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Welcome to the Birth Mystics podcast. What is a birth mystic, anyway? Doulas Katie and Stephanie define it as a person who pursues contemplation, surrender, and truth in order to understand birth beyond the intellect. Think ”birth nerds” but with a little more depth and spirituality. Here we talk birth through the lens of mythology, philosophy, poetry, and more.
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What are the formative birth stories of your life? This is an important question to ask yourself as you prepare to give birth. You may think about the birth stories of your closest friends, family members, ancestors, and even media portrayals of birth. These stories influence and affect you, some in positive ways, some in not so positive ways. One …
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Today we are diving into the land of fantasy. Katie was hugely influenced in her childhood by Avatar the Last Airbender. It's a story centered around the four elements: fire, water, wind, and earth. There is also a side world connected to it called the Spirit World full of entities that possess different powers or abilities. In the beginning of the…
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Kora, the Maiden, loved to explore the Earth and all its beauty. One day in her wanderings she encountered strange shadows that haunted her steps. In her wisdom, she knew she could help them and prepared for a journey into the underworld. She made her descent, causing the Earth to contract in grief, bringing death, decay, and winter. When Kora arri…
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You birth like you live. So how do you live? If you're really willing to ponder that simple question, you can go pretty deep. This is not meant to make you feel guilt, shame, or self-judgement. It's simply a reflection of who you are right now. Instead of just plunging into what society has told you is a good birth, this is about curating birth to …
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Stephanie and Katie engage in a composite dialogue that demonstrates the unrest and confusion women can feel when their Mama Bear ferocity wakes up during pregnancy, birth, and postpartum. Oftentimes these sweet, pleasant, docile women are deeply shaken by their rage and volatility, particularly when it's directed toward those they love most. Where…
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Episode 13: The Princess and the Pea-ple Pleaser
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Katie reimagines the fairytale of the Princess and the Pea. A lonely prince is looking for his perfect bride to be his princess. When a disheveled looking woman shows up on their doorstep, the Queen comes up with a brilliant plan to determine if she is truly a princess or not. She stacks many mattresses on top of one another and places a single pea…
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And a woman who held a babe against her bosom said, Speak to us of Children. And he said: Your children are not your children. They are the sons and daughters of Life’s longing for itself. They come through you but not from you, And though they are with you yet they belong not to you. You may give them your love but not your thoughts, For they have…
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Katie guides us through a discussion about the power of presence and what that can do for your birth. Living in the present moment is one of the greatest gifts birth can give you. Mindfulness is the ability to be in this moment without allowing distractions to pull you out of that focus. You can imagine your thoughts as a river that can sometimes s…
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You've likely been taught that birth (and life) is a lot like a maze—having to make the "right" choices in order to achieve a "good" birth. But what if there's another template for giving birth (and living) that removes those vocabulary words entirely and sets you up for peace, clarity, and empowerment? The whole point of a maze is to find the way …
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Inanna was a queen and priestess and she felt a call to descend into the underworld. She prepared by gathering everything she needed. Inanna made her descent, but at every gate something was demanded of her to give up, which she did. She gave up a scepter, a breastplate, bangles, her necklace…and finally, her robe—enabling her to cross the final th…
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Stephanie's original poem takes an intimate look at the role partner's can play in the birth experience--and it's not what you think it is. How can partners best support the birthing person without overpowering, overprotecting, naysaying, or neglecting? And furthermore, what is their unique transformational potential? Even more important than the a…
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Katie shares with us beautiful prose of going into the darkness. She invites us to challenge the idea that darkness is evil or scary and how to use it to our advantage during childbirth. For Katie, darkness is solace, peace, and seclusion, which are wonderful adjectives for birth. Consider how we often meet a lover in the darkness. Our senses are t…
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Stephanie reads her original poem, "Willing to Die," which explores the metaphorical and mythical journey birthers undertake. Instead of fearing death of the ego, we can learn to embrace it, and when we do—birth transforms us. This kind of death is about moving with the seasons and cycles of life and accepting our undoing. To learn more about Steph…
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Katie tells us the Slavic myth of Baba Yaga. This is a myth, while on the outside can appear very dark, is actually about connecting to our intuition. Any myth with all of its components can represent the entire psyche. Baba Yaga is a powerful template that all of us can follow in our process of discovering our intuition in the birth space. To lear…
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Stephanie describes feeling intense grief and rage from childhood trauma that surfaced during her first postpartum. Then she learned about Kundalini, which instilled a deep and profound purpose to her pain. This awakening isn't just trying to shove our past traumas into our faces just because--it's trying to evolve us. To learn more please visit ww…
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Katie walks us through her original poem "Poseidon" that she wrote while six months pregnant with her third baby. As she laid in bed pondering her upcoming birth the words just came together in her mind. She jumped out of bed and wrote it down, feeling how it deeply expressed her hopes and wishes for her birth. This poem also represents her embodim…
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Stephanie discusses what led her to naming her business Bhava Birth. It's a Sanskrit word that translates to becoming. When it's spelled bhavah it translates into giving birth. The etymology shows a deep and profound connection between these two processes, of birth and becoming. If you'd like to learn more please visit www.bhavabirth.com…
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Katie introduces what inspired her to name her business Freya Birth. Join us as we explore Norse mythology to understand the meaning and symbology of the goddess Freya and how it pertains to birth. If you'd like to learn more please visit www.freyabirth.com References: Women Who Run With the Wolves by Clarissa Pinkola Estes, A Good Birth: Finding t…
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Welcome to the Birth Mystics podcast. What is a birth mystic, anyway? Doulas Katie and Stephanie define it as a person who pursues contemplation, surrender, and truth in order to understand birth beyond the intellect. Think "birth nerds" but with a little more depth and spirituality.By Stephanie + Katie
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