Welcome to the Free Birth Podcast, a supportive space for people who are learning,

exploring and celebrating their autonomous choices in childbirth.

Together, we'll unpack truths, share personal stories,

and claim our ability to birth freely and intuitively. Here's your host one for the books.

Patrice walked into her first birth experience at 20 years old feeling confident in

her body and in her ability to have a normal unmedicated birth.

She was quickly silenced and given Patosin

without her consent or knowledge.

Patrice was forced to stay in bed

and excruciating pain for 30 plus hours, denying the epidural laying their suffering.

Somehow deep within her, Patrice knew this wasn't right and that this wasn't her body's fault

and left there knowing she would never go back to the hospital.

She then went on to have two midwife assisted births and then finally with her fourth and then

fifth had family-centered free home births. We also can't help but get into an in-depth conversation. centered free

get into an in-depth conversation about midwifree regulation,

eating placentas, and the questionable ethics of doulous. us. It's so weird because I, it's so weird because I came from a family that didn't talk about birth very much.

It wasn't that it was like a taboo subject.

It was just something that was just wasn't discussed.

I knew that I was born by Cessarian and that my mom, she says that she did not see me for three days because the, whatever the anesthesia was that they gave her it wasn't an

epidurable whatever it was she it knocked her out so she didn't even wake up

until like three days later. And so for me, it just never occurred to me that my body was broken, that something was wrong, and that I would need anything whatsoever.

But, you know, me and my baby and my body and all, it just didn't occur to me.

...