7: Quitting Corporate America to Begin Again: Divorce, Freebirth, and Off-Grid Life
Free Birth Society
Emilee Saldaya
4.6 • 1.2K Ratings
🗓️ 12 September 2025
⏱️ 71 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
What happens when you walk away from everything and find your own path to motherhood?
In this episode, we hear from Julia, a Montana mother of two who walked away from the corporate grind, sold her home, and set out on a radically different path to motherhood, one rooted in sovereignty, sisterhood, and self-trust.
Julia shares how her first wild pregnancy unfolded while traveling the West Coast in a trailer, living off-grid in national forests, and finding community through The Lighthouse membership. With a deeply ingrained medical upbringing, Julia had to unravel layers of programming to reclaim birth on her terms.
She tells the raw and beautiful stories of birthing her babies on raw land in the Montana winter, catching her first baby unexpectedly with bath towels and a shoelace, and welcoming her second in a fast, intuitive birth in the same off-grid trailer. From navigating boundaries with family to tandem nursing and raising her children outside the system, Julia’s story is a powerful testament to the courage it takes to live differently.
What You’ll Hear:
- How a divorce became the catalyst for questioning everything she thought she knew
- Why she sold everything and set out on the road with their RV
- A story of freedom that comes from leaving behind medical management and social expectations
- Why her first freebirth became the most magical experience of her life
- How living in the Natural Forest system rewired her mind and reawakened her intuition
- The lessons from two very different freebirths
- Her advice for anyone considering stepping away from responsibilities during their first pregnancy
Timestamps:
[00:00] Introduction
[00:51] From medical conditioning to embracing freebirth and body autonomy
[10:31] Leaving corporate life behind to travel in an RV and begin a wild pregnancy on the road
[30:23] First freebirth story in a winterized RV with unexpected postpartum challenges
[45:57] Second freebirth story with a toddler sleeping nearby and a smooth postpartum experience
[01:01:10] Postpartum recovery challenges, household dynamics, and lessons for next time
You can connect with Julia on her homestead Instagram page here.
Find more from Emilee on Instagram, YouTube and the Free Birth Society website.
Disclaimer: Free Birth Society, LLC of North Carolina shares personal and educational stories and experiences related to freebirth and holistic care. This content is not medical advice, and we are not a licensed midwifery practice. Testimonials reflect individual experiences; results may vary. For services or scheduling, contact [email protected]. See full disclaimer at freebirthsociety.com/youtubeterms.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | When you have a divorce, the question was, who am I now? |
| 0:03.0 | My brain was just getting rewired, and I was opening my mind up to a lot of possibilities |
| 0:08.0 | that I had been closed off to. |
| 0:09.8 | I just went to Spotify and was like pregnancy. |
| 0:13.6 | And then Up Pop's Free Birth Society podcast, I had no idea what Free Birth was. |
| 0:18.8 | So I started listening to the stories. |
| 0:20.9 | It cracked my heart open, and it was another bail lifted from my eyes. |
| 0:26.1 | We decided what we have to do was move into an RV and go travel. |
| 0:30.6 | We liquidate everything, sell my house, sell everything except for our truck. |
| 0:35.0 | If I be on the stick, it's positive. |
| 0:37.1 | We set off and travel up the coast, |
| 0:39.3 | and I have my wild pregnancy in the woods. |
| 0:42.3 | If anyone has the ability to completely leave all their responsibilities |
| 0:47.3 | behind and go out into nature during their first pregnancy, |
| 0:50.3 | I would do it because it was the most magical experience that I've ever had, really. |
| 0:58.2 | Hi, women, before we dive in today, I need to name something important. |
| 1:03.8 | This episode, along with all episodes that you will hear until our winter break in mid-December |
| 1:09.3 | was recorded before my birth prior to mid-August. |
| 1:15.2 | Since then, our family has walked through the unimaginable. Our son was still born, and we are in |
| 1:24.2 | deep mourning. As the show's air, you'll hear and see me pregnant, which now feels incredibly painful and weird, |
| 1:34.8 | given that you are holding the sacred knowledge of what came after. |
| 1:40.6 | So please forgive the dissonance. |
... |
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