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, Emily Sal day. Exciting news listeners, the Free Birth Society apparel store has opened.

Head on over to Free Birth Society.com and check out the adorable onesies and

toddler shirts adult tank tops hoodies and more all celebrating messages of free

birth again that's w w w w w dot free birth society dot com W. Free Birth Society.com.

What would our society look like if males and females of all ages

understood the basics of fertility?

What if growing up we were taught truths and... understood the basics of fertility.

What if growing up we were taught truths instead of lies about sex and pregnancy?

Well, we have to start somewhere, so this episode is for anyone who doesn't yet know the ABCs of how to track and understand fertility.

I'm joined by birth worker and science nerd Jessica Austin from Vancouver Canada

who goes through the simple steps of how to use Fertility Awareness Method to both

conceive a child and to not conceive a child. I do want to note that we do not

discuss STDs in this episode and Fertility Awareness Method is simply a tracking method to understand when a woman is fertile and when she is not.

It does not in any way protect people from sexually transmitted diseases.

Fertility Awareness Method, or FAM, should be used in alliance with proper STI screenings and communication with partners.

I... I came into birth work from a very, like my background was always in science and I always

thought I would work in healthcare and it was kind of just nerdy biology

feminist kind of my whole life.

And then when I discovered how little I knew about birth and how the female body worked and understanding childbirth despite all of my educational background in physiology and human biology and all of that kind of stuff that I had never been taught really about birth in any kind of real physiological way.

...