The babies are beautiful. They're gorgeous. They're great. I'm not in love with the babies. I'm in love with the person that gave birth. The power, the awe, the fierceness, the being, the honor of being there to witness that and tell them, I see you. I see what you did. I see how you rock this.

Adriana Lozada is, like a lot of us, a type A mover and shaker. She was working in media at the height of the internet boom, and then the internet bubble burst.

Her home country, Venezuela, began to unravel, and soon after Adiriana got married, had a baby,

and that birth changed everything.

It made Adriana question everything about the way we approach birth.

Now, Adriana is an advanced birth dula, a fierce advocate for parents on their pre and postnatal journeys,

and the host of the incredible podcast, Birthful. I wish I had had this conversation with Adriana before I had both of my daughters, because she articulates things that I couldn't

about how to advocate for yourself during your pregnancy, your birth, and those first few weeks after

and your world has been turned absolutely upside down.

Adriana, the first line of your official bio is Adriana's life can be defined as before and after

being pregnant with her daughter, Anika.

Who were you before you got pregnant with your daughter?

Oh, I was a total type A, super, just go get it, slay dragons before breakfast, that type, right?

Totally familiar, yes.

And the thing was that I was very fortunate, extremely lucky throughout my life to have a lot of

serendipity and a lot of support from my parents, communities, and just the universe in general of really

allowing me to take bold leaps and not fail. So that just kept increasing my, I can do anything,

I can do anything. And then I had a child.

And that was definitely the most humbling experience ever, like most of us are. I was under the

misguided idea that you can apply the same skills that you apply to achieving in life, to parenting and to birthing and to being a mother.

And you can't. Those are not the skills you need. And of course, I was like, all cocky, like, I've got this.

I've got everything in my life. And boy, yeah, did that hit hard.

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