The Renegade Mama
Natalie Rees
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Top 10 The Renegade Mama Episodes
Goodpods has curated a list of the 10 best The Renegade Mama episodes, ranked by the number of listens and likes each episode have garnered from our listeners. If you are listening to The Renegade Mama for the first time, there's no better place to start than with one of these standout episodes. If you are a fan of the show, vote for your favorite The Renegade Mama episode by adding your comments to the episode page.
Cat Price - What can disturb an undisturbed birth, social services and a desecrated postpartum
The Renegade Mama
07/18/21 • 117 min
Today on the show I speak with Cat Price. Cat is a Mama of 2, an ex-midwifery student and more recently a birthkeeper. Cat had a wonderful first homebirth with a midwife which opened up a whole new world to her. For her second pregnancy she went on to decide that she’d like a freebirth but says that she was only 90% there. I find Cat’s story really interesting, as it’s an example of when we are not 100% aligned - how things can have the potential to go haywire. Although the birth was relatively straight forward - a comment from her doula really affected her. When her daughter was born - she decided to call an ambulance at the suggestion of the doula. These kind of power leaks where we listen to others over ourselves can have detrimental effects. The ambulance came - Cat knew everything was well and they left. But - consequently in the coming days - social services rocked up on her door unannounced. They berated her and harassed her in her vulnerable postpartum state. Cat understandably felt overwhelmed and shut done - she even started to question herself. She endured some very dark days postpartum but has recently come out the other side and has graciously been brave enough to share her story, which I know will be able to help others. I thank Cat for her open vulnerability - I am honoured to share her story.
More about Cat -
My name is Cat. I was born in South Africa but have lived in the UK since I was a baby. I am a wife and a mother-of-two. I'm a birthkeeper, a holder of sacred spaces and a weaver of words.
In 2017 I was training as a midwife in the system when I became unexpectedly pregnant with my first child. I gave birth to him in a simple and powerful birth at home (midwife-attended) that undid everything. As a result I swore off attending births myself and left my training, instead immersing myself in full-time mothering.
I later returned to assisting a local doula in running groups for new mothers and trained as a postpartum doula myself. I became unexpectedly pregnant again just before the Covid madness descended. After a wild pregnancy and freebirth (which was ultimately disturbed) with my daughter, I was subject to a Social Services investigation which desecrated my sacred postpartum time. These events inspired the darkest night of the soul that I've ever experienced.
Subsequently in early 2021, I witnessed the death of my beloved father-in-law at home. It opened my heart to the magic inherent in the rites of passage of both birth AND death.
With all that I have learned and embodied in the past few years, I have been moved recently to claim the title of "birthkeeper" and to begin to hold sacred space once again. It feels like coming home after the most arduous journey.
Here’s The Benefit Of Freebirth!
The Renegade Mama
02/25/24 • 44 min
As many of you are aware, in the mainstream media recently there has been a great deal of interest in freebirth. With numerous sensationalist articles flying around I thought it would be of interest to the listeners to hear a response. So on Saturday afternoon this week, as I hung out my washing, I dialled the number of my good friend and authentic birth keeper Emily Lal. As she picked up in Melbourne, I asked her if she’d jump on a zoom call to share her thoughts. It was a hard yes and just hours later - there we were chatting in-between putting our babies to bed on the other side of the country. Emily and I share our personal reasons for free birthing and how we see it as the safest way to birth. We ponder over the double standards held with freebirth and medically attended births and question why freebirth deaths are almost always consider ‘avoidable’ yet a hospital death is rarely spotlighted and considered ‘unavoidable’. We respond to some of the comments in the articles circulating and rejoice in the fact that we have a media outlet to share our thoughts where they will be heard in their entirety and not misconstrued. This focus in the mainstream media really excites me and I thank the journalists for bringing freebirth the zeitgeist and minds of people who may not ever considered or heard of it before. Freebirth is changing the world for the better and this is only the beginning. Enjoy.
My Perfect ‘High Risk’ Freebirth
The Renegade Mama
02/11/24 • 85 min
Today on the show I speak to the wonderful and bubbly Sarah. Hailing from Ireland - Sarah is a natural story teller and you just won’t be able to stop listening to this one. Sarah has 3 children and has had 4 losses. She is the epitome of ‘high risk’ for the system! Having had a c-section with her first, an advanced maternal age because she is 40, she’d had significant postpartum haemorrhages and also had taken a cocktail of drugs to ‘sustain’ this pregnancy - she had all the high risk boxes ticked. Sarah talks us through her absolutely horrific first birth where she was taken for a c-section at 10cm dilated - she was separated from her baby and only met her many hours after. Her second was a VBAC in hospital and although at the time is was comparatively amazing - in retrospect she realises all the flaws there. For her last pregnancy - she decided to freebirth late into the pregnancy and had the most amazing perfect birth. Sarah tells us how she handled her postpartum haemorrhage at home - clue - just look to nature. She finishes by telling us how amazing the feeling is after a freebirth and how she believes every mother deserves to feel this. You can hear in the interview how genuine and necessary this feeling is. Sarah is an absolute delight to listen and I hope you get as big a thrill out of listening to her as I did.
03/03/24 • 59 min
02/18/24 • 53 min
Today on the show my husband Oliver Wenn and I discuss 10 reasons why we homeschool and why you might want to too.
In recent years the new wave of homeschooling has increased exponentially. Why is this so? Well - here are our top 10 reasons of why we homeschool:
1. Intuitively feels right
2. Freedom and sovereignty
3. Keeping the light in their eyes ablaze
4. Travel
5. Play
6. Mixed age learning
7. Family comes first
8. We create the culture, ethics and value for our children
9. Likeminded community
10. Kids can learn at their own pace
I hope you enjoy this personal insight into why we do what we do! We’d love for you to join us!
Freebirth Right From The Start - Thanks To The Path My Mother Laid.
The Renegade Mama
03/17/24 • 98 min
Today on the show I speak with Cass about her 2 freebirths. I love a story where first time Mums freebirth. Cass herself was born at home and we hear the story of her growing up on the Wolery - the longest running intentional community in the south west of Western Australia. Even with her upbringing there was still some undoing of conditioning to be done and she dipped in and out of the system during the pregnancy. By the end of her pregnancy though she felt confident and ready - telling her birth plans to anyone who would listen. Cass tells us about her 12 hour labour where she went to her Dad’s house to birth - an hour drive from the shed they were living in. The birth was beautiful and straight forward and although she said she bled more than expected - she felt just fine. For her second she had a complete wild pregnancy - not even doing a pregnancy test. The birth was exactly how she and envisioned except a lot faster - only 2 hours! Cass is an absolute pleasure to talk with and is so logical and intuitive with her approach to birth. I loved hearing her stories and how birth is almost always just so simple!
From Losing Her First Baby In Hospital to Freebirthing Her Last - Eight Babies Later!
The Renegade Mama
03/10/24 • 105 min
Today on the show I speak to mother of eight Elise. After losing her first (and only girl) in a hospital birth, Elise was devastated. She talks us through the process of being told her baby had died during labour and how having nearly every intervention possible didn’t save her baby. She doesn’t vilify the hospital or staff but rather reflects that sometimes as sad and as grief struck as we are - death happens. She then describes how her subsequent 3 pregnancies were test heavy and scheduled inductions. For number five she was with a new partner and decided on a homebirth with midwife which was a big change for her. Number 6 was an unnecessary home birth transfer and number 7 another home birth. For her last Elsie finally decided on a wild pregnancy and freebirth. Having experienced death of a baby first hand - Elise knew this was the safest option for her and her baby. She describes this birth as redeeming of her past traumas and cemented her trust in herself and her husband.
More about Elise -
Hi, I'm Elise, a mum to a boisterous boy tribe!
Having started my family journey young and green, I've moved through many levels of utilising the system, from blindly trusting.. to wholly trusting myself.
After my first birth ended in tragedy, I learnt many lessons with each subsequent birth.. and an now a fierce advocate for women embracing bodily and birth autonomy.. and birthing in their own power.
My family happily live outside the norm on a daily basis, as Unschoolers, life-learners, free birthers and (semi!) homesteaders.. generally finding our path off the beaten track.
Jacqui Hives - “We brought her into the world peacefully and with love and she left the same way.”
The Renegade Mama
12/27/23 • 90 min
Today on the show I speak to Jacqui about the peaceful birth and death of her baby girl Elise. Death is not often something talked about openly, especially since it’s almost always institutionalised and hidden away from the community. I personally feel it’s so important to honour death and become friends with it, as it’s a given we will all have to face it one day. Jacqui tells us of her wild pregnancy and freebirth and how some hours after, her baby girl passed away peacefully at home. Even though this was the hardest thing Jacqui has ever had to do (some parts of the interview are truly heart breaking) and there was a lot of grief for her and her family - she feels at peace with what happened. She talks about the benefits of freebirth when your baby dies and how she has integrated the experience. It’s an incredible honour to share Jacqui’s story and I am so grateful that she is open and vulnerable enough to let us in on one of the hardest yet most powerful experiences of her life. Thank you Jacqui.
My accidental freebirth and how I become a freebirth Doula
The Renegade Mama
01/22/24 • 67 min
03/24/24 • 66 min
Today on the show I speak to Prue about the wild ride that led her to freebirth. Starting at 14 Prue started dabbling in drugs and alcohol. By her 20’s she realised it had become an addiction and she checked herself into rehab. She then ended up at the other end of the spectrum on extremely strong anti-depressants which she said made her a zombie and literally drool. She ended up weighing 100kg and knew something needed to change. She got off the pharmaceutical drugs and started body building but got down to a very unhealthy 35kg. When she finally let go of that and returned to a healthy weight and got her period back (which she had lost because she was so thin) she fell pregnant with her first. Her daughter was born in hospital and although straight forward for a hospital birth - it still wasn’t the best experience and in the proceeding weeks she felt like something was off. At 6 weeks postpartum Prue was diagnosed with cancer and she tells us of how she felt like she was in a glass house looking at her daughter, not be able to be with her, bond with her or raise her in this hard time. Cut to covid - Prue felt forced to take the Pfizer vaccine and ended up with Pericarditis from it. This time Prue took the natural route and healed herself. This crazy story ultimately ended (or begun) with Prue choosing to Freebirth her next child - her little boy Koa. Although she had hired a midwife - she had always planned to not call her on the day and thats exactly what she did. Prue had a beautiful and simple birth at home despite a nuchal hand being present. I love Prue’s fire and passion and her commitment to being vulnerable and open so others can learn from her story. Thank you Prue!
More about Prue:
35 year old mum to a 5yr old girl born in hospital and a 8MO Boy freebirthed at home. Some obstacles in life to get here has been: Addiction, rehabilitation, eating disorders, cancer and vaccination reaction during covid. As a result of the vaccine reaction I endeavoured onto a successful self healing journey after ditching the recommendations of the cardiologist and GPs. I turned to holistic healing where I tried everything you can imagine from homeopathy, ice baths, saunas, yoga, anti inflammatory diet and the list goes on. Through discovering the power of the body and it’s healing capabilities it was a no brained and complete certainty that freebirth was my dream when I fell pregnant with my second child.
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FAQ
How many episodes does The Renegade Mama have?
The Renegade Mama currently has 90 episodes available.
What topics does The Renegade Mama cover?
The podcast is about Health & Fitness, Alternative Health and Podcasts.
What is the most popular episode on The Renegade Mama?
The episode title 'Freebirth Right From The Start - Thanks To The Path My Mother Laid.' is the most popular.
What is the average episode length on The Renegade Mama?
The average episode length on The Renegade Mama is 73 minutes.
How often are episodes of The Renegade Mama released?
Episodes of The Renegade Mama are typically released every 7 days.
When was the first episode of The Renegade Mama?
The first episode of The Renegade Mama was released on Apr 29, 2020.
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