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Light a candle and find your inner goddess with us.
Co-hosts Danielle Schleese and Briana Donaldson want to break the taboo of women’s health and wellbeing. From intimacy to parenting, women are constantly shamed for their inability to measure up to standards they never had a say in setting. On Honey Toast, these subjects find their home among incense, deep-dive conversations, and two best friends. From journal challenges to goddess calls, Briana and Danielle are always finding new ways to help you embrace your natural beauty — inside and out.
Welcome back to Honey Toast. What if the real trauma isn't the birth, but the system that surrounds it? And what if birth isn't just about babies, but about power, lineage, and everything we've been taught to forget? We are in the thick of our seasons of initiations, The thresholds that women cross that change everything, and there may be no threshold that's more raw, more silent, and more misunderstood than birth. Today, we are joined by Emmy Robin.
Danielle Schleese:Emmy is a birth worker, a somatic trauma coach, and the author of faithful beginnings, which just became a number one bestseller this year. She's helped countless women and couples heal from birth trauma, reclaim their confidence, and even prepare what she calls redemption births. Her work is all about restoring trust in the body, in birth, and in parts of us that were never broken to begin with. So before we dive into all of the deeper questions around trauma, systems, and power, I wanna give Emmy a chance to bring us into her world a little bit. Thanks so much for joining us today, Emmy.
Danielle Schleese:We're so happy and excited to have you here today.
Emmy Robbin:Thanks for having me.
Danielle Schleese:Yeah. So can you just let us know a little bit about your transition into the work that you did? Was it, like, a personal experience that got you into this work, or what was it that made you realize that birth is not just pushing on a baby and having a child?
Emmy Robbin:Yeah. I mean, I guess it's, like, it's a culmination of just pretty much my whole life. I really feel that God led me to this work, and it just is kind of I was a massage therapist. I got my massage therapist license when I was 19. My mom ran a home daycare my whole life.
Emmy Robbin:I was a nanny in my 20s. My sister was a doula for many, many years, long before I even thought about having I've always kind of been surrounded by being fascinated with anatomy and physiology and then also with babies and just kind of changing diapers and diapers until I was 18, you know, with my mom running a home daycare. And so I kind of just saw like the of all the postpartum stuff, like the normalcy of newborn stuff and, you know, into toddlerhood and like what's actually normal, right? So that's a lot of my work as well is like really kind of easing women into like this is normal. But like going into the birth part of it, I actually never wanted to have kids, surprise, surprise, growing up in a home daycare.
Emmy Robbin:Like my mom running a home daycare.
Briana Donaldson:Maybe you had a mental day. Good.
Emmy Robbin:Right? It's like, yeah. I took care of kids my whole life. I don't think I want to have kids. And but I always loved serving people.
Emmy Robbin:I'm a people pleaser by nature. I want to take care of people. I'm a nurturer. And again, like I said, I was a massage therapist for well over twenty years now. And so I've been fascinated with the human anatomy and physiology and yeah, just how we're made.
Emmy Robbin:I've been a naturopath and all of that for a long time too. So I've always kind of not really gone to the medical establishment whenever I would get sick. And so I met my husband when I was 30. We didn't decide to have children until I was 37 and had my first kid at 38. Thought I was being natural by doing the birth center route.
Emmy Robbin:Looking back at that birth, I realized I had a lot of the same experiences as the women that I helped through birth trauma. I was gaslit, manipulated into kinda not trusting my body and kind of going their route, and down the spiral I went. And I ended up in a C section with my first daughter. I was really kind of convinced that my body couldn't birth her because she was so big and whatever. And, you know, I had been a doula at that time.
Emmy Robbin:I had started doing doula work. My sister really inspired me actually to do it. And I was like, well, hey, when I got pregnant I was like, I want to learn everything about birth. And it made me like, okay, now I want to like attend births before I have my own. So I had attended a couple like really amazing births before I had my own.
Briana Donaldson:Amazing.
Emmy Robbin:And so I like went into my own birth like thinking it was just going to be amazing and perfect and just like the ones that I had supported. Right? And it was a big wake up call for me. And then really dove into wanting to understand exactly what happened. And through doing that, I really saw the systematic propaganda, the that it just women are constantly being told that they're broken.
Emmy Robbin:And so I kind of became the VBAC doula in Austin, and I helped so many women have amazing VBACs. Amazing. And I never thought I wanted another one after that first experience, but then I was like, You know what? I'm gonna do it. And at 41, I had my second daughter here at home, and it was amazing, incredible, empowering.
Emmy Robbin:Now I sit with women in sovereign births, so women who want a free birth, but they just want kind of like a wise woman or a birth keeper. And so my it's kind of just getting deeper and deeper and deeper and deeper into the trust of us and our body. And and my I do believe that my first birth was I'm so grateful for it now. Like, looking back, I have so much gratitude because I would never be who I am now if I just had like this amazing five hour hypnobirthing
Danielle Schleese:birth
Emmy Robbin:as my first birth. I would just be like that doula that's like, Okay, I'm going to keep doing hospital and keep doing this. And like I wouldn't be this like fierce advocate trying to wake wake up, just wake up, you know? But yeah, that's, in a nutshell, that's kind of me and how I got started and kind of where I've come.
Briana Donaldson:So as you mentioned, a lot of your work obviously is in birth trauma, having come from having an experience of your own and witnessing that. Do you would you say in your experience that birth trauma can be a multitude of different things and it doesn't necessarily mean that you've had to have given birth to have experienced some type of birth trauma?
Emmy Robbin:Oh, yeah, absolutely. I mean, to physically experience birth trauma, you know, as a pregnant woman, as a laboring mother, you know, that's one thing.
Briana Donaldson:Right.
Emmy Robbin:And then as babies, we can experience birth trauma. So how your birth was with your own mother and her birth with her mother, because we were technically in our mother and our grandmother, right? And so generationally we are experiencing these things and our nervous system is so guided by how we are, developed in pregnancy and how our mother's nervous system is while she's growing us and then how we are birthed. So yeah, we can experience birth trauma before even having our own babies. And a lot of times I will find if we don't do the work and break down our own births, like how we were born if it was traumatic, we carry that into our birth with our babies.
Emmy Robbin:But also a lot of the work that I do as well with women who are on their conception journey is I will break down traumatic birth stories that they've heard. I'll have them I'll say, Tell me the craziest birth trauma story you've ever heard. You know, your best friend, your cousin, your sister, whatever it may be. Just tell it to me the way that they've told it to you, and we can go through it and I can break it down and kind of fill in the blanks. And I can kind of tell you, you know, what could have happened here.
Emmy Robbin:I'm not going to be a 100% accurate, but I'm usually pretty close. Right. Yeah, and through doing that, I can break down just hearsay, just traumatic birth stories that are just kind of told to us. Because as women, when your belly starts showing when you're pregnant, you'll be in the grocery store and somebody will just come up to you and just tell you their traumatic birth story. Like, oh, I just hope that doesn't happen to you.
Emmy Robbin:I just wanted to It's like, stop doing that.
Briana Donaldson:The signature phrase I feel like when you're a
Emmy Robbin:pregnant woman that you hear constantly is, well, just wait until or just wait. Yeah.
Danielle Schleese:There's always a
Emmy Robbin:You'll just wait be wanting that epidural.
Briana Donaldson:Yeah. Okay. Yeah.
Emmy Robbin:That's the I
Briana Donaldson:will wait until we're there. Yeah. I think that that's some really good insight because I think that oftentimes in our society, we do relate that term. And the whole concept and the whole world of birth trauma only around mothers that are giving birth or in labor. And so thank you for clarifying.
Briana Donaldson:I think that it's really good for people to hear that it's possible to have these experiences that are literally, you know, traumatic experiences from the time that you're born yourself that can carry through your life. So You
Danielle Schleese:may not even realize it or connect it. For sure. You know? Yeah. Well, a lot of times we don't.
Danielle Schleese:So my question for you, Emmy, is why do you think that it's so normalized for women to disassociate when it comes to being in labor and and actually shamed in culture to do that when we're not in labor? Like medicate and disassociate when it's actually shunned in any other situation, really.
Briana Donaldson:Right. And yet when you're in labor, they're like It's encouraged, really. Right. Just disassociate.
Danielle Schleese:Yeah. Why do you think that is?
Emmy Robbin:Yeah. Oh my gosh. Such a great question. It's all it really is all rooted in fear and propaganda and kind of the sales pitch, right, on, you're not going to win a trophy for having an unmedicated birth. Like, what do you who are you trying to prove this to?
Emmy Robbin:You know what I mean? And then also, you know, the woman that's just, you know, give me the epidural, give me the drugs, let me be so doped out so that I don't feel it, that I do disassociate. But the reason somebody would want that is out of fear. It all goes back to fear because they don't actually understand the benefits of undisturbed physiological birth. And that's the, that's really the message that I teach is because when you, You can tell somebody all day long, like, you know, you don't need to disassociate.
Emmy Robbin:You don't even need to have a pain free birth. Like, I can't stand that either. Like, that's not something to strive for. We're supposed to feel God created us to feel the pain of childbirth so that we can go into that and get through it. And by surrendering to that, you meet your baby, but you also meet yourself.
Emmy Robbin:And if you disassociate at any point in your birth or you seek to not feel it anymore, I can tell you from working with thousands of women at this point that carries over into your postpartum. It really does. And so if you're seeking validation or you're seeking someone to tell you what to do in birth, you're going to be doing the same thing postpartum. And if you're numbing yourself out in birth and you're disassociating, the same thing's going to happen postpartum. It really does lead to PPA and PPD.
Emmy Robbin:There's something physiological, biological, hormonal that we are supposed to complete a complete cycle in birth and go through it and not escape it and not disassociate and not try to squeeze a comb so that we can feel the pain somewhere else. Even those things frustrate me. I'm like, no, you don't. You go into it. You go into it.
Emmy Robbin:If you really understand what's happening and how cool it is, fear is actually what's creating all that tension intensity. Right? I don't even say the word pain. It's intense. It's intense.
Emmy Robbin:Birth is intense and it's supposed to be. And you go into that. And if you try to escape that, you're not going to meet yourself. You're not going to feel the completion. That's the best way I could say it is.
Emmy Robbin:It's like a cycle of a completion. And women who end up in C section, women who get the epidural, women who it's just you there's something that doesn't quite feel complete. Like you feel this beautiful, Yay, I feel a bond with my baby. I love it. I loved my birth.
Emmy Robbin:It was great. But there's also something different and powerful and I think that's where the free birth movement comes from because these women have had the birth without the complete cycle and then they have the birth with the complete cycle. And this isn't like you have to free birth to have it. No. You just have to go in and meet yourself and not disrupt it and not disconnect.
Emmy Robbin:And you have there's a completion cycle that our nervous system has to do, and it's the same thing in birth. And so women who disassociate or try to escape the pain, I'll find that their body is stuck in confusion. So when I work with women with birth trauma, they're stuck in freeze, really. So there's fight, flight, freeze, and fawn. They're stuck in freeze.
Emmy Robbin:They're just confused. They don't know they're confused. They're just like, I don't trust my body. My body was broken. You know what I mean?
Emmy Robbin:Like, I don't know if I could have done it without the epidural. Don't know if I It's like they're so just disconnected. And the breastfeeding, the bond with baby, it's just very powerful to stay present in your body. And I do believe having a doula, really that's what I learned as a doula, to really help women stay present in their body Mhmm. And, like, understand the process so that they can enjoy it.
Emmy Robbin:Yeah. They can enjoy the intensity and not run from it. You Right.
Danielle Schleese:And we see that kind of initiations in society. It kind of completes that cycle because we medicate for initiations in society. Like menstrual cramps is initiation like getting your first period. What do we normally do? Pop a Tylenol or an Advil to suppress that pain rather than going through it or understanding the body from another level like where you know, we've talked a lot about PCOS in previous episodes and symptoms of PMS and why we get those things.
Danielle Schleese:And it's it's about going deeper and listening into the self. And really, that's no different than when what you're describing when you're in labor and going through childbirth. So it's it's beautifully well rounded and all interconnected.
Briana Donaldson:Yeah. Yeah. And, you know, listening to you talk about that and listening to the comparison of the different experiences, it's really sounding like, and correct me if I'm wrong, but it's almost like the birth trauma isn't really a personal trauma. It's almost like a systemic trauma. Like the traumatized you without you even knowing that it was probably happening.
Briana Donaldson:Yeah. With the greenwashing, the bypass or sorry, not greenwashing, the bypassing Yeah. The
Danielle Schleese:manipulation techniques. I think I think that resonates with a lot more women than we think and it's quite normalized. And this is a movement because for my own personal birth experience, I've had something very similar to you, Emmy, where my first one I wanted to go into it like, oh, you know, I'm I got this. I can do it. Now, I haven't been around babies the way that you had or seen birth really at all.
Danielle Schleese:Mhmm. I mean, the only person I knew that gave birth was you Yeah. At that time, other than my older sister, far beyond. But my point is is that at the time, I was just I didn't really question it until after it was done reflecting back. And then to me, it was considered a successful birth because that's what I was told.
Danielle Schleese:But Right. That will go into one of our further questions down the road. But is it, you know, is your birth really considered successful if other people are telling you it's successful to you if it didn't meet your your ideals. Right? So Or that cycle.
Danielle Schleese:Yeah. Sorry. Think I was cutting out one of your questions or No.
Briana Donaldson:No. It it all ties together. I think that exactly what you were saying is an extremely valid question.
Danielle Schleese:Like What was my question again? I forget. I just went off my
Emmy Robbin:own stairs. I mean, y'all's point is so it's really it's true because like that's the thing is, you know, a lot of people when you say birth trauma, you think like, Oh, she ended up in an emergency section or Oh, something happened to her or Oh, something happened to her baby. Right? That's what you think of when you think of birth trauma. But that's not it.
Emmy Robbin:It's like, for example, a mother that I'm working with now, her midwives have literally been talking about the size of her babies since she was like twenty two weeks pregnant. And I'm like, this isn't like, this is crazy. Right. And they keep forcing her to try to drink the glucolla, take and the glucose she's like, I pricked my finger and the blood work is everything's coming back good. Like my numbers are not spiking.
Emmy Robbin:I'm looking great. Why do I need to drink this drink? You know? And it got to the point where it was so combative back and forth. And she was just like, the whole reason I hired you guys is because I don't want to be treated like the hospital.
Emmy Robbin:I feel like that's what I'm getting right now is like you guys are telling me that I have to take this test for you guys. And I'm telling you no, and you won't accept no. And you it's like they sugarcoat it and then the next the next appointment they'll bring it back up. They'll bring it back up. And I'm like, that's they're like gaslighting you.
Emmy Robbin:Yeah. Like, and so they made her sign like an AMA or not just like a
Briana Donaldson:An NDA saying Your
Emmy Robbin:baby could die. Right. I remember. You were refusing to take this test. I had to do that
Danielle Schleese:too for both of my daughters.
Emmy Robbin:Was planning for my last birth
Danielle Schleese:saying like, I'm like, I don't want to do I don't want this. I can't remember what it was, but the midwives are at the house checking if everything's going to be this baby gate. How fast can we rip this down so a stretcher can get up here? Was like, what does a stretcher need to get up here for? This looks like a good surface for resuscitation.
Danielle Schleese:I'm like, why are we talking about resuscitation? Yeah. It was always about the preparation for the negative. Yeah. I never felt once when I was working with a specific set of midwives, to support it in the way that I wanted to rather than being prepared for all the risks that could happen.
Briana Donaldson:Right.
Danielle Schleese:And also, this was my second time going into it. So I didn't actually have any midwives present when I gave birth to my daughter. It was it was with a childbirth practitioner and doula as well. And it was more of that calm setting, but I there was a part of me that was, like, still holding on to that fear because they were along for the ride up until the moment I was in labor. And I was like, nope.
Danielle Schleese:I don't need them. I don't wanna call them because they've provided nothing but fear. And similar to the story you just told, measuring me constantly every day, like pushing ultrasounds because my belly didn't meet me. And, you know, I was really becoming educated this round. Was like, I know my rights.
Danielle Schleese:Can we get another test or like another opinion? These are subjective. You're measuring with your fingers. And then I eventually was like, why am I What does it matter? You know, am I preparing for?
Danielle Schleese:And at the end of the day, it was it was Yeah. A chord to let go of. It's scary.
Emmy Robbin:Yeah.
Danielle Schleese:But it's it's like reclaiming a part of yourself. Like Yeah. By going into that fear and trusting yourself. Like, it's like saying you trust yourself in a different way.
Briana Donaldson:So Well, I would say that a great lead up question to that is in your professional experience, how would you guide one of your clients into learning how to let go of those things, learning how to let go of the fear and step into the power of the experience?
Emmy Robbin:You you I mean, that's great question because that's that's literally what I do. So I I have a I do like a free two hour reclaim birth masterclass and it's not just for like birth trauma women, it's for women in their conception phase with their first baby. But really what I do is I run through conception, being pregnant, how to stay healthy from nutrition, hydration, all the things that you can do to prepare your body for birth, right? And then going inward to faith by not seeking outside validation for everything because the more we do that, the more you're going to just heighten all of your cortisol is going to be I mean, like, yeah, you can do an anatomy scan. Make sure that the organs are on the inside of the body, all the organs are growing beautifully.
Emmy Robbin:And, yeah, your baby's great, developing perfectly. Cool. All right. All right. You know, what else do we need?
Emmy Robbin:You don't need to do a position one. You don't need to it's like there's just so much, and I go over each test, each thing, benefits and risks. It's all about informed consent, and there is no such thing as informed consent anymore. People don't give that. So I feel like if you teach people the benefits and risks of each thing that they're going to be offered in pregnancy, right, and then leading up to labor, if you can teach a woman and her husband, you have to teach the partner.
Emmy Robbin:It cannot just be a woman in this by herself and her husband's just going to go along for the ride. That's like the best way to, like, be
Briana Donaldson:manipulated into a situation you weren't prepared for.
Emmy Robbin:1000%. And the man's role is to protect you and protect that space. And the more a man can step into that role, I'm telling you, man, it's like, it's sexy. And postpartum, you're going to remember that. You're going to remember how your husband showed up for you.
Emmy Robbin:But that's what I really love to do is teach couples, teach them both together, the benefits of undisturbed physiological birth. Because if you can hold on to the benefits of things, then everything else just sounds icky. It's like, why am I going to do that? I'm going to mess with this. Right?
Emmy Robbin:And it all starts really with learning about the nervous system. What's the first thing that develops when we create a human life? It's the nervous system. Your spinal cord, your brain, that's the first thing that develops when a sperm meets an egg. And it is the most important thing to nurture and take care of as you are growing that human.
Emmy Robbin:Yes, like, okay, you don't want to give your kid diabetes. Okay, cool. Let's teach about the benefits of eating higher protein, lower carb, staying well hydrated, not eating all this sugar and movement and mindfulness and it all goes together. And if you really just nurture all of that, birth will work. It will work and it will be beautiful and it'll be transformative and your baby will come out super amazing and healthy, right?
Emmy Robbin:Like if you put the if you put all the dots together, it'll work. And if it doesn't work, then that was God, And you can't control that. And so it's about teaching about letting go of control, teaching about surrender, teaching about faith over fear, and teaching about undisturbed physiological birth. Not I am a childbirth educator, certified childbirth educator, right? I let that license go because what that was was indoctrination.
Emmy Robbin:I realized so long after teaching this course for three years, the first three years of my doula career, that I was indoctrinated. And in turn, when I was teaching this childbirth course, I was indoctrinating other people. Like, early labor is one to four, active is four to seven, transition is seven. It's like, what is that? That's seeking cervical checks.
Emmy Robbin:You have to have a cervical check-in order to know those numbers. So I was like, I don't want to teach evidence based education anymore. Right? So it's just kind of all of that. It's like you have to, like, get rid of all the again, back to the beginning.
Emmy Robbin:You have to get rid of that systematic propaganda that Yeah. Just You have to rewire everything. Shoved in us. Yeah. That's that's not light work to do.
Emmy Robbin:It's It's a complete unlearning.
Danielle Schleese:It is an unlearning. So what really is the difference between trauma and training when they're both institutionalized? So like for instance, in the army, there's really aggressive techniques for training which would actually be seen as abuse in some situations, but it's for the greater good. So I find that such like a fine, funny, hypocritical barrier line. Like, what what do you think about that?
Emmy Robbin:I mean, yeah. I wouldn't if we're talking about like obstetric abuse and obstetric training. Kind
Danielle Schleese:of like leading from your last thought about your certifications and what you noticed was indoctrination versus actually helping somebody. Right.
Emmy Robbin:Yeah. And even midwifery indoctrination. I feel like we are really we used to just kind of be the neighbor, right? Like it was, you learned about birth by being at your sister's births and your neighbor's births and your aunt's births. And now we're just, we have to as a doula, right, like, women think they have to get a certification.
Emmy Robbin:You don't have to get a certification to be a support person, but I thought I did. I thought I I thought I needed to get all of these certifications, this breastfeeding certificate, like, everything. And it's like through doing that, all it was was indoctrinating me. Yeah. It was basically getting me to be compliant with the system.
Emmy Robbin:So you know what a doula is, right? Once you get this certification, you can't question the provider. You have to always listen to the provider. You can't give medical advice because you're a doula. You don't have MD next to your name because you're a doula.
Emmy Robbin:You can't give medical advice. And through that, it's kind of stay in your place. You're the support person, you're the patient advocate, but you can't speak up. So it was like it was systematic abuse. But even more so, like the conditioning that happens in obstetrics throughout pregnancy, too.
Emmy Robbin:It's like cervical checking a woman leading up to her labor. That is trauma. And somebody might not see it as that. You know, they might just be like, Oh, it's like getting a Pap smear or whatever. You know, I'm just going to spread my legs and they're going to stick their hand in my cervix and tell me if I'm dilated or not at thirty five weeks.
Danielle Schleese:Or get a sweep to brush it along, you know?
Emmy Robbin:Yeah. Mean, that's another topic. I mean, what is it going to tell you at 35, thirty six, thirty? And they're just getting a cervical check every week because the OB is teaching them to do that. Yeah.
Emmy Robbin:But it's like it's abuse. That's what it is, is it's abuse. And the body sees it as traumatic. You know what I mean? Like, imagine if it was another hole and they were like, We're just going to stick my finger in your bum hole.
Emmy Robbin:It's like, for what? It doesn't tell you Yeah, any exactly. It tells you nothing.
Danielle Schleese:Is it still in there?
Briana Donaldson:Yeah, okay.
Emmy Robbin:Yeah, exactly. It's when you learn about how crazy these trainings are, right? Like whether it's training to be a doula, training to be a midwife, because they have to go through a school that is ACOG accredited too. So they're learning the same
Briana Donaldson:Same protocol.
Emmy Robbin:Stuff that OBs are learning. And that's why, you know, they get a little nervous if you start to go past 41 or 42. It's like there's What are you doing? Castor oil? Oh, okay.
Emmy Robbin:Just because it's like a more natural pitocin, it's still poison. Why are you why are you even doing that? Why are you cervical checking? Why are you stretch and sweeping? Why are you doing these things to women that is literally just causing trauma?
Emmy Robbin:You know? And then they don't want to hear about it. They don't want to hear about it if she had this home birth, and they think it was great, but she looks back and she's like, I wish I didn't have to take the casserole. That was kind of annoying. Yeah.
Emmy Robbin:Right. You know what I mean? They don't want to they don't want to see that they caused any kind of trauma. They don't want to talk about And that's the sad thing, because if we just opened a conversation, then all of this would just stop.
Danielle Schleese:Yeah. Yeah. Well, that's kind of You kind of mentioned this a little bit earlier. You were saying, like, women can't consent. So it's kind of like, can you really even consent when you just have no idea of the fear that's taking over your body or like what you're
Briana Donaldson:I mean, the first time around, like even for me That's the first time around. To my second now, I I will say I feel like I had a fairly good experience with my first comparatively to some other stories that I've heard. But I going into having my second child kind of kind of same situation but different, I just felt so much more empowered to make decisions and say no to things with You knew it was coming out of Yeah. Whatsoever. You know?
Briana Donaldson:It's like, oh, the, you know, the glucose test. I was like, absolutely not.
Danielle Schleese:Yeah. But you said, did you feel pressured to do it?
Briana Donaldson:Oh, yeah. They asked me every appointment from then and pretty much until the end, I was like, no. No. I won't be doing it. I was like, are you sure?
Briana Donaldson:I was like, positive.
Danielle Schleese:Oh, well, that's pretty yeah.
Emmy Robbin:Yeah. It's like you tell them no and then they like Yeah. I'm gonna bring it up again.
Danielle Schleese:Just in case. Yeah. Forgot.
Emmy Robbin:Yeah. Last time. Yeah. And like,
Briana Donaldson:you know, I I went over forty weeks with both of my girls and was very much encouraged to reconsider being induced with both of them. I was like, absolutely not. Nope. It's just but, you know, I feel very grateful because I feel even though I have a tremendous amount more knowledge now going into my first birth, I even felt at that time, which comparatively, I feel like I had no knowledge back then. But comparatively to the average female that was my age that was also having babies around the same time, I felt like I was extremely knowledgeable.
Briana Donaldson:I did a ton of my own research. I felt very empowered at the time to, you know, make a birth plan that was not normal and, you know, make my own decisions. But now looking back, I'm like, wow. There's so much more that I had to learn. So I can only imagine the mothers going into a birthing situation where they have zero.
Briana Donaldson:They're at ground zero. All they know is that their mom had them by c section and that's what the doctor was ordered and that's all there is to it. So I can't even imagine being someone who just really does not have the education and the knowledge or understanding what the options are and why. Well, if that leads to,
Danielle Schleese:you know, that could lead to a traumatic birth experience with system because you're putting your hands in the trust of other people who
Emmy Robbin:Oh, yeah.
Danielle Schleese:Were were taught and learned to to trust. Right. And that's just the way birth is. We see how it's depicted in movies. But, Emmy, I'm curious, do you think that trauma also could be from a birth that we actually didn't get to have versus the birth that we ended up did having if it was different from what we envisioned or really wanted?
Danielle Schleese:And that's when somebody might say, who you know what? At the end of the day, it's fine. You're healthy. Baby's healthy. It was considered successful.
Emmy Robbin:Right. Oh, healthy mom, healthy baby. Love that one. Way to invalidate. You know?
Emmy Robbin:Like, that's like, oh, but you have but you're healthy and baby's healthy. That's all that matters, right, Right? Oh, God. Nothing irks me more than that when, you know, because my job is to get down to the littlest things from how they were spoken to in pregnancy, you know, and how that's stuck in their nervous system or what they think about themselves after their birth. You know what I mean?
Emmy Robbin:There's women, a lot of athletes. It's funny, you would think midwives would be like, Oh, she's an athlete. She's going to kill this one. It's actually the opposite. I get a lot of inside intel as to what the chatter is behind the scenes.
Emmy Robbin:Right? Yeah. A lot of the times I'll hear midwives, if a mom is a CrossFit, super whatever, they're like, Oh gosh, there we go. She's going have a tight pelvic floor. She's probably going to need an epidural to relax.
Emmy Robbin:Right? It's like they already think in their head that that's what it is. Right? So when this mom is laboring and they're cervical checking her and then all of a sudden she's complete and then they start coach pushing her and it's like, Well, let's just break your water and make it come down a little more. They're trying to do everything they can to help the mom.
Emmy Robbin:Like, Let's push. Let's get you on the birth stool. Let's do all these things. And the mom gets to complete, and they're like, she's been pushing for four hours. Obviously, we know why she's been pushing for four hours.
Emmy Robbin:Her body wasn't ready and she shouldn't be coach pushing and she shouldn't have broken her water and all the things. But they'll sit there and they'll say something like, Well, you're an athlete and so you have a really tight pelvic floor. And sometimes we see that an epidural just kind of helps you relax. Right? So she goes to the hospital, gets the epidural, and does relax.
Emmy Robbin:Right? Of Because she doesn't have two women screaming at her to push and telling her, sticking their hands up her vagina. And she does end up having this vaginal birth at the hospital, right? So mom may be happy and on the outside it may look beautiful. She had her vaginal birth.
Emmy Robbin:She, all she did was epidural because she got to complete, so she just needed to rest for a little bit and then push her baby out. So on the outside it looks like, oh, she had a great birth. But on my side, when she comes to me postpartum, because she has so much anxiety, she can't sleep at night. And it's not the baby keeping her up, it's her nervous system. And she feels like she's depressed six months later.
Emmy Robbin:And we go through her whole birth, it breaks my heart because I'm like, it wasn't even that your birth plan was derailed. It was that you were completely sabotaged because somebody had it in their head before your birth even started that your pelvic floor was so tight that you were going to need the epidural. So somebody guided you to that epidural. Right? So it's like that's traumatic when you learn that.
Emmy Robbin:Your birth was derailed and your birth was sabotaged because somebody else had a preconception of how your body worked. And I'm telling you, like, it's the same thing with big babies. They do it when they see Yeah. A woman's
Danielle Schleese:And belly looking too
Emmy Robbin:they want to try to, let's do some primrose oil at thirty eight weeks, thirty nine weeks. Let's just get your cervix nice and soft. We're not going to induce. It's just primrose oil. Know, it's like they'll do little things because their fear, you know what I mean?
Emmy Robbin:They're not going come out and say, well, we think you have a big baby and we kind of want to prevent shoulder dystocia because that's just like not appropriate to say to someone. Right. Right. That's their fear. That's their fear.
Emmy Robbin:Right. And the stupid thing is is that they don't understand that all the shoulder dystocia that they're seeing is caused because they're causing it.
Danielle Schleese:Yeah. Yeah.
Emmy Robbin:They're breaking waters. They're coach pushing. They're they're not letting a woman intuitively feel into her body and move when the baby wants her to move. And I I'm telling you, like, as a birth keeper, before the midwife arrived, I have I have literally, like, a woman standing up, like, caught an eleven and a half pound baby just slide out of her without her even pushing, you know? And it's like I've seen twelve pound babies come out, you know?
Emmy Robbin:Like nothing. No tearing, no nothing. It's the size of the baby means nothing.
Danielle Schleese:And if
Emmy Robbin:we and it's I mean, like I said, the question was, you know, healthy mom, healthy baby, you you should you know, should should women just No. It's like your birth plan got derailed. That's traumatic. Like, you had this vision. If it was your wedding and you had this vision and then all of sudden somebody came in and was like having a paintball party in the middle of your wedding, like, you'd be traumatized.
Emmy Robbin:Like, it's not how you envisioned it, you know?
Briana Donaldson:So I'm so curious. I would love to know, like, could you walk us through what would be because obviously you operate very differently than the standard practices. So could you walk us through what would it look like for you to coach or work with a woman that is going into labor or coming to
Danielle Schleese:work What in a state is this woman in? Is she
Emmy Robbin:Like in labor. Like, one,
Danielle Schleese:she's already worked with her master classes, so she's prepared for what's to come. Like, is this woman what would she do if she's anxious? Or what would she do if she's like
Emmy Robbin:No.
Briana Donaldson:I would say
Danielle Schleese:Just done in general.
Briana Donaldson:Because I think that most people probably know, Okay, what it looks like when I go to the hospital. So I go in. I check-in. I'm I'm having contractions, I'm in labor. Okay, let's get you in a room, let's get you in the gown.
Briana Donaldson:Do you want an epidural? Let's get you hooked up to the IV. There's such a standard protocol no matter who you are, no matter how prepared or unprepared you are. So I'm just curious, do you have a standard protocol, so to speak? No.
Briana Donaldson:Or what do your interactions look like when you're in those moments, whether it's someone who is or isn't prepared? Or just pick one
Danielle Schleese:because they're all so different. Right? Yeah.
Emmy Robbin:Yeah. So I mean, that's a great question because I think that's what makes the difference. That's what makes all the difference in the world is I've worked with hundreds of women and every woman has had a completely different amazing birth, but it's individualized care. So I don't just like have two prenatals with them and then show up to their birth and then expect it to be like, ah, you know? Right.
Emmy Robbin:I am so deeply connected to these women and that means that I can only, at max, I only take two women a month, and that's a max. Right. Sometimes I don't even do that anymore because at one at the beginning of my doula journey, I was doing like five or six a month. I was doing hospital nurse. Was doing this.
Emmy Robbin:Was I mean, I was doing a lot, and I got But burnt I learned a lot. Right? Yeah. Now it is quality over quantity, 1000%. This is not work that you can do to be financially stable.
Emmy Robbin:My husband, I'm so grateful, makes really great money. So I am able to serve women, you know, very affordably and also with with quality and integrity. And, they they are my sisters. I am so deeply connected to their birth plan. And every woman's birth plan, it's like I get to know, like, are you married to having this baby in the water?
Emmy Robbin:Because I will make sure that tub is filled up. You know? Or are you just kind of like, you want to feel into it. Do you want me there in early labor? Or do you want to wait until you're like getting close to transition and just labor with your husband as long as possible and then just have me kind of show up when things start feeling a little scary in your nervous system?
Emmy Robbin:Or everybody is so different, you know, because some labors are prodromal. I have literally spent like ten days with a woman spending the night on her couch and like going home just to like pump bottles and breastfeed my baby. And then I go right back to her house and spend the night because it's such intense prodromal labor that I want to be there to help her go back to sleep and feel calm and relaxed and regulated. And then I've shown up and a mom has her baby thirty minutes later and, you know, it just she was that calm and confident. So really most of my work now is the prenatal.
Emmy Robbin:I I don't do anything except for hands on counter pressure, hip squeezes and all that. Like, I am her kind of epidural, so to speak, if she wants it. And I'm also like that calming force in the room because I have when I say I have zero fear in birth, I literally have zero it's it's this weird calm that comes over me. And to have that around you when you're birthing your baby, to have somebody that's just kind of like there and calm and loving on you and my voice tone doesn't change. I don't Well,
Danielle Schleese:it's your vibration, your energy. It's
Emmy Robbin:Yeah. The fur movements and you are very slow. Like midwives, like sometimes they'll like, everything's so fast and so it's like that can get You the mom out of know? Everything's very slow, everything's very calm, everything's soft spoken, you know? And some women want the candles and the aromatherapy.
Emmy Robbin:And some women are like, you know, I don't want any music. I don't want it. So everybody is different. And I spend I do a minimum of six prenatals with my moms, and that's not like thirty minute appointments. It's like ninety minutes to two hours with them.
Emmy Robbin:And I get to know these people deeply. If they have older children, I become like their auntie so that in labor, if they want to have a family centered birth, that their toddler loves me and I will bring I have like a bag of from, you know, from six months to five years old of activities and toys and Play Doh and Kinetic Sand and all sorts of things that are new and different for them so that if I need to go into childcare mode, I know how to do that. I grew up taking care
Briana Donaldson:of a
Emmy Robbin:lot of
Briana Donaldson:your You took your whole bag.
Emmy Robbin:So if I have to watch the toddler and that's what she needs is somebody who trusts birth that can also watch her kid for her. Because some people don't want to hire a nanny or have their mother-in-law there or their own mom there who has fear around birth. Like they want somebody that can watch their child so that they can labor with their husband and feel confident that their baby is in loving hands, you know, with somebody who's genuinely excited and trying to keep them entertained. But if they want to come see mommy, you know, they know how to like, Come on, let's go say hi to mommy, give her kisses. Or I'll give the kid a washcloth because they want to do something and I'll show them how to put it on mommy's neck.
Emmy Robbin:Any way that I can help create oxytocin flow. But yeah, it's all individualized care. So when somebody's like, What does it look like working with you? I say, I have to get to know you first. And then that's how it's going to be getting And I have to want to work with somebody just as much as they want to work with me.
Emmy Robbin:Know? I want somebody who fully trusts birth, who's not going to secretly take the castor oil, you know, and then call me. I don't want to be a part of that. I don't want to be a part of somebody who didn't surrender and trust because that's trauma that I'll witness. Don't want to I don't want to to that.
Emmy Robbin:Want somebody who's going to surrender and go deep because it's so beautiful and it's so cool and I can facilitate that with her, But you I spend a lot of the time breaking down all the fears, so I I haven't had a mom that's like, I'm gonna do Castro. You know? But I'm just saying, like, the women that come to me, they usually find me from Instagram, from podcasts, or word-of-mouth, all the women in the community that are like, oh, you want to I have an amazing licensed midwife that I have been training with for two years. So like she's just incredible. And I was like, I want to learn.
Emmy Robbin:I want to learn from you, like really learn. Mhmm. I mean, I know a lot, but I I want to really focus on a placenta coming out and see what's normal and what's know, I want to learn these things. And she doesn't cervical check. She tells women when we meet with them, she's like, I will not cervical check you.
Emmy Robbin:Like, even if you ask for it, it's not gonna happen. So that's just how I practice. And I'm like, I love her so much. She doesn't even examine the vagina, like, after the mom has the baby because that's traumatic. Right?
Emmy Robbin:She's just like, how do you feel? Does it does it feel really awful down there? Because I'll kind of look. But Right. She doesn't get the gauze and, like, do all this right after a mom had a baby.
Emmy Robbin:And it's it's just really beautiful to be a part of that. And so I feel like I'm kind of training with, like, a really cool midwife, but I'm not a midwife. Like, I don't want to be a midwife. I want to just help women come into their power. Like, I don't do medical stuff with them.
Emmy Robbin:That's not
Danielle Schleese:I love that you there
Emmy Robbin:to support them.
Danielle Schleese:I love that you acknowledge that difference because from from my first experience, I remember not really having a clear understanding, thinking that going with a midwife would allow me down that path. And I was thinking, oh, you know, doulos, because I was not informed and I never had babies or that in my life, I was just thinking, oh, maybe they offer more education after birth or what to prepare before. And it wasn't until who witnessed my sister-in-law have a home birth without a midwife and just a doula. I was like, for me at first, was like, wait, what? Like, how how could you like million questions.
Emmy Robbin:Yeah.
Danielle Schleese:I was there for the beginning of the labor and then right after she had the baby and it was just like it was all the videos and everything. It was the most beautiful thing. I just the trust that she exhibited within her own path, especially being a first birth, was just so grounding for me as just a sister, but also just to know what the differences were. So I'm glad you kind of explained that a little bit more because you can have some people get both, some people do just support birth birth worker, and some people do just a midwife, and some people just go to OBs. Like, there's all of these options that I don't think maybe newer coming moms are necessarily aware of unless you're in an industry or space that talks about these things or around other people who
Briana Donaldson:Who've experienced them.
Danielle Schleese:Who've experienced them.
Emmy Robbin:Yeah. But that's also like that also brings up a great question because a lot of the times I think to myself, I'm like, but I am a traditional midwife. Like, what I'm doing is what the traditional midwives
Briana Donaldson:do. Exactly.
Emmy Robbin:And you just sit there and knit and don't do anything.
Danielle Schleese:I
Emmy Robbin:do carry Angelica Root and, you know, the Cohoshes and stuff. If mom is bleeding a little heavier after she has, it's like, here, here's some tinctures. It's like, those are herbs. That's not medical either. Those are But just herbs.
Emmy Robbin:It's like I also know NRP, you know, like neonatal resuscitation. I took Doctor. Stu's breech workshop, which is a midwife accredited horse. I went to with all the midwives in Austin and learned how to deliver a breech Because if I'm sitting with a woman in a free birth and I see a butt and the baby comes out and has no tone and the cord is white and the head is stuck and not flexed, and I want to learn the maneuvers to help her get her breech baby out. Like, I'm not going to just sit there and call 911 and wait ten minutes for an ambulance to arrive.
Emmy Robbin:I want to have these skills if I am going to sit with these women in this in the sovereign birth. I think that's kind of what separates what I do compared to free birth society or something is I have been in a ton of births and I've seen the variations of normal in bleeding. And I've seen little tips and tricks on like how to help the placenta get out by, you know, hey, let's get off your back, let's do hands and knees. Like, I don't have fear. And so and I've been training with a licensed midwife, you know, and I've been taking the courses that if a baby comes out and needs a little breath, you know, like I can do these things.
Emmy Robbin:But again, I'm not like telling a mother that I'm going to Doppler her and I'm going to manage or check her birth. So it's like then what is the difference between a licensed and a traditional midwife? Well, now you talk about it and it's like the licensed midwife is basically just managing your birth. They're like managing everything.
Briana Donaldson:Right, exactly. Right?
Emmy Robbin:Because the license requires it.
Danielle Schleese:State
Emmy Robbin:that's requires the them do log cervical checks.
Briana Donaldson:Check all all
Emmy Robbin:that you have to legally check all
Briana Donaldson:of the Did things on the
Emmy Robbin:you cervical check her? What was she at this hour? And how many hours you like every six hours they're supposed to offer a cervical check according to their licensure. Because if they go to the hospital, the OB will be like, well, what were they? And it's like they have to like lie and be like, oh, she was a four at eight p.
Emmy Robbin:M. If they don't cervical check. Right. Right? So they're constantly lying, either lying on their charts or they're manipulating women into complying to follow their license.
Danielle Schleese:It's so true. Can How
Briana Donaldson:many wives were lying? Yeah.
Danielle Schleese:Do we how do you think that we can hold a place for birth in that paradox of being in a state of bliss, but then also accepting the what did you call the intensity
Emmy Robbin:Mhmm.
Danielle Schleese:Of it? How do we how do we find that or how would you describe to women how they can sit into that space?
Emmy Robbin:Mhmm. Yeah. You have to learn about exactly what's happening with your body, exactly what's happening with your body and your baby. And in a nutshell, I do it really quickly too. So whenever I go on podcasts and stuff, I'm like, let me teach you really, really quickly.
Emmy Robbin:So this is how God designed birth. When the baby is ready to be born, the baby will release prostaglandins, right, which is basically that stuff that will soften your cervix. Semen is also a prostaglandin. Cytotec and cervical, what they give you at the hospital, that's a prostaglandin. It'll help soften your cervix, right?
Emmy Robbin:But God designed the baby to trigger that whenever they say, I'm ready to be born, Right? And also, at that very moment, we have oxytocin receptors. So oxytocin is the orgasm, the love hormone, right? And we have these receptors in our body. And at the moment that the baby is ready to be born is at the highest that these oxytocin receptors will be.
Emmy Robbin:So if you even try to naturally induce, like acupuncture or castor oil or anything before these oxytocin receptors are at their highest, you're just going to make your labor longer and harder because the oxytocin receptors aren't fully ready to receive the oxytocin that is required to make labor work. So baby releases prostaglandins, right? Starts softening your cervix, tells your body that you're ready. As your cervix gets soft, your uterus will contract And the oxytocin that your brain is releasing will tell the uterus to contract. When the uterus contracts, it pushes down, baby comes down, creates that pressure.
Emmy Robbin:That's the intensity. And that intensity and feeling that intensity also in turn sends a signal to your brain to release endorphins. So in between each wave, you're actually getting the wave, you're getting flooded with oxytocin. In between the wave, you're getting flooded with endorphins. You're getting flooded with natural painkillers.
Emmy Robbin:Now throughout all of this, your baby is also feeling that. So hormones were designed to cross into the baby so that the baby can feel oxytocin. So that baby's just being bathed in love. That's all it knows. That's all it feels inside of you, is that love hormone.
Emmy Robbin:Like the feeling of being in love. That's all that baby's feeling during labor. And then you would think like, Oh, they're getting squeezed. It hurts them. Right?
Emmy Robbin:Well, the wave of endorphins that you're getting is meant to flood that baby. So the baby is also experiencing endorphins. So when you think about this cycle that happens, you almost welcome the wave of intensity and know that the endorphins in between are helping both you and your baby. And if you can really learn to relax and let go of each wave and just kind of let those endorphins flush over you, talk to your baby, you know, know that your baby is nice and comfy in there. That's the cool thing is like if you can really relax into that, like your body will do the work.
Emmy Robbin:Your body will open up. Your body will birth the baby. Right? And just knowing that by staying away from the drugs and staying away from because the second you get an epidural, you cut all of that off. Your body stops releasing oxytocin because it can't feel anymore, and then it also stops releasing endorphins.
Emmy Robbin:However, the baby is still getting squeezed and the baby is still feeling the sensations of labor, but you aren't anymore. So you're not telling your brain to release endorphins. So now your baby's just like Uncomfortable. Stressed out and feeling all the things. Right?
Emmy Robbin:So it's just really when you tell somebody that, when you're like, hey, by you numbing out, you're actually cutting off the good stuff to your baby. So now your baby really does have to navigate birth without you, feeling loved and without feeling I mean, obviously they'll feel loved, but you know what I mean, without being flooded with oxytocin. We were meant to be born into this world literally bathed in love. It's the bonding hormone, it's the breastfeeding hormone, it's everything. And so the more you really learn about that and the more you kind of release into that intensity, it's not scary, it's cool.
Emmy Robbin:Like you're like your body is doing something so cool and on the inside that you're not seeing, it's creating all of these hormones that are just helping the baby and you really cope with all of the intensity that's happening. So to me, like when people learn about that, it's like, why would you want to cut that off? Why would you why would you want to cut that cocktail off? And then you need synthetic oxytocin, you need pitocin to speed things up. And so then the baby's getting squeezed unnaturally and even harder, and they don't have you connected to them telling them everything's okay being flooded with the oxytocin and endorphins.
Emmy Robbin:So they're just they're freaked out. They usually just freak out on the heart rate monitor, you And you can just you can see that with all the machines that we have now. You can see that's just how it happens. So, yeah, to to lean into birth is to break down all of your fears. Like, what do you fear?
Emmy Robbin:And that's kind of what I love doing one on one with people. Because everybody has a different fear, you know? And if you can break down these fears, then you can lean into the intensity and you can really surrender to birth.
Danielle Schleese:That's a great answer. I feel like this so many mothers and women who've given birth are gonna relate and see so much of themselves at some point in this conversation. It's so hard for me to be like, yep. Me, me, me, me. Oh, oh, I felt that way too.
Danielle Schleese:It's so hard for me not to jump in because I'm so excited about the things you're talking about. Me too.
Briana Donaldson:Me too. I'm like just like reliving both of my birthing experience and I'm like, wow.
Danielle Schleese:It's the most like I said in this intro, it really is the most kind of unacknowledged ritual and rite of passage women go through.
Briana Donaldson:Yeah. Really a lack of education on the truth of
Danielle Schleese:it all. Really? Yeah. I mean, there's so Well, I'll be doing
Emmy Robbin:these free masterclasses once a month. That's my goal is to it's two hours and it's free. And it's I'm just going be doing it once a month. Awesome. Amazing.
Emmy Robbin:Then I'll probably start doing some Zoom lives, Instagram lives and stuff too. So, yeah. But the but the, Reclaim Birth Masterclass is gonna be the same class that I'm just gonna every month. Amazing. And people can join for free.
Emmy Robbin:And if people want to take it over and over and over again so that they retain the information, it's I'm gonna do that. And then my goal is to basically start traveling around the country and doing, like, six hour workshops so that I can, like, teach couples how to really move and prepare their bodies and how teach the husbands how to, like, really do counter pressure. And I wanna do these, like, in person workshops, like, all over the country. That's my dream.
Danielle Schleese:That's really nice, especially in a world of virtual courses these days. In person is something that is gonna be one of the
Briana Donaldson:But it's also just so great that, like, you're spreading the the knowledge and and even with your free master classes, giving that information for free, which, like, so many people I feel like need to hear this message. So that's fantastic. That's really great.
Danielle Schleese:I do have one more question for you that
Emmy Robbin:Get it,
Danielle Schleese:girl. It it sparked a conversation with Breanna because she showed me this, video where it was like the memory that water can hold and how even if you show water a picture and then it you freeze it, it almost like crystallizes into that pattern. Like, this is a really great video. So it made us start thinking, like, if water is something that holds memory, what kind of stories and memories would an amniotic fluid hold?
Emmy Robbin:I mean, that's it's so true. Like, our amniotic fluid is so I mean, that's what baby eats, drinks, you know? It's everything. It's giving life to that baby. You know what I mean?
Emmy Robbin:And it does. Like, our nervous like I said, you know, earlier on, a mother's nervous system while she is pregnant really helps set up and build the baby's nervous system. So if you're somebody who's highly anxious or you're just go, go, go, go, go and you aren't giving that's why I emphasize movement and mindfulness. We really do have to take time to tell our body that we love our body. That's how I work in somatics.
Emmy Robbin:That's my thing. That's my jam. It's like, You are not broken. Your body is amazing. Send your body love.
Emmy Robbin:I have guided somatic meditations on my podcast to just really get you to acknowledge parts of your body that you forget about. Your pinky toe. Like, who sends love to their pinky toe every day, right? But we have to send love to all parts of our body. And through doing that in your pregnancy, you're really holding the womb space and, again, that amniotic fluid.
Emmy Robbin:If you can fill that up with as much love and trust in your body, your baby will literally just be like held in a housing of like love and trust. And I see it. I see those babies that come into the world. And I I've, you know, I've seen some of the babies that I've helped come in turn six, you know, and they're just like they're so just That's cool. That's cool.
Emmy Robbin:Out of world, you know? Like, they were imprinted by the fluid being so just bathed in love, you know? Those babies some babies come out in call, too, and it's really cool. They come out in their water sack and it's like
Danielle Schleese:Oh, I've seen videos So of you've actually seen that in person then.
Emmy Robbin:Girl, since I've been doing this sovereign work, it's they say it's four percent. I have had three N call births since November. Wow. Yeah. Isn't that crazy?
Emmy Robbin:Like, So what do you it's do? I mean, like, some people never see an end call birth in birth work in their whole life. And I've seen three since November. And every single one of them, the one thing they had in common, no cervical checks, no nothing, like no intervention whatsoever. So it begs to differ.
Emmy Robbin:Like, is all of the tension from the I mean, our cervix is a sphincter, Right. You It closes up a few Yeah. So it's like, is all that tension is like what breaks the water? Or, you know, maybe more babies would come out in their water sack if they were just like
Briana Donaldson:What's the what do you do when a baby does come out in their water sack?
Emmy Robbin:It usually will break, like, once the shoulders come through. Like, usually the like every time that it's happened, it's you'll see like the this kind of like it looks like a balloon sticking out before the head. Right. And it's just kind of like hanging there, you know? And then the head kind of comes out and fills the balloon.
Emmy Robbin:It's kind of like when you blow a bubble and then you blow a bubble inside of a Yeah. You know? That's kind of what happens. And and then whenever the baby's shoulders come through, it usually, like, pops. It usually breaks.
Emmy Robbin:Yeah. So but it's so cool to see just like a little sack that eleven pound eleven and a half pound baby that I caught that the first thing I saw, was on the phone with the midwife because she was in rush hour traffic. She wasn't going to make it. I was like, you're not going to make it, so I'm just going to talk to you and tell you what I see so you can chart. She was in a Tesla.
Emmy Robbin:She's so cool. My the the midwife that I work with,
Danielle Schleese:she's awesome. Nice.
Emmy Robbin:And I was like, you're driving in your Tesla. You can chart. And I was like, oh, baby's in call. Cool. Like, it was so cool.
Emmy Robbin:Like, the water sack was just hanging out. I was like, this is awesome. And I'm like standing there, like, so fascinated with the husband. I'm like guiding him, like, come here come here with the towel. Yeah.
Emmy Robbin:Because she just wanted to stand up. I was like, okay, if you're standing up, we gotta we gotta be under you. I feel
Danielle Schleese:like when she's slippery trying
Emmy Robbin:to her hands on the bed, was like, catch your baby. She's like, no, no, I don't want to. You know? So I'm like, I have her husband, like, in there, and I'm like so fascinated. And then like the thought crossed my brain, I was like, oh, water sack hasn't broken yet.
Emmy Robbin:And like right when I thought that, it was just all over me and him. Yeah. I'm like, it it breaks eventually when that baby
Briana Donaldson:comes out. So So cool. So fascinating. So, I mean,
Danielle Schleese:if people wanted to learn a little bit more about your work and visit you on your site or listen to your podcast, can you just drop some links and let us know or let our audience know where they can find you or work with you?
Emmy Robbin:Yes, absolutely. So my website is Emmy Robin, e m m y r o b b I n, Doula, D o u l a dot com. And you can book one on one services with me. You'll find my free masterclass there. You can get my best selling book, Faithful Beginnings.
Emmy Robbin:You can go listen to my podcast, which will take you on a journey, or my Instagram or Facebook or X, at Emmy Robindula.
Briana Donaldson:Awesome. And we'll we'll write all this in the show notes too, so anyone interested, it'll all be written there as well.
Emmy Robbin:So I wanna send you guys a copy of my book, so you'll have to send me your address so I can send each
Briana Donaldson:of would you a copy. So awesome. We were talking to all
Danielle Schleese:our girlfriends.
Briana Donaldson:We were talking to my girls today.
Emmy Robbin:Yeah. I'll send y'all extras so that if you have any pregnant friends, you can I want my book to just be one of those ones that people just pass around?
Danielle Schleese:Amazing. You can tell you're somebody who who does this work from the heart because Yeah. It's you can hear
Emmy Robbin:me My husband pass makes really good money, so I don't have to You know what I mean? That's Yeah.
Danielle Schleese:And this is the type of, like, this is the type of love and passion you want from a birth worker that you're you're working with is knowing that it's not for the money. They're there for you. You're there for them. You're there
Emmy Robbin:for I wanna I wanna empower everybody. I wanna be the Tony Robbins' doulas. I wanna Yeah. I love it. Leave my workshops and be like,
Briana Donaldson:I could do this. Yeah.
Danielle Schleese:Start off with a big dance party
Emmy Robbin:every I love it. Love it.
Briana Donaldson:Yeah. Love That's so awesome. Well, thank you so much for joining us. Thank you for educating us and our listeners today. I think it's been a really powerful episode, so thank you for your time and energy.
Emmy Robbin:Thank you all so much for having me on. This was awesome.
Danielle Schleese:This is just a reminder that we are a visual podcast. So if you wanna check out the outfits, the facial expressions, what we look like, be sure to head over to YouTube, Spotify, and we are on all all other major listening platforms that you can think of as well. And be sure to check
Briana Donaldson:us out on social media, Instagram at the honey toast podcast. We're also on TikTok and x. So you can find a little bit more teasers for upcoming episodes and more additional information on our guests as well. So we hope you tag, follow along for the journey.