Maternal Wealth Podcast - Own Your Birth

Kirsty Yetter: A Transformative Journey Through Prenatal Yoga, Birth Choices, and Water Birth Empowerment

• Stephanie Theriault • Season 1 • Episode 14

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Join us on a transformative journey with Kirsty Yetter, a dedicated mother, prenatal yoga instructor, doula, and future midwife, who shares her inspiring path into prenatal yoga and birth work. Her story begins with a pivotal experience during her first pregnancy and grows through enriching encounters in India and the Peace Corps. Kirsty reveals how prenatal yoga can profoundly ease pregnancy discomforts like sciatica and offers a nurturing community that empowers women physically and mentally during pregnancy.

Navigate the complexities of birthing choices with us as Kirsty recounts her path from hospital to home birth. She shares the enlightening challenges of a 20-hour labor that transitioned to a hospital birth and how these experiences fueled her desire for a more personalized and fear-free birthing environment. With thoughtful insights, Kirsty highlights the vital role of midwives in offering holistic care that extends beyond the physical to include mental and emotional support, advocating for a birth experience that honors the unique needs of each mother and child.

We also uncover the empowering aspects of water birth and natural pain management, challenging societal norms that often instill fear of childbirth. Kirsty's personal anecdotes serve as a testament to the strength and capability of women's bodies when trusted and supported. Listen to a powerful water birth story that showcases creativity and resilience, encouraging all women to explore the vast array of birthing options available. This episode is a celebration of informed choices and the belief in one's innate ability to give birth naturally, aiming to inspire and empower listeners.

Want more of Kirsty? Check out her socials below!

Doula: @truenaturebirthservices

Yoga: @truenatureyogama

Jewelry: @whynotjewelrybykirsty



Music Credit
https://uppbeat.io/t/yokonap/bombay-dreaming
https://uppbeat.io/t/bosnow/the-way-home
https://uppbeat.io/t/hey-pluto/mi-querida
https://uppbeat.io/t/matrika/mumbai-lights

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Stephanie Theriault:

Welcome to the Maternal Wealth Podcast, a space for all things related to maternal health, pregnancy, birth and beyond. I'm your host, Stephanie Theriault. I'm a labor and delivery nurse and a mother to three beautiful boys. Each week, we dive into inspiring stories and expert insights to remind us of the power that you hold in childbirth and motherhood. We are here to explore the joys, the challenges and the complexities of maternal health. Every mother's journey is unique and every story deserves to be told. Please note that this podcast is for entertainment purposes only. It is not intended to replace professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Always consult with your healthcare provider for medical guidance tailored to your specific needs. Are you ready? Let's get into it. Welcome to the Maternal Wealth Podcast.

Stephanie Theriault:

Today, Kirsty Yetter joins us. She is a mom of three a 10-year-old, a 7-year-old and a 5-year-old. Her first birth was in a birth center, with a hospital transfer, and her other two she birthed at home. Kirsty is a prenatal yoga instructor, a doula and an inspiring midwife. Welcome, Kirsty. Hi Stephanie, thanks for having me today. Thanks for being here. I'm excited to hear your birth story, to hear more about prenatal yoga, the benefit it has for pregnant women and about your journey into midwifery.

Kirsty Yetter:

Thank you. I'm so glad to be here. It's my favorite thing to talk about birth, so I'm happy to do it with you. Thank you for inviting me.

Stephanie Theriault:

Well, you are with the right person, because I love talking about it too. So, much we can nerd out. Yes, First I would love for you to share your journey into prenatal yoga, how you got interested in that, and then the benefits it has for women while they're pregnant and benefits after Sure.

Kirsty Yetter:

Of course it's such a great question. I've been teaching prenatal yoga for about two years now. I got interested in it after, really from my teacher my prenatal yoga teacher from my first birth, my first. I was living in Western Mass at the time, Northampton area and my teacher was so incredible. She created a safe space for me while I was pregnant, had no idea how to be pregnant, what to do, started every class with a check-in to see how I was doing and how everyone was doing. So it created a space of community for all of us, as well as the movement and the breath and becoming in touch with my body.

Kirsty Yetter:

While I was pregnant, I'd already practiced and studied yoga for a long time, but prenatal yoga shifted my pregnancy greatly and so after that first I think it was about four years ago during the pandemic I did a virtual prenatal 90 hour training with her, because I'm now in Eastern Mass and she's been one of those cornerstone pillar people for me that you know. The people that kind of change your life. So it really was once my second baby was born that I knew I needed to be a birth worker and was a birth worker, and it felt like the easiest point of entry for me was through prenatal yoga, because I was already a yoga teacher. I had a yoga background and had my training that I received in India about 12, 15 years ago now. Prenatal yoga was so beneficial for me and I find it so beneficial for each one of my students and clients right now.

Stephanie Theriault:

I'm interested in learning a little bit about your training in India.

Kirsty Yetter:

How did that go? How did you end up there? It was incredible. I'm the kind of person that if I'm going to do something, I'm going to do it all in. I'm learning balance as I get older, but I was a traveler, always have been a traveler. I took time after high school to travel. I took time after college to travel.

Kirsty Yetter:

I was in the Peace Corps and then, when I was about to figure out what to kind of do with my life after the Peace Corps, my dad and stepmom moved to Cambodia and I had already traveled so much throughout the world. I went to live with them for about six months and I just had money saved up from working in restaurants. I had no plans and I'd already been deeply into yoga. I had already deeply influenced my whole self. So I figured I'm in Cambodia. Why don't I hop over to India and do a yoga training if I can find the right one?

Kirsty Yetter:

Amazingly, five of my friends from the restaurant I worked in hopped over with me. They ended up traveling through India, while I stayed with another friend in Dharamsala, where the Dalai Lama lives, for a month doing my training with the Universal Yoga Studio a wonderful man named Vijay. It was an incredible training because I feel like you can only do so much in 200 hours, but it was one month straight, every single day, day in and day out, and it felt completely immersive. And to do it in India was absolutely incredible. So I learned more about yoga and about myself during that time. It's pretty spectacular. Where were you in the Peace Corps? I was in Costa Rica.

Stephanie Theriault:

Okay, I am also a returned Peace Corps volunteer. No way, yes, I am. Where were you? That's so cool. I was in Ecuador. Are you serious? What years I was there, in 2007 to 2009. How about you? Me too?

Kirsty Yetter:

Shut up, shut up, I'm kind of crying Really. And my best friend's dad was in Ecuador also. He was the first group in 19, I think it was 63 to be in Ecuador. Oh really, oh, I'm kind of crying. Oh look, it was meant to be. It's so cool. It was meant to be Wow. Okay, I'll take that in. This is pretty special.

Stephanie Theriault:

So for prenatal yoga, I can remember when I was pregnant with my first and I had like the worst sciatica and I called my OB and they told me to take Tylenol and walk it off. Then with my second pregnancy I was a little bit more aware and I still had the sciatica and prenatal yoga really changed my life. It just it took it away. Yeah.

Stephanie Theriault:

Why is it, in modern day medicine, obstetricians do not make reference to something that is a more holistic way of healing elements such as like the aches and pains and sciatica?

Kirsty Yetter:

Such a good question. The answer is a couple fold One. I think some physicians legitimately don't know it's so heavy because it's easier to sell things like well, I mean, you know they're not selling you Tylenol, but it's easier to sell certain things or come up with a prescription and a plan, I think. But I really think it is lack of knowledge. As far as Western yoga, you know, it's really only been on the scene, for it's been on the scene since the 1920s, early 1900s, but prenatal yoga has only really made its breakthrough in the past handful of years to the mainstream. So it may be lack of knowledge, but it is so incredible how holistic it is and how easy it is. I've had people come to class with sacroiliac issues, with sciatica, deep piriformis stuff going on, deep lower back issues. I'm never going to say it's been fully relieved, right, we're pregnant, we're relaxing as coursing through our bodies, Everything gets a little more softer and gooier and floppier, and I mean that in the most beautiful wonderful way it just does.

Kirsty Yetter:

But learning that structure in your body, the alignment, moving your hips in the way that they want to be moved, without overdoing it, without pulling on those round ligaments, it is so wonderful to learn. Oh, I can just sit tall and be sort of relieved from some of this pressure, versus sitting in the car at the desk and then all the movement that we create in prenatal yoga is pretty special. So I don't know if that answers your question exactly, because I don't know the mind of a physician. I wish I did. That's so much of my journey with birth work is to attempt to educate in a kind way, because I know, as a home birther and as a prenatal yoga and just even a yoga person, I'm outside of the realm of what's normal. So I always have to be really careful about sounding like I know everything when I don't have the medical training, when I don't have this, that or the other that people hold in high regard. So I don't know. Please let's tell everyone about it.

Stephanie Theriault:

When I'm with my patient and we get to the pushing phase and I'm supporting my patient, I always go back to my prenatal yoga classes and towards the end of the class, the meditation, the imagery and focusing on softening the body. Do you also use that practice with your clients in the prenatal yoga?

Kirsty Yetter:

Absolutely. We do everything from a body scan where you notice the very tip of your head, the crown of your head, all the way down through fingertips and toes, and you go one body part at a time. The idea in prenatal yoga is the more you practice these exercises, experiential movements, the more likely you are to use them when you're in labor and need them, because to call them forward mentally pushing stage you cannot call anything forward mentally at the pushing stage, but if you've been doing it for weeks and months in prenatal yoga softening and awareness and melting we use all sorts of terminology in yoga to help connect. Some people don't connect with the term melting and they connect with surrender, they connect with softening. There's so many different ways to help the body relax and again, if you've been doing it in prenatal yoga, it is so, so helpful when you get to the pushing or even advanced to any advanced stages of labor.

Stephanie Theriault:

I like the words that you're using softening, melting because in the pushing phase so many of us think of power and strength and we need that, but we also need the softening and the melting. We need both of those to push your baby out Right. So I like that you're using those words and that imagery. I think that's really helpful.

Kirsty Yetter:

I do too. Yoga is such a great I'm just going to go on my yoga high horse right now but it's such a great opportunity for anyone who wants to define balance in their lives. And that's a great example of balance. Right, you need the strength to push and you also need to soften it. You need the masculine side, the feminine side, the light, the dark, the positive, the negative. That's how we I think that's how we live our most full lives. I love it. That's awesome.

Stephanie Theriault:

So you're a doula in training. How are you supporting women right now in your doula journey?

Kirsty Yetter:

I'm very far towards the end of my doula training. I've been in training for three years because I'm doing maybe two and a half. I'm doing an online program through Birth Arts International that I love that my midwife from my third child who I adore, she suggested I love this training says go at your own pace. And when I started I was so gung ho and then life and financials, everything got in the way. I keep getting the push to come back to it.

Kirsty Yetter:

I know that I'm a birth worker and birth worker can mean many things, but I know that I need to be supporting people in birth, not just prenatal yoga or postpartum. That's where I am with it right now and I'm so excited. I love it so much. It is so hard to be on call and it is so worth it being at a birth and helping support someone, bring their baby down and support and push and be there and be all in this primal. It is so beautiful. I know it's not for everyone and I love it so, so much. So I have one more birth to do to complete the training and then just some papers to write and things like that and books to read and then I'll be a certified doula Awesome, I know it's be a certified doula Awesome.

Stephanie Theriault:

I know it's different kinds of doulas. Are you going to be a labor doula, the postpartum doula? What is your track?

Kirsty Yetter:

Labor doula for now, postpartum later.

Stephanie Theriault:

I would love to get into your birth story. You have three children, your first one. Your plan was to have a birth at a birth story. You have three children, your first one. Your plan was to have a birth at a birth center. Was this the one here in Beverly or was it at a different birth center? Yep, beverly. Why did you decide to go the route of having your child at a birth center?

Kirsty Yetter:

That's such a good question. I've always known, like many people will say, that birth is a natural process. I have had plenty of people in my life that have done home births, in particular this dear friend that I mentioned before, whose father was in the Peace Corps. Her mother was a midwife in India and just home births like wild. She greatly influenced me.

Kirsty Yetter:

I will say I just wasn't ready for first birth, as most and many people are. Just I didn't know anything and so I thought, hey, there's a birth center. I believe my mom went to the birth center with my sister as well. She was born there, so it just felt like the right thing. So I'm compromised and I honestly, since we're talking birth, I didn't know anything. I was 30, 29, 30, and I just hadn't done all the research that I really encouraged students and clients to do. Now, as far as what that means right, that the birth center was tied to the hospital, et cetera, et cetera, which for many people is a great thing, right, quote, unquote. If something goes wrong, then we get to go to the hospital. For me, something did quote, unquote go wrong. There was meconium and at the time that was the procedure to move me over to the hospital and I'm not one of those people that will stand and say I had a traumatic birth whatsoever. The birth was beautiful. Baby boy is so special. He's 10 now. I adore him more than anything, aside from my other two.

Kirsty Yetter:

But I, just after that birth, I knew there was something more. I knew that certain way I was never mistreated, necessarily, except for I'm going to share my least favorite moment from that birth, which was you know, you're in it, it's your first birth. It's already taken hours and hours. This was at least 20 hours in. I'd just been transferred to the hospital. I was in the hospital. The midwife came over with me from the hospital and I'm laboring. I'm not paying attention to anything other than keeping myself awake and I think I may have even been pushing. I can't remember.

Kirsty Yetter:

The OB comes in at one point and she says is she naked about me? And my first thought was like, yeah, I'm naked, I'm birthing my baby. Are you kidding me? Who cares what I look like? It was so sad and, as we know I don't know the Ina May Gaskin idea that your cervix closes back up a little bit. I'm sure that caused me to be just terrified. And who the heck knows. That was the one truly bad experience. Kind of laughable now, but like, yeah, I'm naked, I'm having a baby, sorry, I didn't put a bra on for you a baby, I'm sorry I didn't put a bra on for you. It was certain things like that that I knew I can do. I knew I could do it at home. Right, you know. But I think for a lot, of, a lot of women, a lot of people, we don't know until we've done it once.

Stephanie Theriault:

With your first you pushed for. You said around 20 hours, no, you were in labor.

Kirsty Yetter:

I'm dead. Can you imagine? Let's see, I went into labor. I think for some reason for each one of my kids spicy food worked. I know it's just a myth, but for me I had a spicy meal, started feeling something other than Braxton Hicks, probably around 7 PM, and as it was my first, I had no idea. So I had no idea that I could even labor at home. I did not have a doula, obviously. I called the birth center, went in around 11, way earlier In retrospect I could have waited until the next morning. I could have tried to get some sleep. I had no idea first time mom. So I went in around 11,. Nothing was happening, of course. So in the birth center they broke my water. That was like two or three the next day and then he was born at seven. It was like 7.13 at night.

Kirsty Yetter:

Pushing was fascinating because I'd obviously not slept. I had no energy. I got into the bath. At one point heart rate dropped, as normally does with pushing or with contractions et cetera. They got me out of the bath onto the bed in the supine position, as I see as a doula, my clients a lot now.

Kirsty Yetter:

They were incredibly concerned about the heart rate dropping and they're like you need to get that baby out now. I'm going to help you, said the midwife, and help me with perineal stretching. I had to have gas, I was about to pass out. I'd been up for 20 plus hours, so I think I actually don't know how long I pushed for Two, three hours. I know in hospitals they don't really let you go past three or four, but it was hard and so earlier when I was describing, I skipped over this part, but this was the part that I knew it could have been different immediately from being transferred to the hospital and being hooked up to the monitor and the fear over the heart rate dropping, which is, to a certain degree, I understand, something we need to be aware of, but baby's heart rates drop when we go through a contract to a certain degree. So the biggest difference between my births is that there seemed to be some fear in the first one versus the second two that had no fear at all whatsoever.

Stephanie Theriault:

I'm curious how you decided to make the transition from the hospital to okay, you're pregnant again. I'm going to do this differently. Talk me through that mindset.

Kirsty Yetter:

Sure. So the second came two and a half years later and my kid's father was always opposed to the hospital anyway in general, like very strong minded and in many ways. And one of his deepest opinions is you don't go to the hospital unless you're sick. Why would we, why would we go and have a baby at the hospital. And he sort of felt that way during the first and then over the next couple of years. That idea built and built and I just knew I could do it. I knew I was going to, I knew if I was going to have another baby I was definitely going to do it at home and at this point we were living again in Western Mass. So first we were on Eastern Mass, then we went out to Western Mass because I really wanted to live in Western Mass, because I love it. I knew that there was also a plethora of home birth midwives in Western Mass and I ended up with Jarna and Kristen at River Valley Midwives in Northampton.

Stephanie Theriault:

For women who are so far removed to what a home birth looks like. You as a woman and now a mother going through that experience I would like for you to share, get an idea of what it's like Sure being seen by midwives during that second pregnancy.

Kirsty Yetter:

I went in as soon as I made the experience I would like for you to share, get an idea of what it's like, sure, being seen by midwives during that second pregnancy. I went in as soon as I made the decision. I think I started probably at yeah, I started at the hospital out in Northampton and then I made the decision somewhere around 15 to 20 weeks when we started going in to see the midwives, everything was different. The appointments were an hour plus the midwives. Everything was different. The appointments were an hour plus. There was cranial sacral involved, there was touch.

Kirsty Yetter:

There was a whole mentality, especially with this practice, that birth is healing. This is what we're looking for. Whatever things you're working on or working with, we're going to work with you to heal throughout your pregnancy and your birth so that when it comes time to actually push that baby out, you're really ready. So it's a holistic approach, which is something that I've just lived with. My mom is super holistically minded. I have an aunt who's extremely holistically minded, and then this dear friend's mom also. So it just came naturally to me to want to find that and it was exactly, plus more, what I would have hoped for. So for anyone wondering what it's like there, I mean to be able to sit down. It's almost like a therapy session. How are you Not just how you feel? Yes, blood pressure, yes, you're going to pee on the stick. Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. All that stuff, but so little focus on that more mental, emotional, spiritual side. I got really out of both my home births.

Stephanie Theriault:

For women who might be concerned because they're used to being in the clinical setting while they're pregnant, how do the midwives monitor you and the baby prenatally to ensure that things are going the way they should be?

Kirsty Yetter:

That's such a good question. That's one of my favorite questions. The short answer is in many slash, most of the same ways. So you're still going to get your blood work done if you choose some choose not to. You still do your glucose testing if you'd like. My midwives both had you pee on the stick which tells you everything about preeclampsia, et cetera, et cetera. They check your weight, your blood pressure, everything that you experience. In a more clinical setting they'll do it just might be different. They might palpate instead of measure through an ultrasound, et cetera, et cetera. But you can still get ultrasounds, you can still have all that stuff if you want it, and you can also elect not to.

Stephanie Theriault:

Moving into labor. How does labor look when you're in the home?

Kirsty Yetter:

It's so wonderful. It's your home. First of all, you can move around however you want. You're never hooked up to anything. Also, it's your own biome, which is one of the philosophies behind it. It gets so much easier to kind of mesh in with your own situation and not worry about things like infection, because you're already used to the germs in your own house. You're able to move freely.

Kirsty Yetter:

I went into labor. I had my water break three times for the second birth. It was so cool, it was so great. Who knew right? I had no idea that could even happen. The first was a pop. I laid down to go to bed or just to lay down around 6 pm that night before little pop of water tried to get some sleep. Same thing couldn't sleep. Woke up the next morning. Nothing had happened.

Kirsty Yetter:

And then, to your question, we ended up going to lunch. We live 20 minutes from town At this point. We went to lunch. I ate some spicy food. Then it finally kicked in when we got home and one of the two midwives came over. There were two midwives and there was there's a third apprentice who is just. I mean, I love these three women, but the apprentice might give her a little shout out. She's, she, just she kind of changed my life and she was the one that helped me realize that I'm definitely a birth worker. Her name is Kristen Brennan. She works in Springfield right now. She's unbelievable, but anyway. So things that kicked into gear.

Kirsty Yetter:

And to answer your question is we got home from lunch and we just watched Call the Midwife. We just sat there. My oldest had been picked up by my dad at this point, and so it was me and the kid's father and the midwife, and we're just dancing around the living room, moving around the living room, watching called the midwife. It was so great, it was so cool. So, yeah, things just look different. You get to be comfortable and do whatever you want. You can cook, you can dance. You don't have anyone watching you, necessarily aside from people that you're comfortable with, and you have these midwives that you've been meeting with for however long. And even if not, some people transfer in the last minute too. They change their mind last minute. They want a home birth.

Kirsty Yetter:

Where did you deliver your child? I was in bed. We tried to do it crazy. We tried sideline. We tried all sorts of things. We tried to fill the pool. I bought a birthing pool, or maybe no, not for this one. The midwives brought a birthing pool and we couldn't get it filled in time. There wasn't enough. We lived in this cool old house in the middle of nowhere. We didn't think about how we had well water, so we just couldn't fill it enough in time. So I ended up in bed too, which was wild, absolutely crazy.

Kirsty Yetter:

Also, in the supine position, I tried everything, hands and knees sideline forever, and nothing was working. Somehow I ended up supine with him too. I couldn't believe it was working. Somehow I ended up supine with him too. I couldn't, couldn't believe it. But it was so different there, the amount of support physically, mentally, emotionally having. Like someone was holding me up, I think, as I pushed and I was in my own bed, born in my own bed. It was so, so delightful. And he's just this little child. When he came out he looked like an old man. Immediately and hilariously, this midwife, the apprentice Kristen, she said to me immediately he looks like a middle child. If anyone were to say that to you, you'd be like oh, I don't, I'm not having an. What are you? That's the worst thing to say, but it was the perfect thing to say. I knew she was right. I don't know how to explain it, it was a spiritual thing.

Stephanie Theriault:

He just has this sweet, kind, adorable, neutral, lovely demeanor, aside from when he's really mad describe to me how it feels when the baby comes out and you're in your own home and the immediate postpartum care and newborn care oh my gosh.

Kirsty Yetter:

It's so different. They leave you completely alone. There's no talk about cord cutting. You just get to snuggle with your baby, skin to skin. I got to hold him and nurse him right away, which I know they do in the hospital nowadays too. That lot has changed, where a lot of hospitals are working towards that.

Kirsty Yetter:

Thank goodness, we got to bond, and I don't even know how long it was before a midwife came back in and said do you want to see the placenta? And it was all laid out on a cookie sheet that I had prepped. You know, for home birth you have to get all these things that you need. They laid it out and I got to see the placenta, and that was one of the ways that I knew that I was a home birther but also a birth worker. Seeing that placenta made my whole body tingle. That is the coolest thing I've ever seen in my life. My dad was sitting there and he was like I didn't think I wanted to see that placenta. You got to see it anyway. At this point he had come back, I think, with my oldest, and so he was there. But yeah, so this was at least an hour or two in. I had just had an hour or two just to snuggle and meet and talk and bond and nurse. And they help you with nursing but they also just kind of leave you alone.

Stephanie Theriault:

Which is nice, right, it's so nice.

Kirsty Yetter:

Nobody wants to be touched after they gave birth. Oh my gosh.

Stephanie Theriault:

I often hear with my patients in the hospital saying I could never do a home birth is fear of the pain management. Can you talk a little bit about what it's like to experience contraction, pain or discomfort or waves or however someone wants to describe the discomfort with the contraction in the hospital to experiencing that pain of the contraction in your own home?

Kirsty Yetter:

I can only speak to. No, I've had no drugs or interventions whatsoever Aside from that one breaking of my water in the first birth. I'm not the best person to speak about it versus right. I don't know what pain management feels like. I can just say that I am one of those people that knew I could do it. That is not to down talk anyone that doesn't feel that way. I can't explain that. I just knew that it's normal, natural. This is what people have been doing for years and years and I have to do this naturally, normally. It wasn't even like a stubborn thing, I just knew that I could and I've had plenty of clients that have had Pitocin and epidural and that is what works for them and that's wonderful.

Kirsty Yetter:

Epidurals have emerged a lot, so you can still feel the rest of your body to certain stents, so you kind of know when to push.

Kirsty Yetter:

But I can't answer that question very well, because the way I can answer it is that I know that at home managing the contractions were so much easier because I wasn't hooked up to anything so I could move however I needed to and the midwives were so deeply intuitive to help me move into ways I needed to so that the contraction was less painful in a way. So it was more like natural pain management than any sort of intervention or drug. It was just it hurts, right, it hurts so much, but being able to move around. And then we can talk about my third birth in a bit. But that was beyond anything because I got the pool set up in time. I made sure it was ready before and I got to labor pretty much the entire time active stages of labor in the pool once it was the right time to get in. So the ability to use the pool in my own living room was unbelievable to use the pool in my own living room was unbelievable.

Stephanie Theriault:

I'm curious if you felt, with the contractions, managing the pain naturally and holistically. Did you find it to be more effective in your home as opposed to in the hospital?

Kirsty Yetter:

Yeah, I can tell that's what you're trying to get at. Absolutely, because I wasn't hooked up to anything. I could move as I needed to and I had so many more options I had places in my home that I knew I could go to to move. And yes, I mean the short answer is absolutely Because I had more options and because I wasn't hooked up. Yeah, I think that's the best way to answer it, and I didn't have people looking at me that didn't know. That's just the biggest. That was the biggest thing, I think. I mentioned earlier that my water broke three times. The second time it broke, I think it broke all over someone's foot and that was like the big movie gush. And I had another one four or five hours later another huge big movie gush. It was wild. I didn't even know that could happen. I think it broke over someone's foot, but I knew these people and it was fine.

Stephanie Theriault:

That's a good point when you say having people look at you, they don't know how to help natural, holistic pain management because in nursing school that's not taught to us clearly clinical. So even coming from the perspective of a labor and delivery nurse, none of my training is how to holistically manage pain. I know how to keep patients safe with epidural, with nitrous oxide, with IV push medication, but holistic management I never received that training. So for a woman who are in the hospital setting, having a doula is great or having a midwife they're the experts in helping patients manage holistically in the hospital. Like you said, at home your midwives know how to help you movement and being. I'm sure there's other ways, like in the water, that they're able to not take away that pain but to help you manage the pain in the best of your ability and their ability.

Kirsty Yetter:

Yes, it's managing the pain, but also using the pain, because I know there are some people that experience painless births. I've heard of them and I have a friend who has. But more than that, that is what the midwives do. They help you, say this contraction will bring you closer to baby. They know this because they've been doing it for thousands of years thousands. There were no OBs 400 years ago. They didn't exist. The midwifery model has been driven down generation to generation to generation, first verbally.

Kirsty Yetter:

One of the greatest skills a midwife can have is patience, just understanding that I don't have to intervene, right? Like you said, nurses, obs. What taught me to move away from OBs is that they're trained in surgery. I want an OB if I know I need a C-section for some reason, right. My question of whether I actually need that C-section is questionable, right? That's a whole other topic we can talk about another day. I'm sure you'll get into that on this podcast. But I want a midwife if I know I can do it right?

Kirsty Yetter:

Part of it, too, is getting to the place where you know you can do it, because we live in a culture where we're taught that we can't, that birth is fearful and that birth is scary and yes, it hurts, but nothing else about it is scary. That pain serves to do something and the midwife will be there to look you in the eye and say you've got this. Take that, rest in between, breathe into it, come back to yourself which is what we do in prenatal yoga a lot. Come back to yourself, find that center space and then do it again, and that next one is just going to bring you that much closer to your baby.

Stephanie Theriault:

I love it. That resonates with me so much, and thanks for saying that, because it's true. It's about having people around you that believe in you, that you can save yourself, that you don't need someone else to save you. Exactly.

Kirsty Yetter:

Your body was meant to do this. There's so much fear around the pelvis being too small. I'm a small woman. I'm five feet tall and a hundred something pounds. I'm teeny. My babies were six pounds and seven pounds, which is a normal size, and there was no problem. All those fear tactics, you know. Yes, there's shoulder dystocia and things like that. Those are few and far between.

Stephanie Theriault:

I'd like for you to talk about the experience of giving birth in the tub.

Kirsty Yetter:

I just really wanted to do it. I think that was kind of a stubborn thing. I know it's kind of superfluous, but part of it, honestly, was pain management, because I knew the first two births had hurt so much During my second birth. What I didn't mention is that my birth stalled for a while. That was before, I think before or after we went to lunch. It stalled for a long time and I realized once we were sent out to go for a walk in the woods by the midwife that my birth is stalling because I'm remembering how much it hurt and I don't want that to happen.

Kirsty Yetter:

So when I made the decision to do the home birth, I thought I know that I've heard that it's just beautiful to birth your baby in the water and that's something I would like to try anyway. I didn't get to do it with the second birth, so I want to try it for this third. And also I know that it's going to alleviate some of the pain, and being the birth nerd that I am and then Instagram at this point was a big thing. I had spent the past two years in between these two births the second and the third looking at all these home birth videos in the water and hearing and educating myself, not just through Instagram but other ways, about how it really helped to alleviate the pain, as long as you got in at the right time. And so, first, two births, kind of failed water attempts, right, and I just knew I wanted to do it. So I bought this ridiculously large I didn't know I could have bought like a five foot pool. I bought like a 15 foot pool, the whole friggin living room, and here I am having the water, having broken, filling it up. I didn't buy a pump, so I figured out that if you cut a Sprite bottle which I wasn't drinking Sprite, I don't know where it came from If you cut a Sprite bottle and attach it to a hairdryer, you can fill this frigging thing up in the middle of the living room.

Kirsty Yetter:

Having gone through, I was going through tons of contractions, so I was like I'm stubborn, I'm going to make this, I'm making fun of myself. I wasn't really stubborn, I just really wanted to have a water birth, so I'm filling this thing up as I'm in contractions. My mom was there, my best friend was there, she was my quote unquote doula. This was way before the midwife showed up and the birth was so incredible because I had spent a bunch of time. I think I went through that same fear of it's going to hurt. So I laid down in bed and my best friend and I sat in bed. I lay down on my left side, she sat there and she read me the Enneagram book so we could figure out our Enneagram types. So I'm like, oh, I think you're this, I think you're that, I think you're that.

Kirsty Yetter:

By the time I stood up, this was something like 11 o'clock at night, after water having broken at 4 PM, uh, 11 PM, I stood up and I then I proceeded to sit on the toilet for the next 45 minutes and hum to myself, which I have to bring in because I teach a lot of humming, which is called Bromery breath and yoga in prenatal yoga and in regular yoga, because it helps calm your nervous system and also really helps to bring baby down. So I did. I hummed for 45 minutes and then, after I got off the toilet, things had really kicked into gear, so I got into the tub. It was perfectly warm. The midwives were there. This is back here now in the in Beverly, my wonderful, wonderful midwife give her a shout out Lauren Olson, sidford. Um, she was there and being in the tub was immediate relief, not full relief. I don't want to ever give the tub that sort of there's never full relief. I guess I don't know, I can't say, can never, say never. But the levity that, the heaviness that your belly, how, when your belly weighs you down, when you're also going through a contraction, adds so much pressure, extra pressure, right, and so that levity.

Kirsty Yetter:

I basically just went from one position to another, leaning onto the back of the tub, turning around to all fours, and then, when it was time, I knew that it was time to shift. I turned back around onto all fours and I lifted one knee up and I birthed them myself. I just that it was time to shift. I turned back around onto all fours and I lifted one knee up and I birthed him myself. It was so incredible. I got to reach down, grab my baby, pull him up immediately to my chest. The best feeling in the world.

Kirsty Yetter:

And then here this is a great kind of myth debunker he didn't make a sound for a while and we were like what? I was holding him into my body so tight, because I was so excited that it happened and the midwife couldn't see the cord was wrapped around his neck twice. So once she saw she looped her hands in. I mean, this was a matter of seconds, right, she looped her hand in, unlooped the cord. He cried and immediately nursed All this fear again around. You know, cords wrapped around so we need to C-section that kind of stuff. It was none of that and again, I don't want to sound like someone. You had a baby that way. That's how it is and that's perfect and fine. Just like to offer that there are other ways of looking at this, because it worked out perfectly. Having a baby in a tub was so, it was so incredible.

Stephanie Theriault:

Thank you for sharing, because this is exactly why I'm doing this podcast for women to share their stories in sisterhood, so other women can hear the beauty and the empowerment, the variety of options that are out there for us to choose, as opposed to this top down mentality of providers telling us what birth and the experience of labor should be. Thank you so much for sharing that story, because it is beautiful and it is empowering and we do have options available to us.

Kirsty Yetter:

Yes, thank you for doing this work. It's really, really important. I think it's work like this that people recognize that they have options and empowers them to choose. So thank you.

Stephanie Theriault:

To be honest with you, it's healing for me too, because as a birth worker in the hospital, I've seen a lot things that I agree with and things that I don't agree with, so hearing these stories heals my soul too. So thank you.

Kirsty Yetter:

You're so welcome. Thank you for the work you do. I've worked with so many incredible nurses as a doula in training. They're doing so much work and also, not only are they doing work to take care of the birthing person, but on top of that, they're also monitoring so much right Because of the way that the hospital system is set up triple fold doing so much work. So thank you for that work.

Stephanie Theriault:

Is there anything else you would like to add before we sign off?

Kirsty Yetter:

Oh, just if I'm talking to a greater community of birth people, birth interested, you know maternal wealth, interested folks trust your body, trust yourself. You don't have to have that internal innate knowing, like I know, like I'm going to be a birth worker, I'm meant to be it's like a spiritual handed down thing. But know and trust that you have so many options and educate yourself. Educate yourself as much as you can. Ask why this intervention, ask why this test. It doesn't mean you have to say no to them, but you know you have options. It is my hope someday. I'm not in midwifery training but I do want to do that someday so that I can be another option on the North shore, because there are. There are options around. I think we need a few more home birth midwives on the North Shore. Know that I'll be there for you, if you're listening, in a few years.

Stephanie Theriault:

For your work as a doula. Do you currently have a site? If women want to reach out to you, how can they find you?

Kirsty Yetter:

Sure, it's just getting starting because I'm in training on Instagram. It platforms at maternal underscore wealth on Instagram and maternal wealth on Facebook.

Speaker 2:

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