Yoga Birth Babies – Details, episodes & analysis

Today, we're exploring one of the most powerful tools for birth: movement. When we consider movement during labor and delivery, it raises questions such as: Does the shape and size of your pelvis impact the birthing process? How does the pelvis open? Can you move effectively if you have an epidural? Join us as we delve into the importance of movement (and advocating for it!) in birth. To have this conversation with me today on Yoga | Birth | Babies, I am joined by Brittany Sharpe McCollum. Brittany is a Perinatal Pelvic Biomechanics Educator, a labor support doula, and a childbirth educator. She is also the owner of Blossoming Bellies Wholistic Birth Services based out of the greater Philadelphia PA area. Brittany is a wealth of knowledge, so you can rest assured knowing that you’ll gain valuable insights from this episode. Ultimately, my hope is that this discussion instills you with a new level of confidence in your body’s ability to bring baby into the world. Get the most out of each episode by checking out the show notes with links, resources and other related podcasts at: prenatalyogacenter.com (*hyperlink episode link from Wordpress!) Don’t forget to grab your FREE guide, 5 Simple Solutions to the Most Common Pregnancy Pains HERE  If you love what you’ve been listening to, please leave a rating and review! Yoga| Birth|Babies (Apple) or on Spotify! To connect with Deb and the PYC Community:  Instagram & Facebook: @prenatalyogacenter Youtube: Prenatal Yoga Center Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

There’s a saying that goes, “You don’t know what you don’t know,” and this is especially true when it comes to prepping for birth. If you aren’t informed about the different options for your birth, then how can you be expected to make the most informed decisions in your birth! Today, we’ll be diving into the key differences between a hospital-led childbirth education class and an independent-led childbirth education class. In this episode of Yoga | Birth | Babies, I am joined by Ceridwen Morris. Ceridwen is an author, childbirth educator and doula who has supported thousands of expectant parents in New York City for over twenty years. She is the author of the forthcoming How to Give Birth (Farrar, Strauss and Giroux, 2025). Morris served on the board of The Childbirth Education Association of Metropolitan New York for five years, and ran the education program at Tribeca Pediatrics for ten years. She has taught at Real Birth, City Births, NYC Birth Prep and Prenatal Yoga Center. As you give this episode a listen, I hope it inspires you to bring questions to your care provider that explore how the birthing experience can be tailored to your preferences, versus you having to conform to hospital policies and protocols. Enjoy this informative episode! Get the most out of each episode by checking out the show notes with links, resources and other related podcasts at: prenatalyogacenter.com Don’t forget to grab your FREE guide, 5 Simple Solutions to the Most Common Pregnancy Pains HERE  If you love what you’ve been listening to, please leave a rating and review! Yoga| Birth|Babies (Apple) or on Spotify! To connect with Deb and the PYC Community:  Instagram & Facebook: @prenatalyogacenter Youtube: Prenatal Yoga Center Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today, we have a community birth story that will literally take you on a wild ride. In just one short but juicy hour, you’ll find an illustration of pregnancy over 40, preparation for birth from a yoga teacher perspective, and multiple twists and turns in a birth story. Today’s Yoga| Birth| Babies, I have with me Renata DiBiase. Renata is a book designer and yoga teacher residing on eastern Long Island with her husband and newborn baby. She is also a PYC Prenatal Teacher Training alumni! Believing in yourself isn’t always an easy feat, but Renata exemplifies just that in her birth. Throughout this conversation, so many lessons of resilience, strength, and staying in the present can be found. I hope you leave this episode feeling just as inspired as I did. CW: In this conversation, there is mention of a miscarriage and a premature birth. Get the most out of each episode by checking out the show notes with links, resources and other related podcasts at: prenatalyogacenter.com (*hyperlink episode link from Wordpress!) Don’t forget to grab your FREE guide, 5 Simple Solutions to the Most Common Pregnancy Pains HERE  If you love what you’ve been listening to, please leave a rating and review! Yoga| Birth|Babies (Apple) or on Spotify! To connect with Deb and the PYC Community:  Instagram & Facebook: @prenatalyogacenter Youtube: Prenatal Yoga Center Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What can you do if labor seems to be, well, stuck? Most birthing people I know (including myself) want to move labor along! So how can we help that happen and avoid “stalled” labor?  On today’s episode of Yoga| Birth| Babies doula and exercise physiologist Lindsey McCoy, gives us tools and tips to help balance the body, help baby find space, and to help baby move seamlessly through the pelvis so that labor doesn’t stall. Lindsey shares things we can do prenatally to prepare our body for birth as well as tools that you can take into your labor. She also talks about common signs parents can see that birth is a little delayed and how we can start to make room for baby and to rebalance the body. This conversation is packed full of information that can give you confidence heading into your birth. When you feel confident, you can more easily roll with your labor and any obstacles that may occur. I’m really excited for you to hear this conversation. Get the most out of each episode by checking out the show notes with links, resources and other related podcasts at: prenatalyogacenter.com Don’t forget to grab your FREE guide, 5 Simple Solutions to the Most Common Pregnancy Pains HERE  If you love what you’ve been listening to, please leave a rating and review! Yoga| Birth|Babies To connect with Deb and the PYC Community:  Instagram & Facebook: @prenatalyogacenter Youtube: Prenatal Yoga Center Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today we’re talking about something very near and dear to my heart. We’re talking about how you take parental leave when you’re a small business owner or an entrepreneur. Crossing the threshold into parenthood is a huge emotional as well as physical experience. If you’re a small business owner or entrepreneur, it is a huge responsibility to shoulder that business and help it continue to move forward even as you are becoming a parent. So how do you have one foot in keeping your business going and one giant foot investing in being a new parent?  To have this conversation I welcomed Arianna Taboada founder of The Expecting Entrepreneur onto Yoga| Birth| Babies. She tells us how we can set ourselves up for parental leave as a small business owner. It’s a really great conversation and she gives very concrete tools for those that will be facing having a baby while still shouldering the responsibility of owning a business. Get the most out of each episode by checking out the show notes with links, resources and other related podcasts at: prenatalyogacenter.com Don’t forget to grab your FREE guide, 5 Simple Solutions to the Most Common Pregnancy Pains HERE  If you love what you’ve been listening to, please leave a rating and review! Yoga| Birth|Babies To connect with Deb and the PYC Community:  Instagram & Facebook: @prenatalyogacenter Youtube: Prenatal Yoga Center Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

If you’ve been listening to the podcast for a while you know that anytime I can talk about the pelvic floor, it puts a smile on my face. Today’s conversation does exactly that. We’re talking about pelvic organ prolapse and the role the pelvic floor plays in supporting those organs or maybe not supporting those organs so well.  To have this conversation, I welcomed Jeanice Mitchell to Yoga| Birth| Babies. She’s a physical therapist with advanced training and certifications in women’s health, biofeedback, and pelvic health and founder of the popular instagram @mypelvicfloormuscles and nonprofit myPFM.  Jeanice has the best enthusiasm for this topic! She goes over so much information about what pelvic organ prolapse is and makes it so understandable. You’re going to be shocked to find out how prevalent pelvic organ prolapse is. We talk about the symptoms, go over how to check for it, how to talk to your care provider about it, what rehab and the healing process are like, as well as things that might worsen prolapse.  I am extremely excited for you to listen to this conversation! If you have any sort of pelvic organ prolapse, there are things you can do to heal. If you’re concerned about your pelvic floor and your pelvic organs that can create more stress (which isn’t good for your pelvic floor) and can greatly affect your quality of life. Learning how to heal prolapse can vastly improve the quality of your life and we want that for you. Get the most out of each episode by checking out the show notes with links, resources and other related podcasts at: prenatalyogacenter.com Don’t forget to grab your FREE guide, 5 Simple Solutions to the Most Common Pregnancy Pains HERE  If you love what you’ve been listening to, please leave a rating and review! Yoga| Birth|Babies To connect with Deb and the PYC Community:  Instagram & Facebook: @prenatalyogacenter Youtube: Prenatal Yoga Center Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today we’re talking about Spinning Babies® and Birthing from Within®, two of my favorite birth methodologies. I’m currently doing my parent educator certification with Spinning Babies® and several years ago I embarked on the Birthing from Within® mentor program so they’re both near and dear to my heart. I truly believe in these two methodologies. To discuss how we can use these two seemingly different methodologies that actually have a lot of underlying similarities as we approach childbirth education and how parents can use a lot of this thinking a lot of these principles and apply it to their birth I invited doula, bodyworker, and educator Jamie Mossay onto Yoga| Birth| Babies. It’s really exciting how process focused instead of outcome focused these two methodologies are so Jamie has a lot to say about this and I’m really excited for you to hear it.  Jamie is a delight to talk to, she has such in depth knowledge about both these methodologies and how they can serve and support you as a pregnant person but also I think this is going to speak a lot to birth workers as well so I’m really excited for you to hear this conversation.  Get the most out of each episode by checking out the show notes with links, resources and other related podcasts at: prenatalyogacenter.com Don’t forget to grab your FREE guide, 5 Simple Solutions to the Most Common Pregnancy Pains HERE  If you love what you’ve been listening to, please leave a rating and review! Yoga| Birth|Babies To connect with Deb and the PYC Community:  Instagram & Facebook: @prenatalyogacenter Youtube: Prenatal Yoga Center Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today on Yoga| Birth| Babies we have a birth story. I love our community birth stories but there are two things I particularly love about this birth story. One being that I got to know Ali quite well in PYC’s prenatal yoga teacher training. She also came to classes online through her second pregnancy. It means so much to me when I get to know people and watch their journey through pregnancy and into parenthood, it’s particularly special when I can hear their birth story.  Ali’s birth story is absolutely beautiful. As I was listening my mouth was agape, I just couldn’t get enough of hearing it. It was a peaceful, confident birth where she used mantras that we often talk about in class like “I trust my body, I trust my baby.” It is so important to find that inner trust during birth. She also used one of the other mantras we often say in classes and that’s “Squeeze knees, birth with ease.” The relationship Ali had with her midwife and how her midwife held space for her was just stunning. I’m really excited for you to hear such a positive hospital birth story that I hope inspires you and puts a smile on your face the way it did mine. Support Our Sponsor:  Spinning Babies: For comfort in pregnancy and preparation for an easier birth join me and Spinning Babies Worldwide Virtual Conference! Go to spinningbabiesconference.com Get the most out of each episode by checking out the show notes with links, resources and other related podcasts at: prenatalyogacenter.com Don’t forget to grab your FREE guide, 5 Simple Solutions to the Most Common Pregnancy Pains HERE  If you love what you’ve been listening to, please leave a rating and review! Yoga| Birth|Babies To connect with Deb and the PYC Community:  Instagram & Facebook: @prenatalyogacenter Youtube: Prenatal Yoga Center Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Where will you be giving birth? Did you know there are options? Today we’re going to be talking about where to give birth, because if you don’t know your options, you don’t have them. From hospital births, to birth centers, and home births these different locations all have pros and cons and honestly, not everyone is a good candidate for all of these places. What’s important is that you find the place you’re drawn to and a place that will support you and your vision of where to give birth.  To have this conversation on today’s episode of Yoga| Birth| Babies, I have my friend, labor support doula, and childbirth educator Catherine Stewart Lindley. She has attended thousands of births in the last 20 years and is very passionate about supporting unique and personalized care for each family. I love speaking with Catherine, she has her facts, years of experience in a truly wide variety of births and birth locations, and she’s really wonderful. I think our conversation will be helpful for people who aren’t quite sure of all of their options, so they can decide what’s best for them. It’s never about where your doctor or doula or midwife thinks you should birth, it’s really what’s best for you, the safest for you, and that is different for everybody. I hope you enjoy this conversation with Catherine. Support Our Sponsor:  Spinning Babies: For comfort in pregnancy and preparation for an easier birth join me and Spinning Babies Worldwide Virtual Conference! Go to spinningbabiesconference.com Get the most out of each episode by checking out the show notes with links, resources and other related podcasts at: prenatalyogacenter.com Don’t forget to grab your FREE guide, 5 Simple Solutions to the Most Common Pregnancy Pains HERE  If you love what you’ve been listening to, please leave a rating and review! Yoga| Birth|Babies To connect with Deb and the PYC Community:  Instagram & Facebook: @prenatalyogacenter Youtube: Prenatal Yoga Center Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

If you could choose between a functional efficient labor or a dysfunctional and inefficient labor I’m guessing you would choose functional and efficient labor. I have been to many births as a doula and I’ve had 2 kids of my own. While the body may need time to open to let the baby descend and rotate, it can be a lot on the parents and support team to go through the experience of a long labor.  Today on Yoga| Birth| Babies I have midwife Gail Tully of Spinning Babies back on the podcast. This is her 3rd episode with us and I have to say I absolutely adore speaking with Gail. Today, we talk about how to use Spinning Babies for a smoother, more balanced, more efficient birth. Gail offers us techniques and methodologies to help babies navigate more seamlessly through the pelvis. She talks a lot about the different parts of the pelvis and different techniques to utilize to help the baby through, depending on where the baby is in the pelvis.  You’re going to get so much out of this conversation, Gail’s a delight to chat with. We’re very aligned in our birth philosophies and I have been using the Spinning Babies methodology for years. I’m currently working on the Spinning Babies Parent Educator Training (which was a fantastic 3 days in person followed by online training that I’m working my way through). You’re going to want to take notes on the techniques Gail shares at the end – and if you’re getting ready for birth, this is a great episode to share with your birth partner! Support Our Sponsor:  Spinning Babies: For comfort in pregnancy and preparation for an easier birth join me and Spinning Babies Worldwide Virtual Conference! Go to spinningbabiesconference.com Get the most out of each episode by checking out the show notes with links, resources and other related podcasts at: prenatalyogacenter.com Don’t forget to grab your FREE guide, 5 Simple Solutions to the Most Common Pregnancy Pains HERE  If you love what you’ve been listening to, please leave a rating and review! Yoga| Birth|Babies To connect with Deb and the PYC Community:  Instagram & Facebook: @prenatalyogacenter Youtube: Prenatal Yoga Center Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices