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- [00:06]
A
Hello.
- [00:06]
B
Hello, it's Brooke Devard and you're listening to the Naked Beauty Podcast. I'm joining you from Los Angeles. It's an overcast day and I am in my newly relocated office recording this because I've had to make way for the nursery because my baby is going to be here in six weeks. I can hardly believe it. But I'm also very excited. I feel like the first pregnancy, you have no idea what to expect for labor and delivery. You have no idea what it's like taking care of a newborn. There are still some fears and trepidations which we get into in today's episode. And you all are in for a special treat because we have more with Elaine Welteroth now. The episode with Elaine and her incredible mother, Deborah, and my mother, that episode was so special to me and it resonated with so many of you. But in that conversation, we were able to really go deep on Elaine's work with both Birth Fund and her experience doing a home birth, which I haven't talked about yet on this podcast with anyone. So I wanted to make sure that we had ample time to really discuss it. And I was like, this needs its own dedicated episode. Born in California, Elaine Welteroth is an undeniable force in the media industry. An award winning journalist, TV host, and the author of New York Times bestseller More Than Enough, Elaine made history when at 29, she was named the youngest editor in chief in Conde Nast history. I'm sure you all remember if you are into magazines like I am, her tenure at Teen Vogue, they were doing such radical work. Elaine believes that your life is a series of dreams realized and has gracefully pivoted from one chapter to the next, realizing that if you're not learning, you can't grow. Earlier this year, Elaine launched Birth Fund, a movement committed to expanding access to birth care nationwide and challenging how the country approaches maternal health care. And she launched this with some incredible founding families. Some Serena Williams, Kelly Rowland, Karlie Kloss. They've raised over $1.5 million for families seeking midwives while raising awareness and challenging the way that the United States approaches maternal healthcare. I have had the privilege to attend a few Birth Fund events and yes, they are glitzy and glamorous. There was this beautiful luncheon that she did. You would turn to your left and there was Kris Jenner with Khloe Kardashian, and then you would turn to your right and you would see Ms. Tina Knowles and Kelly Rowland. These are celebrity studded affairs. But the message that she is talking about the mortality crisis facing women that give birth in America, specifically black women, is serious and heavy stuff. And she really treats these events as opportunities to educate people at scale as well as raise money. I'm going to share a few of the more shocking statistics that I found on the Birth Fund website. Midwifery care could avert more than 80% of maternal and infant deaths. Keeping that number in mind, note that only 12% of births in the US were attended by a midwife in 2021 due to lack of access because midwifery is not covered by most insurance. Now, if you go back generations and generations, midwives were the standard way that women gave birth. They had all of this knowledge about how to bring a baby into the world. But then as hospitals became more the norm, a lot of this changed. And Elaine speaks about this with so much authority and I learned so much from the conversation. As someone who has chosen to do a hospital birth myself, it really opened up my eyes to a different way to approach childbirth. And for context, midwives are clinically trained health professionals and birth experts who offer prenatal care, labor and delivery services, and postpartum care. So what Birth Fund does is give midwifery care to women in need, families in need to support them throughout their entire pregnancy and postpartum. More the more. The maternal mortality rate for black women between the ages of 30 and 34 is over four times higher than the rate for white women. And this is true for a myriad of reasons. Lack of access to the right care and support, plain old systematic racism and bias in the way that doctors care for black women versus non black women. This is something that can be avoided. It can be prevented. And one of the things that Elaine is so passionate about is women being able to give birth and have the experience that they want and to not be rushed to in and out of doctor's appointments and to be able to spend time with their midwives asking all of the questions. One of the things that we really connected on is how jarring the experience is of finding care, even with privilege and access. Even when I moved here to Los Angeles, it took me some time to find an ob gyn. I wanted to work with a black woman. I'm very happy with who I'm working with, but it took a lot of time to even get an appointment. They do not make it easy for women in this country to have the birth experience that they want. And that is what Birth Fund is so committed to providing. Now the other thing I've learned through Birth Fund, which I just find shocking is that the US has the highest maternal mortality rate of any developed nation. We are dead last when it comes to other high income countries. And I would be remiss not to bring up this upcoming election and how important it is to vote. This is an election coming up very soon where our reproductive rights as women are very much on the ballot. And this is actually not something that only pertains to women. This is something that everyone should care about. But Kamala Harris and Tim Waltz have made it very clear that they will protect women's rights around reproductive health, even things like the option to do ivf. I mean, it is really scary the way that the conservative party wants to systematically take away women's rights to make decisions about their own bodies. So definitely make sure you have your plan to vote. Remind a friend you may have someone in your family that's like, I'm not really into voting. I don't really care. It doesn't really make a difference for me. Try to urge them to vote. It is so important. I'm also very hopeful that men listen to this episode as well. And I'm also hopeful that people that have not given birth are thinking about it or even not thinking about it. Listen to this as well, because birth is something. It's like we don't really even talk about it. It's like hidden and kind of shrouded in secrecy. Like what really goes down when women go into labor. And Elaine gives incredible detail and recounting of her home birth experience, which I found to be so inspir inspiring. So I hope you love this conversation as much as I enjoyed having it. I will link to Birth Fund as well if you want to get more involved. And let's get into the conversation. I'd love to hear about the catalyst for starting Birth Fund.
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A
The catalyst for starting Birth Fund was my own experience just navigating the maternal healthcare system. Even as somebody with resources and privilege and access, I found it so discouraging at best and demoralizing at worst. And I as a journalist, understood the statistics associated with the maternal health crisis and how black women are disproportionately dying during and after childbirth. And yet, as an individual, I didn't understand what that really looked like and why this was happening until I saw how close I could become to being a statistic. And that was jarring and alarming. And it felt like I owed it to not just myself and my child, but to every birthing person, every mother, every black mother, woman of color who wants to be A mom one day to figure out how we can fix this. And so I feel incredibly lucky that I met midwives along my journey and they changed my life. They changed the whole trajectory of my, my pregnancy and my childbirth experience, which, by the way, is so much more than just like, well, you got a baby, however you got it here, at least you got the baby. But no one really has emphasized the power of waking up to your power through childbirth and how transformative that experience can be if your power isn't stripped from you at every point along the process. And so midwifery is about keeping the right container around women through this journey so that they can unlock that power. And so Birth Fund is about funding midwifery care for families who can't afford it. It's not covered by insurance in this country. But what we know is that 80% of the maternal deaths in this country could be averted with midwifery care. So it's an essential life saving form of quality birth care that needs safeguarding and it needs investment. And that's what we're singularly focused on.
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B
Yes. And I want to hear more about your home birth experience because at my fragrance launch event, I had a moment where I turned to Lena. I was like, oh, you do a home birth? I'm like, you're so brave to do a home birth. And you were like, I think you're brave for going to the hospital, actually, which, you know, it's a very different kind of framing. And I understand why you feel that way. I'm sure you've heard from people like, oh, my gosh, giving birth at home, it seems kind of like you're so far away from the doctors and the help and the people that, quote, know what they're doing. There's a lot of misconception around how people choose to give birth. So I want to hear more about your home birth experience.
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A
Yeah. And there's so much stigma around home birth and midwives, and it's all by design when, if you actually roll back the clock and you study history, midwives gave birth to this country. Midwives are birth experts. Doctors are the ones assigned to women to give birth, are surgeons. They're medically trained for medical interventions.
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B
Right.
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A
But if you have a low risk pregnancy, for the most part, the midwife is well equipped and potentially best equipped. Best equipped, yes, to catch your baby and to guide you through the journey towards that. They're the ones who take your, your prenatal appointments. They spend not 15 minutes with you, an hour with you.
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B
Wow.
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A
They not only look at your blood pressure, weigh you, check some boxes on a clipboard and send you on your way, they sit with you. They want to know what you're eating, they want to know what your stress levels are. They want to know what your relationship is like with your intimate partner. They want to speak with your intimate partner. Help them understand role in advocating for you throughout this process. They're preventative in their approach, which most doctors are not in this country. The care is holistic. It's wraparound care. It's completely different from any model of care I even knew was accessible to us. I'd never seen anything like it through medical system. And so I think we're taught to not expect more.
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B
Right.
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A
We're taught to give our power away to the authority in the white lab coat. Right. To not take up too much of their time, to not ask too many questions, to not seem difficult to go with what they say. And too many women are dying because of it. Midwives just have a completely different approach, a completely different model of care that I found to be liberating. I had gone through so many doctors and I'm like, I'm an easy person to get along with. I was like, how hard can it be? Like, just so you know.
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B
And you have a lot of access. That's the other thing.
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A
That's the other thing.
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B
You have a lot of access, health insurance, you're very well connected. And if it was difficult for you.
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A
Yeah, that was my thought process, was, if this is the experience I'm having with doctors who are being condescending, who are rushing me out of appointments, telling me I'm asking too many questions, who are laughing at me, I mean, I had so many jarring experiences, doctor after doctor, that I recognize this is a systemic issue. If this is happening to me, what's happening to folks who English is not their first language, or they don't even have a high school degree diploma, you know, or they live in a maternal health desert, or they don't have enough time to keep dating different doctors.
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B
Right.
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A
Like it was a wake up call for me in such a major way. So, like you, I did go into my first pregnancy thinking, I'm just gonna go to the hospital, I'm gonna find a doctor, I'm gonna have my baby in the hospital like everyone else I know, my mom, my grandmother. But the reality is the statistics have actually gotten worse over time. From the time my mom gave birth to me to now, our maternal death rates have spiked.
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B
Wow.
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A
So she had a different dynamic with her doctor than we have the opportunity to have today. The system is completely broken, and it's very much profit over patient. But what has lingered is the norms around doctors are the right people to see for birth. It's scary to not see a doctor. It's scary to do it at home. But I felt having a home birthday, I can hear myself, and I'm like, do I sound like that home birth lady now?
- [12:44]
B
I actually want you to set the scene for the home birth because I actually wanted to hear exactly what was happening. I want to hear if mom was there. But one thing I did want to share. I went to an event of yours, and I got to hear some amazing women speak from kindred space, which I know is an organization you work with. I was induced for my first pregnancy, and I didn't realize until I went to that event of yours that induction is something that doctors like to do because it's convenient. Babies come in the middle of the night, usually very inconvenient hours. Doctors love a schedule. And so I was. It was proposed to me, hey, do you want to get induced? You know, in two days? And I was like, sure. I. I didn't do any research. I just said, sure, these are doctors. Sounds great. Now that I've learned more from your event, that oftentimes when you are induced, it can be a much more difficult labor because you're forcing the baby out essentially before they may be ready. And some people have inductions and have a great, safe, easy, happy delivery. It took a long time. They had to do the balloon. They had to do the pitocide. They just had to do a lot to get it started. So now for this birth, it's come up already. I'm like, not even 35 weeks, and they're already asking me, do you want to get induced? Do you want to get this on the schedule? And I've just said, no, when the baby's ready, she'll come. And that I have to really credit you for creating the space in the environment to even have. Because I would have been totally unaware. I probably would have scheduled an induction again.
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A
And how are we supposed to know better, right? No one's teaching us about what to expect in birth. And we are well educated, right? We're professional women. We've figured out a lot of things in our lives. But this is something we can't figure out on our own. We need to be educated about this. And that's part of the urgency for me around building birth fund. There was so much. I was shocked. I did not know about what it takes to become a mom, period. But especially navigating this system, what you're speaking to is the norm in this country. At that point, there's pressure on you to do what your doctor is suggesting to you. And you've never had to question a doctor before, usually. So why would you start now when your baby's life is on the line?
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B
Right.
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A
But those are the moments where you're the most vulnerable. And unfortunately, you're being preyed upon. It's a systemic issue. It's about the training. They don't know that they're suggesting something to you that could potentially be life threatening. This is what the doctors and the nurses are taught is the norm, and this is the standard of practice. But they also don't know better. And the reality is, as soon as you say yes to being induced, you are setting off. This is a trigger point for a cascade of interventions to come. And each of those interventions have a cost associated. So the price of giving birth goes up. Who does that benefit? You or the doctor or the system benefits the system. So when you start to interrogate the norms around birth in this country and why we think what we think, you start to realize we've been misled.
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B
Absolutely.
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A
And it's not to vilify doctors, because I don't think that the system benefits doctors. Doctors who really want to take great care of their mothers that are in labor don't have the time to. The system isn't set up for them to spend the time to allow you to labor, to go to 40 weeks and then to take as long as you need. Their system is set up profit over patient care. They have to get you in and out. So if they can convince you to do it on a schedule that works for them and that keeps the numbers higher, they can service more people. I mean, it's literally like a factory approach to birth care. And so that's why I say now, on the other side of educating myself and waking up to some of these realities that I never would have uncovered had I not had such bad experiences myself, had I not been introduced to midwives who changed the way I think about birth, I would have said yes to all the things too. You know, and frankly, what I want to clarify is like, I was not this home birth mom, so I need.
- [16:38]
B
To hear about the home birth experience.
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A
Okay, I'll tell you about it. But just know, like, I didn't say yes to having a home birth until I was 36 weeks pregnant.
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B
Oh, wow.
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A
That's how Deep. The conditioning and the stigma ran within me, too. So, like, I get when people say, when they clutch their pearls and, like, you're gonna have a home birth, like, wow, that's so scary. Like, I get it because I was that girl too. Like, literally two and a half years ago. And I remember, even when I fell in love with my midwife, and I was like, all in on, like, understanding how important this is and why the alternative medical approach isn't always ideal, I still was like, but, girl, can you bring an epidural? I was like, if you can bring the epidural, we're good. Where do I sign? Because, like, everything about, like, the reality, Jonathan actually made the decision ultimately, because I was still like, I don't know. But he's like, think about it. Everything that you want for your birthday, from being able to move around, being able to eat throughout.
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B
Yeah, I couldn't eat. I had to suck on ice chips.
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A
No one tells you that. No one tells you that, right? Like, unless you know to ask. Like, no one tells you that. Oh, by the way, they don't let you eat or drink for as many hours as you're in labor doing the hardest work of your life. Are you kidding me? I'm gonna get hungry. You're gonna tell me I can't eat? It's the simple things. This was. This is the simplest thing, but this was the aha moment for me where I was like. It made me question everything I'd ever been taught about birth. A friend of mine who did a home birth was like, elaine, if you were pushing out bowling ball from a hole this big, just tell me, would you rather be lying on your back or would you rather be upright, working with gravity to get the thing out?
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B
Right.
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A
I was like, upright for sure. And from that moment forward, I thought about, why are women laying on their backs? Why do we associate giving birth with laying on your back in a hospital bed with. Connected to an IV machine? And I watched documentaries. I started digging into answering that. Why I put my journalist hat on. I got really curious about it. And if you think about it, it's much easier for a doctor to sit on his butt while you lay on your back so he can do what he has to do to get the baby out. Like, it just makes sense to be upright. So things like that made me realize I want to be able to move freely. And these were then, like, thoughts that informed my conversation with my doctor. I would be like, so could I move around? Would that be okay? Could I maybe not get an IV until I need it? Could I drink water? Could I have food? Because these aren't necessarily policies. These are just practices that have become the norm. And as I started asking these questions, which to me were like, basic questions and basic requests, this is not me coming in like JLo asking for white flowers, right? But I was rejected. I was laughed at. They were like, no, you can't do these things. What do you think this is? And I'm like, whoa. So the smallest little things that actually aid in birth were the things that ultimately led me to do a home birth. Because that's the place that I felt most free and, like, most liberated. But not having access to the pain relief, like, that part was, like, really tough for me. But anyway, I will tell you, home birth, once I actually did it, was the best, most sacred, most empowering decision I've ever made for myself. It was incredible. I wasn't in a bathtub. I actually didn't like the bathtub. Okay. Everybody associates home birth with I. I always. The tub.
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B
Okay?
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A
I didn't like the tub. As soon as I put my foot in there, I was like, wait, this is, like, buoying me up. I'm trying to get the baby out. But what I did, and this was, thank God. My midwife told me when I was begging her for epidural beforehand, she was like, there are other ways. There are natural pain relief methods, like the shower. She called the shower a liquid epidural. And so up until birth, I was just taking her word for it. But I'm telling you, she was not lying. Like, the liquid epidural of being in a shower during labor put me in a trance. Every vision I ever had of childbirth where, like, the woman is screaming and it just feels like an emergency, it seems so crazy, and she seems like she's in so much pain. That was what I was afraid of. And that's why I was like, take me out. Give me the epidural. I don't want to experience that. But what I realized is doing birth at home in the safety of my space, in my shower, which is where I labored silently for seven hours, I felt like I was meditating.
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B
Wow.
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A
I didn't speak for probably 10 hours.
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B
Wow.
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A
And I didn't know that was possible. And I'm not saying it didn't hurt, but it was like the pain was teaching me. It was like telling me what to do. I was riding the waves, and it was gradual, and it felt, like, familiar. It started as kind of like cramps, like, period cramps. And Then it built gradually, and it just felt like way more doable than anybody ever taught me. And then literally, by the time I came out of the shower, I'm telling you, Brooke, I was in the shower for, like, seven hours with Jonathan, just letting the, like, liquid epidural do its thing. Deep in meditation. I felt like such a queen. There's this one moment I will tell my grandchildren till the day I die. I remember sitting there and was starting to get intense, and I might. My face kind of, like, grimacing, and I was like. And then Jonathan, he was, like, sitting, kneeling, looking at me, watching me go through this. And then there was this thought that I had because I felt like I was in meditation. So I felt like I had this download where I just felt like a message of, just ride the waves. Don't go under, so don't even react to the pain. Try that. Like, every impulse to, like, grimace or frown or tighten my hands, just breathe instead. Just breathe instead. And it reminded me of, like, my Pilates class where, you know when it gets, like, crazy and you just want to be like. And they're like, keep it pretty.
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B
Keep it pretty.
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A
So I was just like, keep it pretty, bitch. And so I had just a mindset shift. And Jonathan's watching me for, like, 10 minutes. And at some point, he finally breaks the silence, and he's like, babe, do you think you're gonna have another contraction soon? Because he's starting to get worried. He's just watching me sit here. And I just took, like, this deep breath. I was like, I just had three. I was like, I am the baddest bitch. I'm sorry, Mom. Sure, you're.
- [23:04]
B
Of you, that's pretty badass. It is.
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A
It's like, she got to give you that three.
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B
Like, yeah, not even one.
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A
You know what I'm saying?
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B
Yeah.
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A
He can't even tell.
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B
Right?
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A
Right. And. And then when I came out of the shower, they sat me down on the birth stool, and I'm telling you, Brooke, I pushed maybe six times.
- [23:22]
B
Wow.
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A
Your midwife said two or three. I'm telling you, all of a sudden, this nine pound, juicy baby boy lands in my arms, and I'm like, not a scream from either of us. The most beautiful, peaceful, sacred experience. And I'm like, oh, you can't tell me that I'm not a super human.
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B
Yes.
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A
And that awareness has carried me. That has been such a shift in my life. How I approach work, how I approach disappointment, how I approach frustration. I'm like, I pushed out a nine pound baby Unmedicated on my bedroom floor. This is nothing. It really has unlocked some major understanding of my power as a woman that we all have. Yes, that I would have been numbed out for that. I would have been too drugged or too distracted by all these people I don't know coming in and out by the fluorescent lights, by the freaking IV that I'm stuck to. I wouldn't have gotten to that place of enlightenment. Like, I wouldn't have been free enough to get there. And so for me, that's what I want for anyone who wants it. You know, there's multiple ways of giving birth and I am not about creating a hierarchy or telling women how you should do it. But if you know that there's this option and it appeals to you and you want the opportunity to try to have a birth like that, insurance shouldn't be the reason you don't get to you.
- [24:50]
B
Well said. So beautiful. Thank you so much for sharing. Wow. I am so inspired every time I hear Elaine talk about her home birth experience. I hope you all enjoyed this conversation. In my final weeks, I am taking good care of my pregnant body. I saw my chiropractor this morning who specializes in working with pregnant people, which was great. I got adjustments, learned some new stretches. It gets very uncomfortable to sleep in the final in the final weeks of your pregnancy. I do have gestational diabetes again, so I have been being very mindful about what I'm eating and my diet and just trying to keep my energy up. Thank you all so much for listening. I hope you love today's conversation and I'll be back next week with more. If you're loving naked beauty, make sure that you are subscribed. New episodes every single Monday. Also check out our YouTube. Our YouTube has phenomenal video of all of these conversations, so make sure you don't miss it. All right? Bye. Bye.
- [26:03]
C
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