Episode 87-Billie Harrigan-Reclaiming Our Birth Rights

·1 hr 17 min·5 clips

Billie Harrigan says 50% or more of pregnancies are ended prematurely and one in eight customers leaves with a brain injury.

Robyn Stebbins opens the conversation by naming Billie Harrigan as the person people keep pointing her toward for natural and home birth, and for birth trauma support. The opening is intimate and charged, because Robyn talks about her own birth trauma and the way it kept replaying in her head for years, almost like a PTSD reaction. That sets the tone fast. From there, the discussion moves from one woman’s story into a larger argument about consent, fear, and the pressure to hand pregnancy over to the medical industrial complex before labor has even started. Billie does not treat stepping away from that system as a casual or trendy move. She keeps saying that the women who do it usually read, research, check original studies, compare meta analyses, and talk to people who have already walked the road. The result is a different kind of confidence. It is not blind optimism. It is a circle of support that can tell a mother she is not crazy for wanting to protect her baby and make her own choices. Robyn and Billie also make room for the fact that births can still go sideways. That means backup plans matter. A preferred plan can still include being close to a hospital, having someone on call, and knowing when medical help is needed. The episode does not romanticize any of that away. It treats preparation as part of wisdom. Billie also pushes on the idea that basic birth skills should be ordinary, not hidden behind the locked doors of labor and delivery. If someone can boil water, she argues, they can learn enough to help a baby breathe at birth. That opens into a wider reflection on how little many people know about their own bodies. Robyn asks about organs, anatomy, and the disconnect that lets something as close as a liver or spleen feel unknowable. Near the end, the conversation turns back to the emotional aftershock of traumatic birth and the need to reach out instead of trying to carry it alone. Billie mentions a September cohort for people who want to become traditional birth companions, and the close lands on the same simple charge the show returns to again and again: fear is loud, peace is quiet, and people are meant to stand beside one another.

As heard by us

A firm, supportive discussion of birth trauma, home birth, and practical preparation.

This conversation focuses on birth trauma, home birth, and the case for giving pregnancy and delivery more informed support. Billie Harrigan comes across as a steady voice for natural and home birth, especially for listeners trying to work through fear or guilt after a hard…

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Why you'd press play

For when you want a home-birth conversation that treats fear as a signal, not a verdict.

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