EP 200: "Birth Control" - Maternal Agency, Education, and Systems of Perinatal Care with Allison Yarrow
10/16/23 • 65 min
In this conversation, journalist Allison Yarrow and Kimberly discuss Allison's new book “Birth Control: The Insidious Power of Men Over Motherhood.” They go in depth about the culture and systems of perinatal birth care. They explore Allison’s extensive research around the differences between home birth care and hospital birth care, and go into depth about their personal experiences with each scenario. They wonder how future generations will approach their birth, as well as the deep impact of race on varying birth experience. With all of the information out there, they ask how do you prepare for birth?
Bio
Allisoni Yarrow is a journalist for nearly two decades (in newsrooms like NBC News, Newsweek and The Daily Beast, and Vice), a national magazine finalist, the author of 90s Bitch (finalist for the Los Angeles Press Club Book Award), and she has written about the shortcomings of the perinatal experience in America for the New York Times, the Washington Post, USA Today, Vox, Harper's Bazaar, and Insider. Her new book Birth Control: The Insidious Power of Men Over Motherhood, which is out July 18 and arose out of my TED Talk. With the recent news that maternal mortality has risen 40 percent to the highest level in our lifetime, this subject couldn't be more important. The book draws on extensive reporting, interviews, an original survey of 1300 birthing people and mothers, and my own personal experiences, to document how women are controlled, traumatized, injured, and even killed, because of traditionalist practices of medical professionals and hospitals during pregnancy, labor, childbirth, and after.
What You’ll Hear
How birth procedures and techniques were not developed by science by traditions?
The overriding of midwives knowledge by doctors.
How has birth become such a profitable medical field?
Why C-sections are so prominent despite their limited need?
How does home birth care differ from hospital care?
What kind of mother culture do we need around birth trauma?
The pressure to educate onesellf in the perinatal experience.
What role does agency play in the birth experience?
What needs to change about the system of birth?
How will future generations experience birth care?
Our bodies perceive surgery as interruption.
The importance of sex education to the birth experience.
The racial dimensions of birth culture.
Links
www.allisonyarrow.com
Instagram: @aliyarrow
In this conversation, journalist Allison Yarrow and Kimberly discuss Allison's new book “Birth Control: The Insidious Power of Men Over Motherhood.” They go in depth about the culture and systems of perinatal birth care. They explore Allison’s extensive research around the differences between home birth care and hospital birth care, and go into depth about their personal experiences with each scenario. They wonder how future generations will approach their birth, as well as the deep impact of race on varying birth experience. With all of the information out there, they ask how do you prepare for birth?
Bio
Allisoni Yarrow is a journalist for nearly two decades (in newsrooms like NBC News, Newsweek and The Daily Beast, and Vice), a national magazine finalist, the author of 90s Bitch (finalist for the Los Angeles Press Club Book Award), and she has written about the shortcomings of the perinatal experience in America for the New York Times, the Washington Post, USA Today, Vox, Harper's Bazaar, and Insider. Her new book Birth Control: The Insidious Power of Men Over Motherhood, which is out July 18 and arose out of my TED Talk. With the recent news that maternal mortality has risen 40 percent to the highest level in our lifetime, this subject couldn't be more important. The book draws on extensive reporting, interviews, an original survey of 1300 birthing people and mothers, and my own personal experiences, to document how women are controlled, traumatized, injured, and even killed, because of traditionalist practices of medical professionals and hospitals during pregnancy, labor, childbirth, and after.
What You’ll Hear
How birth procedures and techniques were not developed by science by traditions?
The overriding of midwives knowledge by doctors.
How has birth become such a profitable medical field?
Why C-sections are so prominent despite their limited need?
How does home birth care differ from hospital care?
What kind of mother culture do we need around birth trauma?
The pressure to educate onesellf in the perinatal experience.
What role does agency play in the birth experience?
What needs to change about the system of birth?
How will future generations experience birth care?
Our bodies perceive surgery as interruption.
The importance of sex education to the birth experience.
The racial dimensions of birth culture.
Links
www.allisonyarrow.com
Instagram: @aliyarrow
Previous Episode
EP 199: Activate Your Inner Jaguar - Feminine Sexuality and Spirituality
In this episode, podcast producer Jackson Kroopf interviews Kimberly about her upcoming course "Activate Your Inner Jaguar - Feminine Sexuality and Spirituality" that begins October 17th. Kimberly describes the nine year evolution of the course, tracing its foundations and considering the ways her ongoing somatic and spiritual work continues to serve different generations of women from maiden to crone. She opens up about her own experiences that have informed her evolving relationship to the intersection of sexuality and spirituality. She also describes what the experience of taking the class entails, particularly around issues of privacy, shame, and the concrete practices she offers class participants. You will hear about some of the class' guest lecturers including pelvic priestess and author of "Women's Anatomy of Arousal," Sheri Winston, and sex educator and writer of "Taking Back the Speculum" Pamela Samuelson. As the carrier of many womens' stories, Kimberly describes the way combining personal stories and somatic tools can address many things women are most curious about related to sex and self-actualizing an erotic practice for each participant.
You can learn more or sign up for the nine-week intensive course here: https://kimberlyannjohnson.com/alive/
Next Episode
EP 201: Informed Pregnancy and Evidence Based Birth and Bodywork with Dr. Elliot Berlin
In this episode, Kimberly and Dr. Elliot Berlin discuss his informed pregnancy focused chiropractic work. He explains noticing a rise in out of hospital births post-pandemic as well as an increase in hospital restrictions and inductions in hospital births. He discusses various causes of breech positions, his chiropractic approaches to breech babies before birth, as well as the long history of cesareans and how VBACs became stigmatized in recent decades. The common thread through this whole conversation is providing education and information for pregnant people to make the best informed decisions for themselves and their birth.
Bio
Dr. Elliot Berlin is an award-winning pregnancy-focused chiropractor, childbirth educator, and labor doula. His innovative techniques for prenatal wellness care address tight and painful muscles and tendons utilizing specific massage techniques based on soft tissue releases. He combines this with traditional chiropractic adjustments to restore motion to restricted joints. Dr. Berlin notably works with several hundred breech babies each year, most of whom turn into the ideal pre-birth position once normal function is restored to the mother's low back and pelvis. He is also the host of Informed Pregnancy Podcast, an award winning pregnancy focused chiropractor.
What He Shares:
–Differences in births post-pandemic
–Chiropractic approaches to breech babies
–History of cesareans
–Informed VBACs
–Mind-Body health for fertility
What You’ll Hear:
–Pregnancies post-pandemic
–Rise in out of hospital births
–Increase in restrictions and interventions in hospitals
–Guiding clients in making best choices for birth
–Training for breech births
–Using Webster technique to reposition breech babies
–Structural reasons for breech positionings
–Functional issues of mother posture
–Minimizing ultrasounds
–Looking at baby position at 32 weeks
–Chiropractic care outside of pregnancy
–Approaches to releases and maintenance
–History of cesareans
–Myths around VBACs
–How VBAC information is portrayed
–Uterine ruptures
–Insurance policies and cesareans
–Induction drugs causing uterine ruptures in 1980s
–VBAC Facts website
–Using modern technology to improve childbirth
–Downsides to how interventions are applied
–What led Dr. Berlin to his work
–Mind-body practices leading to natural fertility after years of treatments
–Informed Pregnancy podcast
–Informedpregnancy.tv streaming app
Resources
Website: informedpregnancy.com/informedpregnancy.tv
IG: @doctorberlin
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