#362 | Birth Trauma to Redemptive Birth: Holly's Birth and Breastfeeding Stories

Down to Birth

Cynthia Overgard & Trisha Ludwig

Pregnancy, Childbirth, Postpartum, Midwives, Alternative Health, Home Birth, Society & Culture, Newborn, Documentary, Hypnobirthing, Kids & Family, Health & Fitness, Breastfeeding, Pregnant, Birth, Maternity, Motherhood

4.8 • 586 Ratings

🗓️ 8 April 2026

⏱️ 49 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In today's episode, one of Trisha's clients, Holly, shares the story of two very different births and two equally different breastfeeding experiences, and what shifted between them. Her first labor began spontaneously but ended with a vacuum delivery, and the demoralizing message that her “pushes weren’t productive.” Breastfeeding was just as difficult, leading to a year of mostly exclusive pumping and undiagnosed postpartum anxiety. Four years later, she approached birth with rea...

Transcript

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0:00.0	There is an OB that comes in, never seen her, met her before, and she begins screaming
0:08.1	at me to stop yelling myself.
0:11.0	She's screaming at me in my face.
0:13.0	I remember it so vividly.
0:14.0	She's on my side over here and she's saying, cut it out, cut it out, cut it out.
0:20.0	And I just felt like so embarrassed. Number one, I'm
0:22.8	completely vulnerable. I have these three opportunities to push. Otherwise, I'm going into a C-section.
0:28.2	And she just made me feel so demeaned and like a child. I felt like I have no control over my body,
0:35.0	over this birth. I'm just not strong enough. And now I have this person
0:37.9	in authority yelling at me saying, cut it out, like I'm a child acting up.
0:45.7	I'm Cynthia Overgard, birth educator, advocate for informed consent, and postpartum support
0:51.8	specialist. And I'm Tresha Ludwig, certified nurse midwife and
0:56.1	international board certified lactation consultant. And this is the Down to Birth Show. Childbirth is
1:03.7	something we're made to do. But how do we have our safest and most satisfying experience in today's
1:08.7	medical culture? Let's dispel the myths and get down to birth.
1:20.8	Well, thank you so much for having me here.
1:23.1	Cynthia and Tricia, I'm excited to share my birth story.
1:26.2	And I'm hopeful maybe there's somebody out there
1:28.5	it resonates with someone who has similar experience with me, having two kids, first birth going
1:34.7	not the way you wanted to, and I'm having a redemptive birth in the end for my second.
1:40.1	So to start, I'll share my first birth experience with my son.
1:46.1	Getting pregnant with him was pretty easy.
	...

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