Charlotte is joined by South African birth pioneer Theoni Papoutsis to explore conscious birth, postpartum care, and the realities of South Africa’s maternity systems. Together they talk about doulas and independent midwives, liability culture and rising cesarean rates, and why trust and surrender are central to birth. Theoni shares her wisdom on postpartum support, belly binding, closing rituals, and practical tools for labor like breath counting and the yes mantra. This conversation offers both global perspective and personal insight, showing how conscious birth is about more than labor itself, it is about how we care for mothers, families, and communities long after birth.

Find Theoni and her book on Instagram @papoutistheoni

Charlotte sits down with Berlin-based birthworker and policy researcher Clara Arenas to explore why birth is both the most intimate act and a deeply political one. They trace how postpartum care reflects a society’s values, compare community care and paid leave across cultures, and unpack what it really means to decolonize birth, pluralizing perspectives, respecting sovereignty, and keeping ceremony authentic rather than performative. Expect real talk on advocacy, shame and language, doulas as postpartum protectors, and practical ways to center mothers, babies, partners, and community.

The conversation also sets the stage for the Wombs of the World Summit in Berlin (October 15–17, 2025), a three-day gathering with traditional midwives and birthworkers from around the world. Join us to listen, reflect, and help reimagine how we welcome families.

Follow Clara on Instagram @claarush and learn more about the Wombs of the World Summit at wombsoftheworld.com/summit

In this very first episode, Charlotte Brielle, founder of Wombs of the World, sits down with doula and communications manager Kyndrick Peachey to ground us in the basics of birthwork. Together they explore what a doula is, how doulas and midwives differ, and why the doula’s role is such a vital bridge between ceremony and medicine.

From the rise of doulas worldwide to the traditions of rebozo and closing ceremonies, to the realities of hospital systems and white coat authority, this conversation weaves global perspectives with practical insights. You’ll also hear the story of how Wombs of the World began, why travel changes the way we see birth, and what’s ahead for trainings, trips, and the Berlin Summit.

Whether you’re brand new to birthwork, training to become a doula, or simply curious about how culture and care intersect in the most universal human experience, this episode sets the stage for what’s to come.

Learn more at wombsoftheworld.com

In this episode of the Wombs of the World podcast, Charlotte sits down with the incredible Chantal Blake, a menstrual health educator, mother, and founder of Honored Womb, as well as the author of Peaceful Periods: Holistic Womb Care for Teens.

Together they explore vaginal steaming as ancestral medicine and modern therapeutic tool. Chantal shares how steaming can support painful periods, infections, fibroids, postpartum healing, and even the birth process. They also talk about cycles as a vital sign, the huge gap in teen menstrual education, and what it means to return to relationship with our wombs, each other, and the earth.

This is a nourishing, expansive conversation for anyone who has a womb, loves someone with a womb, or supports cycle + birthwork.

Resources from Chantal:
• Pre-order Peaceful Periods here: www.honoredwomb.com/pre-order-book
• Learn about the upcoming international steaming film STEAM

Connect with Chantal: honoredwomb.com | @honoredwomb

Connect with Wombs of the World: wombsoftheworld.com | @wombsoftheworld

Listen, share with someone who would love this, and let us know what resonates.

In this beautiful episode, I sit with my dear friend Mariela, a traditional Mexican midwife whose story flows from the heart of Mexico City to borderlands birth centers and beyond. We talk about the journey of becoming a midwife, from learning placenta medicine at sixteen to catching babies across cultures, and how midwifery bridges both ceremony and clinical care. Together we explore what it means to practice birthwork as both political and sacred, how to read a laboring woman’s cues through sound, scent, and intuition, and how the rebozo carries generations of wisdom, like a grandmother’s embrace woven into cloth.

It’s an intimate, honest reflection on the art of traditional midwifery, the rise of doulas, and the remembering that birth is the most universal language on Earth.

If this episode nourished you, follow and rate the show, leave a review, and share it with someone who loves birth.

Come find us for courses, trips, and community at wombsoftheworld.com and on Instagram @wombsoftheworld.

Connect with Mariela on Instagram @amor.primalparteria.

And travel with us in Mexico! Learn more wombsoftheworld.com/mexico

Today we remember. We talk about birth as ceremony- for the mother, the parents, for the village, the land, the waters, and all our ancestors.

Rosa Amarilla joins me to share Andean-rooted wisdom on naming rituals, caring for the placenta, the medicine wheel, and what it really means to decolonize our care.

We also get practical: how to weave altar work, dreamwork, and small acts of reverence into day to day life.

How accountability can be love in action.

How mushrooms and plants can hold us through postpartum and pleno pausa.

This one is a blessing for birthworkers everywhere.

May it remind you that you are the medicine.

Follow @ikake.medicina to learn more from Rosa’s work.

Follow @wombsoftheworld and visit www.wombsoftheworld.com for upcoming trainings, global trips, and our maternal health initiatives.

If this conversation nourished you, please follow, rate, and share it with a birthworker or mother you love.

FR 🇫🇷 (Pour celles et ceux qui ne le savent pas, j’ai grandi en France et je vis à Paris aujourd’hui.) Dans cet épisode en français, je reçois Mama Cam, Camille Denois, doula basée en Colombie et de retour en France cette saison. Camille est un pont, profondément respectueuse des pratiques ancestrales, tout en honorant la puissance de la médecine moderne quand elle sert les mères avec humanité. On parle de deuil, de douleur, du temps comme ingrédient oublié, de l’eau comme thérapie, de postpartum, et de la manière dont nos cultures peuvent se rencontrer sans appropriation, avec curiosité et humilité.

EN 🇬🇧 (If you did not know, I grew up in France and live in Paris today.) In this French-language episode, I sit down with Mama Cam, Camille Denois, a doula based in Colombia who is returning to France this season. We explore how birth does not have to be either or, there is room for ancestral wisdom and modern medicine to work together, in abundance, for the sake of mothers.

Find the brilliant Mama Cam on Instagram @mamacam__

And learn more about Wombs of the World and all upcoming trips and trainings at wombsoftheworld.com

In this episode of the Wombs of the World Podcast, I sit down with Nina Vermeulen, a doula, artist, and space holder based in Belgium and the founder of Your Voyage Home.

Our conversation moves gently through the quiet, often hidden chapters of becoming: preconception, pregnancy loss, longing, grief, and the deeply tender question so many carry, am I a mother? Nina shares her journey into birthwork through ritual, music, and storytelling, including her experience of preparing for motherhood, becoming pregnant, and losing her child during pregnancy.

We talk about the emotional toll of trying to conceive, the isolation surrounding miscarriage, and how rarely these experiences are named out loud. We reflect on identity, on mothering beyond biology, and on what it means to hold life, love, and loss in the body. We also explore the power of community, asking for support, and creating spaces where these stories can be witnessed with care.

This episode is an invitation to slow down, soften, and remember that every threshold deserves tenderness. Nina closes by sharing an original song, offered as a gentle gift to listeners.

Follow us on social media @wombsoftheworld to learn more about all our upcoming trips and trainings!

You asked, and we answered.

In this Instagram Q&A episode, Charlotte, founder of Wombs of the World, joins Kyndrick Peachey to talk birthwork origin stories, global trips, ceremony, baby-doula enthusiasm, unexpected moments (yes, including baboons), and what it really means to be called into this work.

This conversation is heartfelt, unfiltered, and full of stories from the road, the birth room, and the in-between. If you’re curious about how Wombs of the World began, why birth is a ceremony, or whether birthwork might be tugging at you too, this episode is for you.

Note: This episode was recorded before the launch of the Wombs of the World Doula Training! If you’re feeling the spark and want more of this energy, education, and community, come join us and become a birthworker:

wombsoftheworld.com/doulatraining

And find us on all social platforms @wombsoftheworld

In this episode, I sit down with Shreni and DJ of We Have Kids Now for a conversation that spans continents, birth systems, and the deep work of partnership.

Shreni shares her two very different birth stories: giving birth to her first child during COVID in China, where she experienced a fascinating and deeply supportive model of postpartum care, and then welcoming her second baby in the midst of the California wildfires, navigating uncertainty, stress, and a precipitous labor. Through it all, Shreni and DJ have continued to choose intimacy, communication, and teamwork as the foundation of their family.

Together, they have distilled their hard-earned wisdom into a course designed to help couples feel more prepared, connected, and supported as they move from preconception through postpartum.

This was such a powerful opportunity to hear from them as a couple and to learn more about the heart behind their work.

You can find Shreni and DJ at @we.have.kids.now, where they share education, resources, and a free postpartum guide.

They also offer a self-paced course for expecting and new parents. Listeners can use the promo code WOMBSOFTHEWORLD to receive 15% off their course.

We are so honored and excited to have Dr. Nicole Rankins on the Wombs of the World Podcast! With over two decades of experience as an OB-GYN, she explores how centering birthing people can reshape a system.;

Dr. Rankins shares her journey from traditional medical practice to advocating for cultural shifts in birth care. She provides a grounded look into the realities of hospital births, highlighting the importance of consent, communication, and patience. This conversation illuminates the often-overlooked aspects of birth, such as the impact of environment and the role of caregivers in reducing unnecessary interventions.

Together, we explore trauma-informed care, cultural humility, and the significance of respectful communication. Dr. Rankins emphasizes the importance of autonomy in birth and how simple, human-centered care can transform experiences, even within restrictive systems.

This is a powerful and necessary conversation for anyone passionate about maternal health and systemic change.

Join us to discover how small, meaningful adjustments can dramatically improve outcomes for mothers and babies alike.

Follow:

@wombsoftheworld

@drnicolerankins

Learn more:

http://www.wombsoftheworld.com

In this episode, Charlotte sits down with Edwina Koch, a prison doula with the Ostara Initiative, to explore what it means to support pregnancy, birth, and postpartum within the carceral system.

Edwina shares her journey into this work and offers a deeply grounded look into the realities of birth while incarcerated. From weekly prenatal and postpartum support to navigating hospital births under custody, this conversation sheds light on an often invisible population of the birthing world.

Together, we explore trauma-informed care, cultural humility, and the role of the doula as both advocate and witness. We speak about autonomy in birth, the importance of postpartum support, and the ways in which simple, human-centered care can transform an experience even within highly restrictive systems.

This is a powerful and necessary conversation for anyone in birthwork and beyond.

Follow:

@wombsoftheworld

@endprisonbirth

Learn more:

www.wombsoftheworld.com