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. Today on the show we have Heather from Michigan, mother of four and a new midwife.

From an induction at a hospital with her first birth

to two midwife assisted births,

to choosing a free birth outside in her backyard

at almost 43 weeks with her fourth, Heather shares her journey with us of how her birthing

experiences led her to the path of midwifery and her own self-empowerment. So my first baby, I got pregnant with her right about a month after I got married and I was just terrified that I was

even pregnant and I just did what everybody else did. I saw an OB and I got a standard care from her and actually my health

was not very good back then. I was a smoker when I got pregnant with her.

So, in order to quit smoking, I just, it took me a long time, I was almost 20 weeks pregnant with her

when I finally quit smoking and I actually found out I was having a girl and it became suddenly

very real that I was indeed having a baby.

And so I just decided that I would just eat all the candy I

wanted to eat instead of smoking. So every time I thought I wanted to smoke,

I would just eat like probably a pound of gummy worms

or whatever.

Wow.

So I gained a lot of weight from eating all that sugar and not exercising. I was just not healthy at all.

And how old were you? I was 23. Okay.

When I got with her. And I'm going to guess your OB was offering very minimal

...