The Birth Keepers: When Emilee met Yolande

Off Duty | The Guardian Investigates

The Guardian

Society & Culture, Documentary

4.8 • 1.6K Ratings

🗓️ 10 December 2025

⏱️ 41 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Who is Emilee Saldaya, the woman behind the Free Birth Society movement? And how did she meet her business partner Yolande Norris-Clark? Do either woman have the credentials they are claiming? This is episode two of a year-long investigation by Guardian journalists Sirin Kale and Lucy Osborne

Transcript

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0:00.0	This is The Guardian.
0:08.3	Hi, I'm Shiuing Kala, and I'm Lucy Osborne.
0:11.9	You're listening to The Birth Pupers, a new six-part series from The Guardian Investigates.
0:17.9	Just before we start, this series contains references to baby loss and maternal harm.
0:29.7	Before Emily Saldaya was the leader of a self-proclaimed movement, she was Emily
0:35.4	Benner, aka Hoop Nasty.
0:41.1	There's a video on an old YouTube account posted by Emily in 2010.
0:46.9	It's got 500 views, a show reel from her time as a hula hooper.
0:52.7	Emily is dancing on stage in an LA nightclub,
0:56.1	gyrating in a hoop under red and blue strobe lights.
0:59.9	It feels very naughty.
1:02.7	She's wearing a trilby.
1:04.3	She's got the fingerless gloves.
1:06.1	She's actually pretty good.
1:09.7	It's hard to imagine this is the same woman
1:12.8	who 15 years later would be hosting this festival
1:15.9	on her land in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina.
1:25.1	June 2025,
1:33.7	Emily is sitting in a sage-cleansed yurt, her pregnant belly exposed in a flowing green crop top.
1:37.3	Her hair embroidered with gold beads.
1:39.5	No crown, this time.
1:50.1	She's surrounded by women in linens and flower crowns, singing and discussing their upcoming free births, their words infused with her teachings.
	...

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