24 Meet Jasmine Part 1 on Birth Stories of Home Birth, Hospital Birth, Birth Center Birth, Being A Surrogate & Leukemia

Welcome to part one of a two-part audio adventure detailing Jasmine’s, a remarkable doula based in Eugene, OR, journey to her own motherhood. From going into early pre-term labor during her first pregnancy to becoming her own advocate and hiring a doula for herself Jasmine tells all to Heidi. Jasmine's favorite baby product is the book The First Forty Days: The Essential Art of Nourishing the New Mother.

Looking for a Virtual Doula to create a custom birthing experience and guide you through your journey to parenthood in the United States? Contact Heidi at www.mydoulaheidi.com

For additional free birth education resources and to purchase Heidi’s book, Birth Story: Pregnancy Guidebook + Journal, visit www.birthstory.com.

Want to share your thoughts on the episode? Leave a review and send a message directly to Heidi on Instagram.

TRANSCRIPTION

Does a contraction feel like? How do I know if I'm in labor and what does a day of labor look like? Wait, is this normal? Hey, I'm Heidi Campbell, a certified birth doula host of this podcast, birth story and owner of my doula, Heidi. I have supported hundreds of women through their labor and deliveries.

And I believe that every one of them and you deserves a microphone and a stage. So here we are listen each week to get answers to these tough questions and more birth story, where we talk about pregnancy labor deliveries, where we tell our stories, share our feelings, and of course, chat about our favorite baby products and motherhood.

And because I'm passionate about birth outcomes, you will hear from some of the top experts in labor and delivery, whether you are pregnant, trying desperately to get pregnant. I hope you will stick around and be part of this tribe. Okay. It's review time. I just want to say thank you to everyone who pushes pause and rates or review for the birth story podcast.

And so this week I am going to read a few more. The first one comes from Mandy 31 30. I love birth stories. I wish I would have heard this podcast before having my second son, there were so many tips and tricks that would have been helpful to know prior to his birth. I'm a mom of three with two, I birthed within 19 months, apart from each other, things in the hospital changed that fast from the first birth.

I love this podcast. Keep bringing me more. Thank you so much, Mandy. The second one or the next one comes from Karen. Great to have this gym here. It's so great to have a podcast with an educated and experienced host. This is a beautiful topic with such importance. I also love the host's passion. I work with newborns and every day I'm amazed by the mothers that have gone through their unique experiences.

This podcast is just wonderful. If you would like to hear your review read on the birth story podcast, then I look forward to reading it. Good morning. Good afternoon. Good evening. I have no idea. At what point in time you are listening to this podcast, but I want to welcome you to episode 24. This is a two part series with episode 24.

Getting ready to start now, and then continuing on with episode 25. This episode is all about meeting Jasmine and learning about her first. Two birth stories, one in the hospital and one in the birth center, but then I beg you to stick around because in episode 25, she talks about her journey of becoming a Sarah and then how it took a turn and then being diagnosed with leukemia.

The very end of episode, 25. I dig in deep on be the match. And if you're listening, the steps that you might take, if you are interested in helping to save someone's life with leukemia. Thanks for listening. I hope you learn a ton from these birth stories. And I hope that we continue to spread awareness around being the match.

Welcome Jasmine to the birth story podcast. I am so excited to have you here today. And before we get started, I wanted to just let everyone know a little bit about how we connected. I think that I saw a picture of you on Instagram and your Instagram name has your name and the name doula in it. And was a picture of you fighting leukemia and yeah.

Everything about the story kind of really spoke to me and I just started following you. And then I think we just communicated a few times from there. So why don't you tell everybody about. Who you are and a little bit about your journey you're currently on, and then we're going to dig into your three amazing birth stories.

Um, but focusing specifically on your surrogacy. So tell us about you. Yeah, well, I am a mom. Uh, I've got two little girls and I've been married for. We just celebrated our eight year wedding anniversary. And I'm also a doula, a birth and postpartum doula and a prenatal yoga teacher. So birth and that whole world has a lot to do with, you know, who I am and what I do.

Um, but I've been out of it for a little while because I got diagnosed with leukemia in 2018. And, uh, I'm currently in remission. Which is wonderful, but still healing from the treatment and the bone marrow transplant that I had to have. And yeah, it was kind of a whirlwind year in 2018, and that's just kind of where I am today.

Well, I have a few questions for you because I had some doulas on, but we weren't talking about their birth stories. So I want to know like how, how did you become, wow. So many people don't even know what we are. So how did, how, first of all, how do you know what a doula is and how did you become one? Yeah.

So my first birth, um, like so many people who kind of discovered doulas my first birth, wasn't the easiest. Um, okay. I went into early labor. I wasn't very educated. I was pretty young when I had my first daughter and, um, you know, I had never even heard of a doula. And so when I got pregnant the second time, I was much more educated.

I had done a lot of reading, a lot of talking to people and hired a doula for that birth. And so that experience of having her there, and it was actually such a quick birth that she was only there for like a few minutes, right. At the end. And just having her energy there in the room, changed everything for me.

And I fell in love with it. I knew I wanted to be a doula someday. And yeah, that's just kind of how I discovered it. Just trying to create a better experience for myself that second time around. And, um, you know, I actually became a prenatal yoga teacher before I became a doula. That's a very good step one.

Yeah. It was really nice. And you know, just, it kind of happened really organically because I'd be teaching my classes and students would. Want me to attend their births and I'd have to say, I say, well, I'm just a yoga teacher. You know, I can't like, I wouldn't know what to do for you at your birth. Um, but I knew I would do it someday.

And then I actually attended a training while I was pregnant, uh, with the surrogate baby. Yay. And I was going to say, when you say, Oh, I'm just a prenatal yoga instructor and I'm like, that can put their bodies into the coolest positions and stretches imaginable to help the babies descend to so much faster.

I definitely know that now. Yeah. It's all part of our craft and trade. We're going to kind of just. Go through your first two birds, and then we're going to really focus on your third birth and the surrogacy. But you mentioned that your first birth, like you didn't know what a doula was. It wasn't that easy and you went into preterm labor.

So how early? She was 32 weeks when she was born, but I actually went into labor two weeks before that. So I was only 30 weeks pregnant when I started to go into labor and, um, I remember it was on father's day and I actually had no idea. I was even in labor. I thought my stomach was growling every five minutes.

I discovered I have a really high pain tolerance at that birth. Yeah. I just, you know, had no idea what was going on, but I started to notice that I was spotting a little bit and thought I'd go get checked out and right away, they said, Oh, you're contracting every three minutes. You're dilated. We need to stop this labor.

And, um, you know, they gave me a bunch of medication and I was on bed rest in the hospital for two weeks. Uh, just trying to keep her in for as long as possible. And, uh, finally, you know, two weeks later she wasn't having it. She was coming out. So did the, like no medicine was going to stop it. Did they, have you inclined in the bed or were you just able to get up and take a shower move around?

No, I was totally stuck in bed. It was kind of miserable. I had to pee in a bed pan and they, my water was actually broken at some point a couple of days after I was hospitalized, my water broke. So I had like this sort of diaper towel thing on, and I had to stay in bed. The leaking amniotic fluid, my sweet husband would like bring the bed pan over.

It was like, The best way to just get super, super vulnerable and intimate with a partner. Wow. So your water was broken for a long time before your daughter was born. It was. And so they kept me on a ton of fluids because they said that, you know, the water would just sort of replenish as long as I was hydrated.

So I had to pee all the time in the bed fan, so uncomfortable, but I kind of got used to it after a while. I just figured, well, we're here. My doctor said, let's try to get you as close to full term as possible. And so. We just hung out and we were kind of hoping to be hanging out for a little bit longer, but after two weeks she went into distress one night and they gave me a little bit of Pitocin.

Uh, no other meds, you know, I didn't have an epidural or anything. They just gave me a load of Pitocin and then labor took off and I had her just about 26 minutes later. Wow. So when you first went in at 30 weeks and you said you were a little dilated, do you know how dilated you were. I honestly don't remember.

It was such a weird time and all of that language was so out of my scope of just what I knew and understood. I was so young. I was only 20 years old when I got pregnant and I had just turned 21. Right? Like the beginning of that month, I turned 21 on the third and then she was born on the 26th. So it was, I was so young and so naive and, um, they were just, you know, telling me all these terms, you're dilated and you're doing this, you're doing that.

And I'm just kind of like. Okay. Were you, um, were you calm? Like, did you know that the baby was going to be okay? I was, I was, and I don't know if that's because I was kind of naive, but I just sort of trusted the whole situation. I think that I just knew deep down that my baby was okay. And I just kind of felt like, well, if this is her time, it's her time.

I don't think I fully understood, you know, what a preterm baby, like what that really means. And so I was a little excited and I kind of was trusting also the, the doctors and their, you know, the stuff that they had going on. I was trusting the medication and, uh, and I just sorta thought maybe I'd be in the hospital for a couple minutes.

You know, some people are, but yeah, and that's what my doctor thinks. I thought, okay, let's, you know, let's just hang out here. But you know, it was amazing cause she was born so early and they're preparing me for this teeny tiny little Nicky baby. And she actually was pretty healthy for 32 weeks. She was five pounds.

So she was kind of huge in the NICU. It's amazing. Yeah. I mean to this day, I wonder if my due date was off a little bit. Cause she was clearly early, but I don't know if she was. That early, because she was so healthy, she didn't need any help breathing. She was wonderful. She did spend two weeks in the NICU just monitoring and, you know, she had to develop her ability to breastfeed and all of those things, but yeah.

Yeah, she was, she was pretty healthy, pretty big. NICU baby. Yeah. Well, let's elaborate on that a little bit because a lot of people, they don't realize that, um, the swallowing reflex is one of the main reasons why a preterm baby, um, can't go home and needs to be on a feeding tube is because they don't develop that swallow reflex until somewhere around 35, you know, weeks along.

So she was feeding on her own by 34 weeks. She was yeah. With a bottle and I really, really wanted to breastfeed her. And so I was also using a nipple shield to try to mimic the bottle nipple. And eventually we did exclusively breastfeed without bottles, but I pumped in and fed her through a bottle and in the hospital.

Yeah. But she did, she had to develop that suck swallow reflex before she could go home. And then temperature regulation is another. Um, another one. Were there any other kind of check marks they were looking for with her before they would send her home that you can remember besides the swallow reflex and the temperature regulation?

No, I remember that was it because they also had a requirement that the babies had to be at least five pounds before they could be released from the NICU. And I was like, well, she's already five pounds. So yeah, it was like, so we already hit one. And then that was basically it and then just kind of monitoring her and waiting until she could eat properly on her own, because she did have the feeding tube for a little while.

Yeah. And then did she, like when you brought her home or there any complications, you know, she was really healthy, but she was delayed. It was really interesting. Cause each doctor's visit, she would be delayed just a couple months. It was almost like that two months that she missed out on developing in the womb, she would be just like that much delayed.

And the doctor said that would probably be. True until she was about two years old and I did find that to be true. So that was sort of interesting to recap that first birth from an opportunity to kind of teach our listeners a few things. So if you're 30 weeks along, And you are having anything that's coming consistently, any kind of feeling you experienced it as your like stomach growling, but if something's happening every three minutes or every five minutes, that would be a reason to call your doctor.

And then also in your case, you were spotting. Were there any other symptoms that you would want to make sure that you passed along to anyone listening to say he, you may want to give your provider a call if you are experiencing any of these symptoms? As far as I can remember, I don't remember anything else happening except just that intuitive kind of feeling.

But I thought something's a little bit off because it wasn't a lot of spotting. I wouldn't even say I was bleeding necessarily. I just kind of thought something's strange. Okay. Something, something feels different. Yeah. And that's when we decided to go in. That mommy intuition, man, you just can't mess with it.

Yeah. It's like usually pretty spot on it's. So spot on. The other thing I want people to take away from your first story is that your water was slowly leaking and the weak, I cannot press on enough that as long as you continue to stay hydrated, Um, and continue to intake fluids that your baby will continue to make amniotic fluids mostly through pink.

And, um, you'll continue to leak fluid. And I want to see this because a lot of times when I'm in labor with moms, are there, are they experienced something called prom that premature rupture of the membranes. And that's kind of where your water. You know, breaks or ruptures, and you're not really an active LIBOR or any kind of labor yet.

And sometimes moms kind of freeze and are like, Oh, I got to go to the doctor, you know, like right now. And I'm like, there is a big difference between like your water rupturing and like, you know, liters of fluid coming out, nothing. And then a slow tear where T just tablespoons of amniotic fluid are coming out when your baby's continuing to make it, that rate.

But one of the things they probably did with you was, you know, monitor your temperature very closely to make sure you weren't getting a fever. Or a condition called, um, choreo amnio Natus and that's an infection of the placenta, um, when the amniotic fluid is ruptured. So I'm assuming they took your temperature at least probably annoyingly every yeah.

Every few hours, if not, you know, every hour of to your water, I was pretty monitored just cause I was already in the hospital. Yeah. But they were very casual about it. It really didn't bother them at all, but they had been ruptured. It was a pretty slow leak. It was mostly just uncomfortable for me. Yes. So yeah.

So I feel like as you were talking, there was just some really neat pearls right there that I really felt like we could teach with. You mentioned to me when we were scheduling this interview, that your second birth for you is very healing. And we heard from you a minute ago that you're, you know, doula was only there for a few minutes, but energized, dead.

One of the things that I think is really beautiful about our profession though, is the relationship that we build with our moms and our parents. Prior to the labor beginning, you were probably texting or talking or, you know, sharing, bring with your doula for a while before you ever went into labor. So then when she walks in the room, I've experienced this many times when your doula arrives.

Everyone kind of calms down their relationships there. So it sounds like that happened with you. Yeah, absolutely. Did they ever find a cause for the reason you went into preterm labor with your first daughter? Oh, you know, a little bit. I don't think they could conclusively say, this is exactly why, but we sort of determined that I was under a lot of stress and I was extremely dehydrated when I went into the emergency room.

You know, telling them that I was having these weird twinges and I was like leading, they, the first thing they said to me was you were very, very dehydrated and they wondered if that was what started the contracting and the end eventually sort of kicked off labor. I had just moved from the Bay area to Southern California and was under a lot of stress and was living with my parents while we looked for a home.

And we felt we had plenty of time. Cause I was only, you know, six months pregnant. So I think it was just sort of a combination and a perfect storm. There was no other real reason that they could find no infections, nothing that really, you know, it doesn't run in my family. Okay. So there was no reason for you to go into preterm labor.

And let's talk about hydration versus a quick minute, because one of the things I coach my clients on is to you take their body weight in pounds, cut it in half, and then drink that many ounces of fluid. Per day. So if there is a 200 pound mama, then you would want to drink at least a hundred ounces of fluids per day to stay hydrate.

Yeah. And what we definitely was not doing that. Yeah. And as we mean wheat too, I think we forget to up our fluid. So like at two months along versus six or seven months along, you need more fluid. Um, especially as you and the baby have gotten bigger, this is a good reminder. Everyone breathe in calmness and peace.

Breathe out.

Exactly. So how does that pregnancy go? Are you co once again calm or are you terrified? You're going to go into labor at 30 weeks again. Like what does that pregnancy look like for you? So I'm actually extremely calm. Um, it was very, very planned. My first pregnancy was, you know, sort of a surprise. And I was a young mama and I decided that I wanted my kids to be kind of close together in age.

And I kind of got over controlling and planned it down to the tiniest details. Like I started tracking my ovulation and wanted to be pregnant that I could give birth toward the winter time versus the summer, because I didn't want to be nine months pregnant in the summertime. So I really didn't like.

Just dove in head first and started doing tons of research, bought all the books and was just very, uh, yeah, very calm, very prepared and really excited because I was able to give birth to my first in the hospital without any pain medication. But I knew it was sort of an intense sort of scenario and I really wanted to have a different experience.

So it was really, really excited about creating that different experience and all the possibilities that started opening up for me. And so I started seeking out things like a birth center and a doula and, you know, took really good care of myself, nutritionally drank lots and lots of water. I don't, I don't think it ever really crossed my mind that I would have another preterm labor because I did know that there was no real reason for it.

And I just found it all to be really exciting. Okay. So this is where as the doula I interject. So like, how does this partnership happen between you and a doula? Because somewhere between your first delivery and your second delivery, like either from, you know, social media or Googling or talking to other moms, like, like how did you discover.

Doulas. Yeah, she reached out to me. She was actually in training, but she was a friend of a friend. She was in my circle and she was training to become a doula. And so she reached out and I had actually, I'd read about doulas. I wanted one, but I couldn't really afford one. So it wasn't on the table for me at one point.

But she reached out and said, Hey, I'm in training. I need a certain amount of births. And I'd love to attend your birth for free, which is, you know, the perfect scenario for someone who's tight on money. And just like, yeah. Yeah. Great. You know, I'm, I'm in if you're in. Yes. Okay. So let's just sit with that for a minute, right?

Because I've been a doula for 15 years. I certainly charged to be a doula point, but yes, for anyone listening, who is interested in a doula. And maybe your finances aren't, you know, allowing you to get what you deserve. I believe every woman deserves a doula by their side topic for another day on insurance companies and Medicaid.

But for today, I want everyone to be encouraged that in your city, there are doulas that are being trained. And it is required to have training birds. Many of these women have already become moms and, um, just like yourself, Jasmine have already, they're already moms. They've already been through labor and delivery and something has called them into the doula field and they're training and they need some training birds.

Depending on your market. They are a sliding scale anywhere from free to an expensive, maybe a few hundred dollars up to possibly a thousand dollars, depending on where you live. But it's up to each individual doula. Um, maybe one charges a little bit because they have to pay for childcare something. And then another one can do it completely for free because all of.

You know, the things in their life are settled and conducive to allowing that. So let's just kind of put that out there for everyone. Thank you for reminding me that isn't training are such a just unbelievable resource for our community, so that anyone coming into the birth process and, and looking for support, even if money is an issue, just still reach out to them, the community of doulas.

And usually we'll be able to find you, someone that we can match you with for your birth. Yeah. And it was really wonderful that she reached out to me. Cause I don't think I would have asked otherwise, cause I felt like I couldn't afford it at all. Oh my goodness. The universe knew that this is just what Jasmine needed.

Um, so it was your decision to birth at a birth center. Was that her prompting? Actually I wanted a home birth, but my husband was really nervous about that idea. After that first experience, he was a lot more nervous. About all the things, you know, early labor and the whole thing, then I was, um, so I was able to compromise with him on a birth center.

Okay. So, yeah, so we decided, and there was one birth center in town that took our insurance. And so that settled it. Did you do a tour, meet the midwives who went, did we did a tour. We met the midwives, but I was pretty much sold cause I just really didn't want to be in the hospital again. Okay. Um, I felt a lot of anxiety around just the smell and the.

Atmosphere of the hospital. And so I thought, you know what, I'm good with. Whatever, whatever it looks like. And it was wonderful. It was a real small space, but it was real sweet. Yes. And if you have a healthy, low risk pregnancy, and in your case where you had a previous trauma in a hospital, you know, I think that's absolutely a beautiful choice that you made for your birth.

And so tell us about the day you went into labor. How did you, what were your first signs and symptoms and how did you know you were in labor? It was. Really wonderful. Actually, I remember my husband was working late and I went to lean over the kitchen counter when right after I put my daughter to sleep and my water broke and I got really excited because I'd been there before and I was like, Oh yeah, it just felt like I peed myself.

Perfect. Like this is awesome thought. I'd have tons and tons of time. So when my husband got home from work late, He was chatting and talking and telling me about this really rough day he'd had. And probably like two hours later. I finally told him, Hey, you know, several hours ago, my water broke just completely flipped out because like what, what is it called?

The midwife. That's going to do that really good secret keeper. Yeah, but I'm really glad that we actually like, I, this is intuitive conversations here because I didn't know what your story was. So I'm really glad we just went through with our listeners, what prom, cause you experienced problem, premature rupture of the memory.

And so your water broke, you were in labor, hung out for a couple hours before you even told your husband. Yeah, well, you know, and I, I knew of it. It doesn't necessarily mean labors, you know, imminent. So I just kind of, yeah. You know, no big deal. And I was like, well, we'll see maybe next few days. Um, but I went to bed that night and already like pretty early I started, I couldn't sleep through the contractions, but my first experience was I didn't really feel the contractions until after and what that first part.

So these felt really mild, manageable, and it was very much in the zone and just kind of loving it. I got into the shower and was. Swaying. And I'm honestly just really enjoying the process of feeling my body open up and being able to do it at home and privately. And then I started to get a little bit more vocal, which I was still sort of enjoying.

And my husband started to get really nervous and really worried. Cause he was just really just thinking this baby's about to be born at home. And so he called my sister to come watch our daughter and he finally drove me to the birth center, but then I. Realized as we were in the car on the way to the birth center, I'm still thinking of plenty of time because the sensation is not extreme at this point.

But then I had a moment where I thought, Oh no, this is kind of hard. I don't want to do this anymore. And then I thought, Oh, bingo.

I mean, so every single idle, I haven't heard a story yet of a natural childbirth or the mom doesn't have that moment. Like the, I call it like the, Oh, shit moment. Like. When you go, Oh no, no, no, no, no. I, no, no, no, I can't. I can't do this. Oh. And if you have enough insight to go, Oh man. I'm in transition. AKA cervix is stretching from seven to 10 centimeters as the baby descends.

Yeah. And I had done enough reading and enough research at this point to now actually know this. And so I was a little bit like, Oh, maybe you were right. Let's babies, you know, coming pretty quickly. And. We got to the birth center before the midwife got there and it was supposed to be a waterbirth. She was going to set up a pool for us, but the pool wasn't already set up.

And I kind of was sad because I realized I'm not going to get my water birth because the pool was going to take some time. Yeah, I could. I started to feel like her head coming down and I started to put my feet up on the dash thinking I was going to catch my baby, but I'm still very calm and relaxed.

And my husband is absolutely having a cow. Like, he's like, no, get your feet off the dash. You're going into the birth center. Like, what are you doing? I'm like, it's okay, honey, I got this. I watched YouTube videos. I know what to do because I was just, I was really in it. I was really in my head and everything to me was like, so lovely.

But when he tells the story, it's like a horror story to him. He's like, and then it was so scary. But the midwife finally did pull up and she wanted to check me and I told her, no need I E the baby's coming. And she said, no, let me check you. And she said, Oh yeah, there's the head. Go ahead and lay down. And, you know, my doula comes over, running through the door right after I laid down.

And it was just about three pushes and she was born. So we weren't even there for very long at all. I don't know how long, but it was not long. Um, did you ha did you experience the, like a rejection reflex where you just had like that overwhelming urge? I always think it's like vomiting in the opposite direction.

That's the only way I know how to describe it to people as like, vomiting is like uncontrollable, like for like up I'm like delivering a baby is uncontrollable down. So my midwife was trying to slow me down. She was. Trying to say like, well, don't push. And as like, I don't feel like I'm pushing, like the baby's just coming and she was, you know, slowing me down and slow me down so that I wouldn't tear.

And I definitely felt it with both. Both of those folks that first and second one, for sure. Yeah, there was just nothing to be done. Baby was coming, coming, and it is good. If you can slow down a little bit and just kind of breathe the baby out, just kind of slowly stretch that paraniem then possible. Yeah.

I'm like it's possible to like reduce or avoid tearing in your case, your way became very fast. Did that work did or did you still have, um, some tiering. Uh, I had a little bit of, what did they call them? Skid marks. I'm trying to remember if that's how she worded it, but yeah, I actually didn't tear and the skin for anyone listening is just a little thin tear on like, they would call it like the left and the right side.

So you have one like one on each lady? Yeah, yeah, yeah. And not needing any stitches or anything. So it was a really wonderful healing. From that one. So you're dual, is there, like she makes it in for the grand finale, which is amazing. And then did she provide, stay in and provide postpartum support for you?

Kind of remembering back to that at the time I was really well versed in birth, but I didn't do as much reading and education on postpartum, which looking back now, I really wish I had, because I kind of jumped right back into my life and my toddler. And I kind of told her, no, it's fine. You know, I don't really need anything.

I was on a high, I felt so good after that birth. I was so happy and proud of myself and then it wasn't until probably a month later. It all caught up to me, you know, we're suddenly I'm exhausted and I'm like, what am I doing? Like, why did I, do you know, why didn't I take advantage of the downtime when they had it?

And that's when we say help, I need a postpartum doula now for just a few hours, a few hours a day, at least. And so, so since that birth, you went on to become. A trained certified doula and postpartum doula, as well as a prenatal yoga instructor. What a beautiful circle. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That is going to lead us Jasmine into birth.

Number three for you. And I just, Oh, I have so many questions about surrogacy and being a surrogate. All right, everybody. I hope that you'll just roll right into episode 25 to hear the rest of Jasmine's birth stories, where she walks us through exactly what it was like to be a surrogate, and then to be diagnosed with leukemia just a few months postpartum.

Thank you for listening to birth story. My goal is you'll walk away from each episode with a clear picture of how labor and delivery might go, and that you will feel empowered by the end of your pregnancy to speak up plan and prepare for the birth you want. No matter what that looks like.