Ep 214: Exposing the Most Dangerous Childbirth Myths & Procedures with Dr. Nathan Riley
The Way Forward with Alec Zeck
Alec Zeck
4.8 • 968 Ratings
🗓️ 19 January 2026
⏱️ 193 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Turn online alignment into an offline community — join us at TheWayFwrd.com to connect with like-minded people near you.
When did we decide women’s bodies couldn’t be trusted to give birth?
Childbirth is often the first place we’re taught to override intuition in favor of authority. In this episode, I speak with Dr. Nathan Riley about how modern systems shape pregnancy and birth — not just medically, but psychologically and culturally.
This conversation isn’t about rebellion or nostalgia. It’s about responsibility, trust, and what happens when we’re trained to hand those over.
We talk about natural birth, home birth, and the power of doing less instead of more. C-section rates keep climbing and fear is introduced early through institutional rituals. Education, compliance, and credentialed authority train us to outsource knowing, especially during pregnancy and birth. From midwifery to birth trauma, from holistic health to reclaiming responsibility, this conversation connects dots most people never think to question.
If you’re interested in birth sovereignty, health sovereignty, and the deeper implications of how humans enter the world, this episode will challenge you. Not with ideology, but with lived experience and uncomfortable clarity.
You’ll Learn:
[00:00] Introduction
[04:07] Meeting Dr. Stu Fishbein at a breech delivery talk and the home birth that changed everything
[13:53] Why compulsory education conditions us to trust credentials over critical thinking and clinical experience
[27:53] The alternative health movement is still rooted in materialism
[39:01] The overuse of the word physiology when being directed towards childbirth
[52:35] Where the alternative health space is getting it wrong
[01:06:53] How asking about your own birth transforms your ability to hold space and trust intuition during labor
[01:16:40] Induction risks depend on your provider and why most inductions aren't medically necessary
[01:29:14] The HPV and cervical cancer story
[02:02:03] The graphic reality of circumcision
[02:22:10] Why midwives should be the default for prenatal care
[02:50:55] The nuanced case for free birth, the problems with rebirth certifications, and why "birth educator" replaced "midwife"
Related The Way Forward Episodes:
Rethinking DNA: Examining the Evidence with Dr. Tom Cowan | YouTube
The Heart is Not a Pump: Vortexes, Blood Flow & The Seat of the Soul with Dr. Stephen Hussey | YouTube
The Great Birth Revival: Birth Certificates, Circumcision, Postpartum & More with Veda Ray | YouTube
Flipping Birth Upside Down with Eyla Cuenca | YouTube
Resources Mentioned:
The Secret Life of the Unborn Child: Dr. Thomas Verny on the Embodied Mind, Epigenetics, and Transgenerational Healing | Podcast
50 Human Studies, in Utero, Conducted in Modern China, Indicate Extreme Risk for Prenatal Ultrasound by Jim West | Book or Audiobook
Learn more from Dr. Nathan Riley:
Born Free Method | Website
Beloved Holistics | Website
2026 Born Free Twins-Breech Gathering | Website
Find more from Alec:
Alec Zeck | Instagram
Alec Zeck | X
The Way Forward | Instagram
The Way Forward is Sponsored By:
Designed for deep focus and well-being. 100% blue light and flicker free. For $50 off your Daylight Computer, use discount code: TWF50
New Biology Clinic: Redefine Health from the Ground Up
Experience tailored terrain-based health services with consults, livestreams, movement classes, and more. Visit www.NewBiologyClinic.com and use code THEWAYFORWARD (case sensitive) for $50 off activation. Members get the $150 fee waived
RMDY Academy & Collective: Homeopathy Made Accessible
High-quality remedies and training to support natural healing.
Enroll here
Explore here
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Pregnancy is not inherently a disease. |
| 0:02.0 | Birth is not inherently a medical procedure. |
| 0:04.0 | But the way that we treat women in child with their partners and the children afterwards is playing out and reinforcing these myths. We're about 40% C-section rate in our country. If it gets to 100, that is a dystopia. The way that we care for you from start to finish. Even the way that you're having sex when this child is conceived matters as to the well-being |
| 0:21.3 | and how this child ultimately integrates into the family and the community. |
| 0:24.5 | If you inject the sperm into the egg and then implant the egg, which is a typical IVF procedure |
| 0:29.2 | into the uterus, the perinatal psychologist, after the fact observed that those kids, |
| 0:35.2 | they have lower self-esteem. |
| 0:36.4 | The birth of my son, my third baby, the one that was at home, literally felt like I was inside a portal. |
| 0:42.3 | This is a metaphysical, transcendental, spiritual, non-physical experience. |
| 0:47.3 | We found out we were pregnant with our third because my oldest son walked up to us and said, |
| 0:53.3 | Mom, you're pregnant. If I was able to have babies, I'd probably have a free birth, because there's a real power in this. We were born free. We put shackles on throughout our life in these various ways, in the mind, in the body, and through licensure, through outsourcing our power. Okay, Mr. Nathan Riley, Dr. Nathan Riley, I'm sorry, Dr. Nathan Riley. Yeah. Thanks. I was expecting Nathan, but that's fine. Yeah. I worked hard for that doctor, man. I guess I should. People are like, you should go with doctor. You know, Dr. Cowan, Dr. Tom Cowan, anytime you call him, Dr. County's like, just call me Tom. You don't call your plumber, plumber Joe, do you? Plummer Joe. I love it. Yeah, I'm still like a regular guy. Yeah. |
| 1:27.6 | No, but you? Yeah, Plummer Joe. I love it. |
| 1:28.3 | Yeah, I'm still like a regular guy. |
| 1:29.8 | Yeah. |
| 1:44.9 | No, my wife didn't marry Dr. Riley. Right. She married Nathan Riley, the guy. Yeah. I'm excited to get to know you a little bit more. You're talking a little bit off camera, but I'm excited to be forming this relationship with you, man, because just from what I've gathered so far, my experience of you is awesome, |
| 1:46.4 | and I'm super stoked for this interview. You sent some extensive notes. forming this relationship with you, man, because just from what I've gathered so far, my experience |
| 1:44.2 | of you is awesome. And I'm super stoked for this interview. You sent some extensive notes that you have in your hand there. Yeah, we got, we got, this is like thick, high quality paper too. It is. Yeah, we got some stuff to get into. Exactly. I'm stoked, man. So you said that you wanted to share how you met Dr. Stu, who I just interviewed last |
| 2:02.5 | episode. I don't know where it'll shake out in terms of the episode release dates, but Dr. |
| 2:07.7 | Stu Fishbein, who I interviewed just the other day, and I know you know him really well. |
| 2:13.1 | You actually trained under him with respect to breach and delivering breach and twin. |
| 2:18.6 | So I'd just love for you to share how you met Dr. Stu in the first place. |
| 2:21.7 | Yeah, I think it's nice to breach these little, you know, like how do all these people kind of fit in? |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Alec Zeck, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Alec Zeck and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.