Podcast
Breech Birth Podcast
Hosted by Sasha Hopkins · EN
The Breech Birth Podcast is dedicated to giving voice to the powerful, personal, and often overlooked stories of breech birth. Please help support getting the Breech Birth Podcast stories out to women and their families across the world by making a small donation through Buy Me a Coffee https://buymeacoffee.com/breechbirthpodcast
Each episode features candid interviews with women who have experienced breech birth firsthand, whether at home, in the hospital, planned or unexpected. While many stories are empowering and transformative, some also speak to the grief, challenges, or trauma that can accompany breech presentation. Through honest storytelling, this podcast challenges the fear-based narrative surrounding breech birth and explores what it means to reclaim autonomy, intuition, and trust in the birthing process. If you’re an expectant parent, health care provider, birth worker or simply curious about the diverse experiences of birth, this is a space for connection, courage, and transformation. Join your host, Sasha Hopkins as we journey with each woman and learn more about the diverse range of experiences.
10episodes
Episodes
Newest firstAll episodes
S5 Ep6 Dr Stuart Fischbein: Twins, VBAC, disempowered doctors & hospital systems
1w ago01:10:06Tap to summarizeStuart James Fischbein MD is a community-based obstetrician and an Associate of the American College of Obstetrics & Gynecology, published author of “Fearless Pregnancy, Wisdom & Reassurance from a Doctor, A Midwife and A Mom” and peer-reviewed papers below. After completing his residency at Cedars-Sinai Medical Centre in LA, CA, Dr. Stu, spent 24 years assisting women in hospital and, for the next 12+ years, was a homebirth obstetrician who worked with midwives assisting local Southern California families. Since retiring from attending homebirths in late 2022, Dr. Stu has turned his focus to traveling the world as a lecturer and advocate for reteaching breech & twin birth skills. He hosts Birthing Instincts Podcast with co-host Blyss Young and together they offer hope, reassurance and evidence supported choices for those women who understand pregnancy is a normal bodily function not to be feared. Instagram @birthinginstinctswww.birthinginstincts.comwww.birthinginstinctspodcast.comhttps://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30305050/https://medcraveonline.com/OGIJ/OGIJ-02-00046.pdfhttps://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/39661588/https://www.ijcriog.com/archive/article-full-text/100042Z08SF2018To support the Breech Birth Podcast stories, please make a small donation through Buy Me a Coffee https://buymeacoffee.com/breechbirthp...To further support the podcast, please hit the SUBSCRIBE button, rate the podcast and share this episode with others.
Transcribe →S5 Ep5 Midwife Whitney Pinger: Footling vs dropped feet, GW Breech Initiative & head entrapment
2w ago00:39:28Tap to summarizeWhitney Pinger CNM MSN FACNM has been training and serving as a midwife for almost 50 years. For most of them, she has been a champion of physiologic, uninterrupted birth in academic medical centres. Her practice, WISDOM Midwifery, is rooted in The Midwifery Pearls, the evidence-based strategies that optimize physiologic birth and The Pinger Patterns of Labor, her innovative labour management paradigm that promotes communication and collaboration. Vaginal breech birth has always been a part of her clinical practice, and while an Associate Clinical Professor at the George Washington University she was a part of a team that initiated the GW Breech Initiative, a collaborative practice model to provide and teach vaginal breech birth. In this collaborative model of care, midwives and doctors are seen as equal partners with different skill sets and are willing partners to support the physiologic breech process. In addition to being a Training Specialist, Whitney is Breech Without Border’s Collaborative Practice Director and is deeply committed to the education of the next generation of doctors, midwives, and nurses.Mama Sherpas: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLKeezAWbJcIu0LA4Xx2AwiLnZvUMCJcY-To help support getting the Breech Birth Podcast stories out to women and their families across the world please make a small donation through Buy Me a Coffee https://buymeacoffee.com/breechbirthp...To further support the podcast, please hit the SUBSCRIBE button, rate the podcast and share this episode with others.
Transcribe →S5 Ep4 Dr Rixa Freeze: Breech research, VBAC risks, tummy crunches & gasping
3w ago01:01:09Tap to summarizeRixa Freeze has a PhD in American Studies from the University of Iowa. Her doctoral studies focused on the history of healthcare and medicine with specialization in pregnancy, childbirth, and maternity care. Her dissertation examined why women in North America choose unassisted home births. She worked as a visiting assistant professor for 9 years at Wabash College before founding Breech Without Borders in 2018. BWB is a 501(c)3 nonprofit dedicated to breech training, education, and advocacy.https://www.breechwithoutborders.orgShe has published about why women choose home birth (JMWH 2009) and attitudes towards home birth in the US (Exp Rev ObGyn 2010). In 2018, she co-authored a study of breech and cephalic home births (BMC Preg Child). The following year, she published an article about outcomes of breech at home, birth centres, and hospitals (Midwifery Today). She co-authored a chapter “Freebirth in the United States” in the 2020 book Birthing Outside the System: The Canary in the Coal Mine. Her analysis of 100 sets of twin home births, co-authored with Stuart Fischbein, was published in December 2024 with PLOS ONE. She is the lead author of the textbook A Guide to Physiological Breech Birth, now in its 2nd edition. Current research projects include a video analysis of 207 physiological breech births, a qualitative analysis of the obstacles American physicians face in supporting vaginal breech birth, a review of the effectiveness of an international vaginal breech training program, and outcomes of an initiative to increase the vaginal twin birth rate in 2 Italian hospitals. She also oversees bachelor and doctoral research projects relating to breech birth.https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30305050/https://obgyn.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/ijgo.12033https://www.authorea.com/doi/full/10.22541/au.175044419.92924866/v1https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16580289/https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16099580/To help support getting the Breech Birth Podcast stories out to women and their families across the world please make a small donation through Buy Me a Coffee https://buymeacoffee.com/breechbirthp...To further support the podcast, please hit the SUBSCRIBE button, rate the podcast and share this episode with others.
Transcribe →S5 Ep3 Midwife Blyss Young: Legal restrictions, walking through life & death & advocacy
4w ago00:40:38Tap to summarizeBlyss Young, LM, CPM is a midwife, teacher and mentor devoted to women’s wisdom across the thresholds of life. Her work is shaped by decades in midwifery, deep clinical experience, and profound personal loss. With years of experience supporting physiological birth, mentoring birthworkers, and walking with women through grief and transformation, Blyss brings depth, presence, and a deep rooted passion for sovereignty to her work.Blyss is the founder of The Bridge Midwives, co-host of the Birthing Instincts podcast, and host of At Her Feet, where she centers conversation, lived experience, and traditional wisdom in modern maternity care. She currently serves her community in Ashland, Oregon as a traditional midwife.https://www.birthingblyss.com/homehttps://www.birthinginstincts.com/blyss-youngTo help support getting the Breech Birth Podcast stories out to women and their families across the world please make a small donation through Buy Me a Coffee https://buymeacoffee.com/breechbirthp...To further support the podcast, please hit the SUBSCRIBE button, rate the podcast and share this episode with others.
Transcribe →S5 Ep2 Dr Andrew Bisits: BABE course educator, stargazing, medico-legal issues & paradoxes in birth
Jun 2100:39:17Tap to summarizeAndrew Bisits worked in full time public hospital obstetrics from 1984-2025. Andrew was the medical co-director of maternity services at the Royal Hospital for Women in Randwick, Sydney, a tertiary maternity service where 4100 babies are born each year. He did his training in Newcastle, NSW, Australia and worked there for 23 years. During his time, he developed a strong interest in models of maternity care that supported normal birth, hence the focus on midwifery teams, primary midwifery, midwifery group practices and home birth. He has had a clinical, research and didactic interest in any area of obstetrics which minimises interventions and maximises the possibility of a safe and normal birth. Since the planning of the term breech trial(1996) he has looked at various ways of maintaining the capacity to offer vaginal breech birth where appropriate. A large part of this has involved looking at ways to increase the possibility of physiological breech birth. Andrew has research interests in statistics particularly the area of formal causal inference using observational data. Since resigning from his role at the Royal Hospital for Women, he has continued in teaching and research initiatives.To help support getting the Breech Birth Podcast stories out to women and their families across the world please make a small donation through Buy Me a Coffee https://buymeacoffee.com/breechbirthp...To further support the podcast, please hit the SUBSCRIBE button, rate the podcast and share this episode with others.
Transcribe →S5 Ep1 Midwife Nicole Morales: Making space, optimal positioning & breech birth story
Jun 1700:48:12Tap to summarizeNicole Morales is a mother, mentor, author, breech advocate, Spinning Babies® Approved Trainer, storyteller, and homebirth midwife living in San Diego, California USA. In midwifery teaching, Nicole actively engages in caretaking midwifery by shifting its compass towards deeper understandings of physiological birth practices while highlighting the midwives and families inner processes of decision making. Nicole is a part of a collaborative called ReStory Birthwork and is a co-author of The Breech Release: Opening Pathways for Midwifery and Prenatal Bodywork, Restorative Midwifery: Every Bead of Our Necklace, Resolving Shoulder Dystocia Guide, and Breech Basics Quick Guide, 2nd Edition. She combines bodywork and breechwork in helping families navigate breech at the end of pregnancy and believes that breech babies and breech birth turns us around allowing us to learn and see differently about all births.Nicole also is passionate about utilising storytelling and fairytales for deeper understandings through her work in Restorative Midwifery book series she is writing and her workshop called Birth from The Inside Out. You can find out more about Nicole at artofopening.com and ReStoryBirthwork.com. To help support getting the Breech Birth Podcast stories out to women and their families across the world please make a small donation through Buy Me a Coffee https://buymeacoffee.com/breechbirthp...To further support the podcast, please hit the SUBSCRIBE button, rate the podcast and share this episode with others.
Transcribe →S4 Ep10 Chloe: Planned freebirth, transfer in labour at 39.2wks. Inverted T-incision caesarean.
May 2801:11:38Tap to summarizeChloe shares her plan to have a wild pregnancy and freebirth with the option to contact her NHS midwife if needed. Chloe opted out of ultrasounds and blood tests during her pregnancy and after labouring at home called the NHS midwives to get some reassurance. After transferring and labouring at hospital, Chloe intuitively knew that her baby needed a caesarean. Chloe had a complex and rare situation occur during her caesarean which required an inverted T- incision (special scar). Chloe also shares her experience having postnatal hypertension. To help support getting the Breech Birth Podcast stories out to women and their families across the world please make a small donation through Buy Me a Coffee https://buymeacoffee.com/breechbirthp...To further support the podcast, please hit the SUBSCRIBE button, rate the podcast and share this episode with others.
Transcribe →S4 Ep9 Ali: Planned breech hospital birth with private OB at 40.6wks. Unsuccessful ECV with epidural
May 2400:41:09Tap to summarizeAli shares her experience transferring from a private obstetrician to another who supports vaginal breech birth. Ali had two ECV's one at 37wks with no medications and the other at 40wks with an epidural, both unsuccessful. Ali had to birth her baby in theatre due to baby being breech and was told to lie on her back for the birth of baby's head. Ali shares her thoughts around the increasing caesarean rates and limited information shared on the risks associated with caesareans. To help support getting the Breech Birth Podcast stories out to women and their families across the world please make a small donation through Buy Me a Coffee https://buymeacoffee.com/breechbirthp...To further support the podcast, please hit the SUBSCRIBE button, rate the podcast and share this episode with others.
Transcribe →S4 Ep8 Lexi: Planned breech home birth at 38wks. Declined ECV. Positive mindset
May 2100:30:07Tap to summarizeLexi shares her experience planning a home birth and being supported to continue at home when her baby was discovered to be breech. Lexi declined an ECV but tried other methods to turn baby. Lexi shares how she focused attention on fitness throughout her pregnancy and a positive mindset which benefitted her in labour. To help support getting the Breech Birth Podcast stories out to women and their families across the world please make a small donation through Buy Me a Coffee https://buymeacoffee.com/breechbirthp...To further support the podcast, please hit the SUBSCRIBE button, rate the podcast and share this episode with others.
Transcribe →S4 Ep7 Gianna: Planned hospital breech birth with OB. Breech extraction with forceps at 39.5wks
May 1700:35:00Tap to summarizeGianna shares her journey receiving care with MGP but later changing to the only private obstetrician available that supports vaginal breech birth. Gianna discusses the rejection of her birth preferences in order to receive care for a vaginal breech birth and later realises the offer was only for a breech extraction. Gianna was in a teaching hospital and touches on what this looked like during her labour, birth and after care. To help support getting the Breech Birth Podcast stories out to women and their families across the world please make a small donation through Buy Me a Coffee https://buymeacoffee.com/breechbirthp...To further support the podcast, please hit the SUBSCRIBE button, rate the podcast and share this episode with others.
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