I'm Jane Marie, and this is The Dream.

Today, we're bringing you one of our favorite episodes from Season 2.

Enjoy.

Most of the time, unless you opt in to thinking about wellness, you can pretty much avoid it.

But there are a few moments in life where,

try as you might, to avoid it, you're inundated by the messaging of the cult of wellness.

And one of those is during pregnancy and birth. It's well known that once a woman becomes

pregnant, her body is no longer her own. And I'm not just talking about the body being taken

over by the new, more important, more precious being inside of it, but the whole world suddenly feels ownership.

This comes at us with unwanted questions and unwanted touching, unsolicited advice about the right way and the righteous way to be pregnant, to give birth, and to mother.

And a lot of that has to do with wellness.

Eating well, exercising well, sleeping well, taking the right pills and tinctures, and choosing

the correct caregivers for this special time. Often on this show, we're talking about the people

and businesses that take advantage of these vulnerable moments to profit from our uncertainty or our attempts to be healthier.

But it's hard to say that there's a specific villain in the birthing industry.

Sure, there are a slew of teas and supplements and crystals that promise to support fertility and pregnancy. But it's not like there's widespread

policies or cases of evil-doing health care providers hell-bent on screwing women over at this time.

It's more the culture around birth is broken. And often, the damage comes from inside our own

heads. So today, we're just going to talk about what it feels like,

to be in one of those vulnerable moments,

to be overwhelmed with advice and information,

and to be forced to question everything you're hearing.

...