Listen to women.
Seems simple enough. And yet, here we are.
This week, the stories in our inbox keep bringing us back to the same uncomfortable truth: women know when something feels wrong. They know their bodies. They know their babies. They know their histories. And far too often, instead of being listened to, they're dismissed, frightened, managed, or told that someone else knows better.
One mother screamed that she could feel her cesarean, and was told, “There’s no way she feels that.”
Another was sent down the familiar rabbit hole of scans, labels, scary possibilities, and intervention because her baby measured small… while seemingly no one stopped to consider that maybe small parents sometimes make small babies.
And then there's a twin home birth that ends in unimaginable loss—a story that challenges the idea that a tragic outcome automatically means someone made the wrong choice. Sometimes everyone does everything right, and tragedy still happens.
These are the stories we need to be willing to hear. Not just the beautiful births. Not just the outcomes that validate what we already believe. All of them.
Because informed consent means listening. Individualized care means listening. Supporting women means listening.
And maybe if we did a little more of that, we'd need a whole lot less fixing afterward.
References:
FriYAY!
Instagram.com/birthinginstincts
Allowed to Birth Ashland Screening
https://www.birthinginstinctspodcast.com/event-details-registration/allowed-to-birth-movie-screening
Jehovah’s Witnesses allow blood-derived products but keep ban on whole-blood transfusions
https://www.statnews.com/2026/09/19/jehovahs-witnesses-blood-derived-products-transfusions/
Birthing Instincts Podcast #314 Low Platelets & Deficiencies of Wisdom
https://open.spotify.com/episode/1bMKgk1ZKtcI0QDQWCZtpT?si=3fb0f5eaad2445fb
Glucagon-Like Peptide-1 Receptor Agonists and Risk of Adverse Maternal Pregnancy Outcomes
The Retrievals Season 2
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3gzGsdfFnFUeREYclQlYv8?si=sCc_o2mYSoOGl434Tz1uqA
Neonatal and obstetric outcomes following periconceptional exposure to glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists: a systematic review and meta-analysis
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S000293782600222X
Discussed in This Episode
When Cutting the Cord Becomes the Emergency
Maternity Care Is Disappearing
The Shopping Center Breech Baby
Experiencing Loss and Questioning Everything
The Midwife Who Did Exactly What She Was Supposed to Do
One Ultrasound Finding, One Very Familiar Cascade
You Don't Have to Be a “Perfect Goddess” to Deserve Individualized Care
GLP-1s and Pregnancy: What Does the Evidence Actually Say?
A Mother Feels Her Cesarean After Epidural Fails
Podcast Produced by: Raquel Hernandez, Pride and Joy Doula Care
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