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Blythe Fike Shares Her Sixth Birth Story – The Epidural Birth
Y’all, I’m not gonna lie, this episode strays a bit from what you are typically hearing on The Birth Hour, but it was actually one of my favorite episodes to record. Blythe Fike is a mom of 6 and wife of 1 living in Southern California. After 5 unmedicated, out of hospital births, she went rogue for number 6 and headed to the hospital… on purpose. She loves talking all kinds of birth and you can find her sometimes doing that at thefikelife.com.
Blythe’s episode is pretty light hearted and will definitely make you laugh but I also think it’s so valuable in that she wasn’t afraid to trust her gut and go for the type of birth she wanted even though she had done things very differently the first FIVE times! I love how Blythe and her husband tease each other about how funny the hospital birth experience is after having so many homebirths. These two obviously really know each other on all sorts of levels and make an awesome birthing team.
This episode of The Birth Hour features Nicolette Gawthrop who was on the podcast previously sharing her first birth story. You can listen to that birth story and read her bio here, you can connect with her on Instagram @ozarkmamadeer. Nicolette just had her third birth, another planned homebirth which was rather fast with baby Maribell arriving before Nico’s midwives arrived. They arrived shortly after and were there for the afterbirth care. In a lovely Instagram post after her birth, Nicolette talks a bit about how important midwifery care is and was to her even though in the actual moment of birth it was just her and her husband.
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“I hope that in sharing the fact that my husband caught our baby in our bathtub before the midwives arrived doesn’t read as if that’s all there was to it. I saw a midwife and an advanced nurse midwife throughout my pregnancy. I had risk assessments and all of the blood pressure checks, urinalysis, glucose/iron testing, palpation and measuring that you get in the medical world along the way. This was my third home birth and I still took all the child birth classes and learned a lot.
I did work with healers and yoga teachers that helped me get in a good headspace, and my baby to rotate into a good position when she was presenting posterior at 37 weeks. There was a lot of care and we definitely did not intend to be alone when the baby was born, although we were calm and I was never afraid or worried. All of this to say that I never want to misrepresent myself and perhaps using the term “unassisted” at any point was not the best word usage.
We were alone when the baby came out but that’s not something I’d advocate for because I believe in the sacred practice of midwifery and the model of care, and I believe in birth workers and I believe in Mothers and Fathers being prepared and educated and being supported in welcoming their babes. I believe in undisturbed natural childbirth, but I just wanted to make clear that what you’ve seen here was very much assisted, overall. I’m definitely proud and grateful for how the birth of Maribell went- it was a truly magical experience but I know enough to know that we definitely needed everyone who was on their way!”
This episode is sponsored by Earth Mama Angel Baby and at the end of the episode, Nicolette talks about some of her favorite EMAB products which include:
Today’s guest is Joni Edelman who shares the story of her most recent birth which was a planned homebirth that ended in a hospital transfer. She talks not only about the labor and birth but about the emotions behind not having the birth that she had dreamed of. She recently wrote an article titled My Labor And Birth Didn’t Go As Planned — And No, I’m Not ‘Over’ It and received quite a bit of backlash for it.
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I know from my own experiences as well as the hundreds of birth stories I’ve heard that there are many women who can relate to the sentiment of Joni’s article. Often women who are dealing with birth trauma are told that having a healthy baby is all that matters but research and antidotal evidence has shown that birth matters. It’s important for stories like Joni’s to be heard so women hear that it’s OK to mourn the loss of the birth they had hoped for while still being grateful for their healthy baby.
Joni Edelman in a nutshell!
Body-positive intersectional feminist. BP Type II. Diet industry dropout. Wife. Mom of 5. Bibliophile. Cake aficionado. Editor In Chief @ Ravishly. Types 17 WPM. Connect with her on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
Support the podcast by purchasing our first product – it’s an awesome high quality bag and comes filled with over $80 in fantastic products! Proceeds from each tote sold will also go towards supporting maternal health worldwide through a donation to Every Mother Counts. Christy Turlington Burns will be on the podcast on Thursday to talk about this organization that she founded.
To listen to this episode, and the rest of The Birth Hour archives, join our listener supporter group here!
Kayley Vise is from the Central Florida area. She is 25 years old and helps people with taxes for a living. Her passion for all things birth started with her best friend, when she she had the opportunity to attend her homebirth about 2 1/2 years ago. Kayley feels that her real calling for life is to be active in the birthing world. She loved her pregnancy and birth and thinks of it often. She utilized hypnobirthing, and it worked wonderfully for her so she encourages women all around her to use it and to know they are powerful.
Kayley recommends Hypnobirthing, chiropractors, and Ina May Gaskin!
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Canadian, Natasha has her Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in Psychology with an expertise in Child and Family Therapy. She has made the conscious decision, however, to transition her work from treatment of illness to prevention of illness. Natasha now focuses her time and energy on wellbeing and wholeness which includes the mind, body and spirit connection; everything from the foods we put into our bodies, to how we move our bodies to how connected we are to something greater than ourselves. Natasha is the author of the children’s book ‘Everyday Superheroes’ which is designed to inspire young children to recognize their inner hero.
She seeks everyday to learn something new; something that serves herself and the world at large. She has a passion for life and all that can become of it. She is a believer in the human potential and the uniqueness that we all have within us.
Natasha holds a deep belief that nature designed women to birth babies naturally and so with this belief, she trusted her body and baby to do what was natural so she gave birth to naturally and comfortably to a baby boy two years ago in their home in Canada. Natasha empowers, educates and inspires women everywhere to also take hold of their powerful abilities to birth the way they choose, which is a women’s natural ability!
