. I've done this before. It was beautiful. And then another vaginal breach delivery I had this year, it was a V back. Her first cesarean was because baby was breached and she couldn't find a provider available who would work with her. And so this time she found a provider with experience that made her feel safe. And she's like, I don't care if it's a V back. I want to have a vaginal delivery. And she killed it. She did amazing. Shout out to Haley. She's gonna be on the V back link sharing her story because most people, their jaw drops and they're like, What? Wait, you can have a vaginal breach V back? Yes, you can. And just knowing that it's possible, you should get to choose for your own baby in your own body. Yes. You have the most to gain, you have the most to lose. Period.

Speaker 22:45

You should always be able to choose whether your breach your baby's breach or head down. Like we're big on informed consent. We're big on uh knowing all of your options. Uh there's no right way, there's no wrong way. That's a big reason why dun dun dun Lauren does one one.

Speaker 2 23:03

So, as a whole, all of us you can find on our FCBC website, we do specialty consults, we do V back consults, or birth processing, birth processing, and then I specifically do breach consults because if you move forward with the cesarean, if you move forward with the vaginal delivery, I want you to feel like you know what your options are and you know what you're getting into. And there are honestly a lot more resources now than there were five years ago.

Speaker 1 23:29

Uh I totally agree.

Speaker 2 23:31

Breach videos of birth are all over the internet. Like I struggled to find them back in the day, and now it's like here, there. And that also is overwhelming.

Speaker 23:40

But and you know, that's what one thing I love about you is that even though you did choose for yourself to have a vaginal breach birth, you don't have um expectations, expectations of clients of what they do.

Speaker 2 23:55

Yeah, I've honestly attended more breach cesareans than I have attended vaginal breach deliveries. Because if we're honest, that's what most people choose. Because if you want a vaginal breach birth, you most of the time, especially in Denver, you're gonna have to switch providers. Most providers don't offer this, they're not trained, they don't have experience. And for a lot of people, that is outside of their risk threshold, finding someone new.

Speaker 24:19

Yeah. Yeah, that they just don't want to do that. I recently had a client who was just that same way, second time mom, but decided for her she didn't feel comfortable switching so late in the game to a new provider. That did not make her feel safe. And it's all about feeling safe in what feels good to you. Um that's the best decision, yeah, is what makes you feel safe and comfortable.

Speaker 1 24:44

Yeah. Regardless of what birth it is, regardless of what position your baby is. I just also want to point out that the three of us are in the same room at the same time because the babies decided to be quiet.

Speaker 2 24:55

This has taken a long time. We were supposed to record this a while ago, friends. Yeah, like two weeks ago. And all three of us have potential clients who are like, wait, are they in labor? Are they not in labor? There's five people who could be giving birth at any moment.

Speaker 1 25:10

Hey, babies, if you're listening.

Speaker 25:12

Okay. All right, but one thing we like to do here when we have guests on, which you're

Rapid Fire, Takeaways, And Closing CTA

Speaker 25:18

a second guest, by the way.

Speaker 2 25:19

Yeah. Um rapid fire question. Let's do also I'm okay being second to Tammy's mom. If it was someone else, I'd be a little bit like F you guys.

Speaker 1 25:29

That was because of the baby. Watch your mouth. Okay.

Speaker 2 25:32

I said people ask them before we came on if I could curse, and they said no. And I was like, okay, note it, keeping it in my brain.

Speaker 1 25:38

Okay, ready, quick, ready? Okay. Uh, coffee order. You guys don't want to see me on caffeine.

Speaker 2 25:45

I'm not seeing caffeine. I am a wild birth doula who does not drink caffeine unless it's like a fun day. Because my insides are just like boom, boom, boom.

Speaker 1 25:55

Meanwhile, it's flowing through my veins.

Speaker 25:57

Okay, you're your turn. All right, let's see. Uh, easy one. What is your favorite comfort measure for labor?

Speaker 2 26:04

I would say me.

Speaker 26:06

Honestly.

Speaker 2 26:07

Some of my clients have said like their favorite part of labor was just looking over at me. And I just like had my hands under my chin, and I was just smiling at them and being chill, and they were like, Oh, what? What? Yeah. Because I do. I try to be very chill and just I try to lower the volume in the room. Like, all is well, you are safe, baby is safe. Take a deep breath. And if you want to be specific, I'd say my hands, because our hands can do a lot.

Speaker 26:33

Yeah. I always tell people that's the biggest tool in my bag is my hands. That's what I use the most. I forget everything. Then the tens unit. Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 1 26:40

Yeah. Shana. Um, okay. Uh, your most underrated item in the hospital bag.

Speaker 2 26:46

I think you could show up at the hospital with absolutely nothing and be fine. That's it. That's what you say to me. I do. You can run to Target, buy a car seat, like after the baby's here, you're good.

Speaker 1 26:56

I always tell my clients that if you show up with absolutely nothing, they have everything. Yeah. And you need to in your baby. Yeah.

Speaker 2 27:02

Chapstick is helpful, they have it.

Speaker 1 27:04

Water is helpful, they have it. Cobs. Okay, missed you.

Speaker 27:08

Uh, let's see. What is one thing every pregnant mama deserves to hear?

Speaker 2 27:15

I don't know if it's specifically what they deserve to hear, but I just hope every pregnant woman just has a safe person that they can go to in their pregnancy because there's so much noise out there about what X is doing, what Y is doing, and what should I do. And I think as a whole, we don't trust ourselves enough. And you have to be able to talk things through with someone who's not gonna judge, who's not gonna push their agenda on you, so that you can feel yeah, like what feels best for you and your body with your child. Because when this baby's here, you're making all the decisions. Yeah, if you don't leave birth feeling empowered to make those choices, it's honestly just a downhill slope.

Speaker 1 28:00

It's so true. I always tell my clients, you'll get really good at looking in the mirror and going, Thank you so much. I really appreciate that, but I think I'm okay. Like just really, really trusting yourself. We're we need to practice that more, all of us, yeah. Well, we are so excited to let you all know about our new collective if you haven't caught on with our social media and everything. So, this is really a proposal that you're here today and that the stars aligned and the moons aligned. Okay, wink, wink, and our to be here, yeah. So, Lauren, you bring so much wisdom and calm and compassion, and we love that you're such an advocate for breach birth with all that you do. So, thank you, thank you.

Speaker 2 28:41

I will say if you want to hear like the nitty-gritty with my birth experiences, uh point is my childhood friend Brynn runs the birth hour. So I did an episode on the birth hour in 2021. And then I think 2022, maybe 2023, I went on Mama Stay Fit and told my story again. And I think it's important to note if you tell anyone your birth story that it evolves over time. How I felt the day my son was born is different than how I felt a month later, a year later, you know, five years into birth work. So whether you have a breach baby or any type of delivery, your story is going to evolve over time and that's okay. And it feels supposed all the time.

Speaker 29:23

All the time, even no matter how old your kids are. Yeah. Absolutely. It's always, always evolving. And if today's episode taught you anything, I really we really do hope it's this that you know birth is not nuanced. Tammy and I love to say birth is not linear.

Speaker 3 29:39

Yeah.

Speaker 29:40

Um, it is very individuals. Yeah. And um all families deserve the education, the support, and providers who help them make um those informed decisions for whatever path that they choose, right? Totally.

Speaker 1 29:54

Agreed. And I will shout out for being in Colorado. I think we have a really great state to have a baby in compared to most for the choices that we we are allowed compared to some. Um I'm a native, so I don't want to say that. If you love this episode, like it, share it, tag it, leave a review. Uh we'll put up links in it. Um, and if you know somebody who's navigating pregnancy and maybe they just found out their baby is breach, please share this with them. Um, and as always, we'll see you next time.

Speaker 30:26

Yeah, see you soon. Bye, friends. Thank you.