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Navigating Natural Birth in Hospital Setting

Posted on February 16, 2017 - 4:00 am by

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Leah Rodrigues Shares Her Two Hospital Births

Leah Rodrigues had two natural, unmedicated child births at the hospital. It was not her first choice to give birth in the hospital but she felt that she didn’t have another option due to insurance. She wanted to share her story and the ways she advocated for what she wanted and navigated the medicalized environment.

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She feels that her birth stories offer other moms hope that they can advocate for themselves even if they don’t get to birth in the place that they want. Leah wanted a birth center birth with both of her babies but financial circumstances prevented her from doing so. She thinks discussing the limited birth options because of socioeconomic status is an important topic. You can connect with Leah on Instagram.

hospital natural birth

Leah Rodrigues Bio

Leah lives with her husband Jon and their two sons: Jack and Bronson in sunny Southern California.  When Leah is not working, she enjoys going on adventures with her family and making memories.

Leah’s first education in birth was in an anthropology class during her time as an undergraduate at UCLA.  There, she learned about medicalized birth and the different ways other cultures viewed the birth experience. Although she had hoped to  have birth center births, due to her circumstances, had to settle for unmedicated hospital births. Even though her plans had changed, she educated herself on her options and advocated her needs when necessary. Both of her births were empowering experiences and she has carried that strength with her into motherhood. Her biggest piece of advice to pregnant moms is to be a participant in their birth, regardless of how they birth. She believes that being apart of the decision making process makes all the difference.  Leah hopes that her story will inspire other women to believe in themselves and trust their instincts. Birth is YOUR once in a lifetime experience so be heard.

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Listen to me chat with Katie about today’s sponsor, BabyList, at the end of today’s episode and check out my sample registry of some of my favorite items for pregnancy and postpartum!

One Reply to “Navigating Natural Birth in Hospital Setting”

  1. Wow. As someone who has greatly benefited from the Affordable Care Act since it became “a thing,” I hope you will give someone else a platform where they can talk about how the ACA helped their birth experience. And, if the ACA is repealed and prenatal/maternity/postpartum care suffers, I hope you will also give a platform to that. I understand you offer a variety of perspectives on here, but this woman’s blame of the ACA on her frustrating experiences goes unquestioned and in my opinion is pretty biased (and maybe even factually incorrect–state bureaucracies were hard before the ACA; her own financial situation could have changed). I love your show, but it feels like there is a very high representation of women who are very religious and conservative leaning. I love their stories, too, but it is one narrow perspective–not the majority of people in this country, in fact. Not all are like this, and I hope future episodes diversify more to better reflect this big, beautiful world we are all trying to live in.

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