16. How to create The Most Empowering Birth Ever w/ Nadine Richardson

Art by Stepha Lawson

Episode 16-​ Do you want the most empowered birth experience possible? In this episode, Amber interviews Nadine Richardson of She Births®, who BLOWS US AWAY with her depth of wisdom and practicality around having the most empowered birth for YOU. (Hint: It's different for everyone). If you are pregnant or want to become pregnant, this is a MUST LISTEN!

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This episode is a must listen, because so much of what Nadine says is so important, that it is hard to pull out just the highlights. However, if we had to pull out the 3 most important overall themes on how to have the most empowering birth for YOU:

1. Find and trust your intuition
2. Be prepared
3. It is different for everybody

Nadine and Amber get down to what this really means in one of our most important episodes to date.

Nadine Richardson is CEO of The Birthing Institute and founder of the world’s only scientifically verified antenatal education program, She Births®. She is a health education innovator, a social impact entrepreneur and an expert facilitator. She has been a teacher and trainer in yoga, childbirth and parenting for over 20 years leading thousands of families on a journey towards strength, community and well being. Nadine advocates for more normal births and promotes integrative holistic care, where obstetrics, midwifery and doula work create optimal outcomes.
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Also, try out these books by legendary midwife Ina May Gaskin for more inspirational wisdom around empowering natural childbirth...

Ina May's Guide to Childbirth

Spiritual Midwifery

Also, the She Births method has been confirmed by scientific trials. According to the She Births® website:
The She Births® antenatal education program has been scrutinized in large randomized controlled trials over the last 5 years within two mixed demographic hospitals in Sydney, Australia. The study was conducted by Western Sydney University and the National Institute of Complementary Medicine.
The She Births® program was chosen for this study because it incorporates more complementary medicine modalities than other childbirth courses and our own private normal birth rates are so high (83%).
This groundbreaking research highlights dramatic improvements for the Study group, who received the She Births program, in comparison to the Control group who received the standard hospital birth preparation course.
Couples in the Study group had a relative:

• 65% reduction in epidural rates (29% vs 68.7%)
• 44% reduction in caesarean sections (18.2% vs 32.5%)
• 50% reduction in medical augmentation using artificial means (28.4% vs 57.8%)
• 53% reduction in resuscitation of babies with oxygen and/or bag and mask (13.6% vs 28.9%)

The study group also experienced shorter labors, particularly second stage (pushing) by a mean of 32 minutes. There was also a 12% reduction in perineal trauma (84.7% vs 96.4%). Overall a 45% increase in natural vaginal births was found using the unique She Births education program.

She Births will be in Los Angeles in October holding workshops for doulas and courses for pregnant couples, they also have online courses that can reach you anywhere!

A CHALLENGE FOR OUR LISTENERS: If you are pregnant, start exploring some of these ideas that Nadine is talking about. We invite you to drop into your OWN intuition when birthing your baby.

What are your best tips for empowered birthing? What worked for you? Let us know in the comments!