Birth Matters Podcast, Ep 59 - Reframing a Challenging Vaginal Birth

Manhattan couple Jen & Zach share their son’s birth story. Desperate to avoid induction, having sex seems to do the trick and Jen’s water breaks. When they show up to the hospital hoping to just confirm the water broke and go home, they get checked into the hospital. While Jen does get to have the vaginal birth she hoped for, most of her other birth preferences require adjustment — including getting a different OB and doula than planned as well as several interventions she had hoped to avoid being used. As a Jewish couple, they’ll also describe their son’s bris.

Read more

Birth Matters Podcast, Ep 58 - Fertility Warrior Jasmine Katatikarn on The Artist Mindset to the Fertility Journey

Fertility warrior Jasmine Katatikarn, who struggled to have a child for six years, shares her fertility journeys. After multiple IUIs and her 2nd IVF, she was told that she had a less than 1% chance of having a baby and to stop trying. However, Jasmine didn’t give up.

Using her background as an artist, she applied an artist’s mindset to overcome her roadblocks and design a life that gave control of her fertility journey and life moving forward. Using her designer point of view and tools, Jasmine shows you how to take control of your own fertility journey as well.

As a result, she became pregnant within months of being told she had less than a 1% chance. Jasmine now has two kids, both through IVF. Today, you’ll hear details about her fertility journey, what led her into encouraging others along similar paths, and she’ll share a bit about the work she does to support parents who are on the TTC journey.

Read more

Birth Matters Podcast, Ep 57 - IVF for Unexplained Infertility

Early in the podcast’s first season, in episode 5, Julie shared her baby’s birth story. She returns today to share her fertility journey whereby it took several years of perseverance to successfully conceive and give birth to her healthy baby boy. The path to conceiving her son via IVF included unsuccessful IUIs (or intrauterine inseminations), a chemical pregnancy, early loss of twins, and switching care providers and hospitals along the way. She explains how her Christian faith created a bit of conflict within her at first about this pursuit, and she also describes some different opinions her family had about trying to conceive in alternative ways. Julie also goes into other emotional and relational aspects of the journey and for her, how valuable it was when she was able to shift toward feeling at peace with whatever the outcome. She wanted to share her journey in hopes that it can encourage others on a similar path.

Read more