In this week’s podcast, Gina and Nedra talk about the cultural shift surrounding home and birth center births.

Despite the increased popularity of community birth (which includes home and birth center births), it still represents a very small minority of births in the US. In this episode we discuss a number of ideas around normalizing countercultural practices that are common in our community such as home and birth center birth, breastfeeding/chestfeeding, or opting out of procedures and interventions such a circumcision.

• How the cultural perception of community birth has changed over recent years
• The learning curve of shifting language
• Centering the status quo
• The normalization of interventions
• The history behind the discrediting of midwives
• Midwives as the foundational maternity care providers
• Financial and insurance-driven decision making
• The failings of the US maternity system, particularly for people of color
• Integration of midwifery care in the US
• The importance of specialty care and interprofessional collaboration
• Professionalism of midwifery care
• Third-party reimbursement
• And our call to action: share your story and create consumer demand!