This week, Becca and Arielle sit down with Caitlin Gillings, a 34-year-old mom of four whose birth stories span nearly every setting: two hospital vaginal deliveries, a birth center birth, and finally a deeply empowering home birth.

Caitlin opens up about navigating six pregnancies, including two losses between her third and fourth babies, and how each chapter shaped the mother she is today. With children now ages 9, 7, 4, and 18 months, Caitlin reflects on how her confidence, intuition, and perspective evolved across her journeys from her early hospital experiences to finding autonomy and peace in her later births.

As a stay-at-home mom, Caitlin brings a grounded, honest, and relatable voice to this conversation. Her story is a testament to growth, resilience, and the beauty of learning to trust your body over time.

This episode holds a deeply sacred story one that moves through four intentional home births, a miscarriage, and then an emergency twin C-section that resulted in the devastating loss of one twin at delivery.

What began as a familiar, confident rhythm of physiological birth suddenly shifted into medical urgency, grief, and long-term caregiving for a medically complex child.

In this conversation, we walk through:

– Four planned home births
– A miscarriage and its emotional impact
– An emergency twin C-section
– Losing one baby at delivery
– Navigating grief while caring for a surviving newborn
– Becoming the full-time caregiver to a child with trach, vent, and g-tube needs

Her living children range from teenage years to toddlerhood, and this episode highlights what it looks like to mother across different developmental stages while holding grief, medical decisions, and everyday life.

We explore:

– The identity shift that comes when birth outcomes change drastically
– How grief and joy coexist in motherhood
– What resilience looks like beyond the romantic version of strength
– The complexities of marriage, household demands, and caregiving
– How life can redraw itself overnight

This episode gives voice to mothers navigating unexpected loss, medical complexity, and survival mode. It offers honesty without dramatizing, hope without glossing over pain, and visibility to stories often held quietly.

Episode 16: Our Thanksgiving Special with Dr. Zwerling 🦃💗
This week, Becca and Arielle sit down with the incredible Dr. Zwerling to hear her journey into becoming an OB-GYN, what a day in her life really looks like, and how her philosophy of care has been shaped by her own first birth experience a prolonged induction (partially at home, partially in the hospital), four hours of pushing, a cesarean birth, and a postpartum hemorrhage.
Dr. Zwerling is passionately dedicated to providing comprehensive sexual + reproductive healthcare for all patients, with specialized training in complex family planning and a deep commitment to serving LGBTQIA+ communities especially trans and gender-expansive folks.
We also dive into her academic research on spirituality in medicine and medical education.
This is a warm, grounded, heart-opening conversation you won’t want to miss.
Listen now Episode 16 is live. 🫶🎙️

In today’s episode, we sit down with Natasha Pleis, a mama who always dreamed of having four kids in four years… and actually did it. She had 4 easy hospital births that she genuinely loved, but what came after is where her story really unfolds.

This one is for every mom who’s thought:
“Why is postpartum so much harder than birth?”

We dive into:

✨ Birth Stories: 4 Easy Hospital Births
• How she intentionally planned for a big family quickly
• Why each hospital birth felt smooth, supported, and empowering
• What made her epidural experiences positive
• Her tips for creating a beautiful, calm hospital birth

✨ Postpartum: The Hardest Part
• Her experience with postpartum rage
• How rage can mask itself as irritability, overwhelm, or “snapping”
• The shame spiral so many moms experience
• How she learned to name her emotions and find support

✨ Triple Feeding + Feeding Challenges
• Surviving the exhausting nurse–pump–bottle cycle
• The mental and physical toll it took
• What she wishes she knew earlier
• Giving herself permission to rest and pivot

✨ Reconciling Easy Births + Hard Postpartum
• Identity shifts with multiple babies close together
• What changed with her fourth postpartum
• How she rebuilt confidence, capacity, and connection

💛 Big Takeaway
You can have 4 easy births… and 4 really hard postpartums. You are not alone, and you are not failing.

🎧 Listen now on Apple, Spotify, & YouTube!

In Episode 14, Becca & Arielle sit down with Katie Noland, a mom of four whose birth stories span nearly every type of birth setting. From two hospital vaginal deliveries → to a birth center birth → to her final home birth, Katie opens up about how each experience shaped her confidence, her voice, and her motherhood.

Katie walks us through:

💛 Baby 1 — Mollie (2020)

Induction at 40+2, a long hospital labor, vacuum delivery, tearing, and hours of pushing — ending with the unexpected discovery that Mollie was born with a lipoma (facial abnormality) in her cheek, something no one had caught prenatally. Katie shares the shock of that moment and how it shifted her entire postpartum experience and motherhood journey.

💛 Baby 2 — Heidi (2022)

Another induction, minimal epidural relief, one push, and a postpartum experience that left Katie vowing never to deliver in a hospital again — shaped heavily by feeling pressured around interventions and her family’s vaccine preferences.

💛 Baby 3 — Harrison (2023)

A spontaneous birth at California Birth Center at 41 weeks — fast, supported, and only 2.5 hours from start to finish. Katie calls this birth her “literal dream.”

💛 Baby 4 — Georgia (2025)

A 38+6 spontaneous home birth, six hours start to finish, and their first surprise gender. Big sister Mollie was determined to be in the room — and got to witness her baby sister being born.

Katie also shares how her first baby’s facial abnormality shaped her early motherhood, her fears going into future pregnancies, and the healing she found in her later births.

We explore:

✨ Choosing different birth settings for different seasons of life

✨ Rebuilding trust in your body after hard or unexpected births

This episode is raw, heartfelt, and full of insight for both new and seasoned moms.

In Episode 13, Becca and Arielle sit down with Aria Clift, a young woman who grew up quickly and found her calling in birth work early on.

Aria opens up about meeting her husband at 14, becoming a doula at 16, and enrolling in midwifery school at 18 all before finding herself pregnant and choosing home birth as the path that felt most aligned for her.

She shares what it was like navigating Hyperemesis Gravidarum, a kidney infection in her third trimester, and the emotional and physical toll of balancing full-time work, study, and pregnancy. Through it all, Aria’s story is one of surrender, strength, and love.

Tune in as Becca and Arielle explore her journey through motherhood, the realities of being a young birth worker, and the deep trust she built in herself to birth her sweet boy at home, surrounded in peace and support.

Episode 12: In the Fire - A Journey Through God’s Redeeming Love

Cesarean • Home Birth Transfer • Birth Trauma • TFMR
with Whitney Mello, founder of The Crunchy Cottage

Hey Girly Pops 💗

You’re getting two episodes this week! Last week was a whirlwind - we had nine RRDS babies born, and on a personal note, I lost my sweetest fur-baby, Sunny Boy, which completely wrecked me. Thank you all for the love and patience as we took a moment to pause, breathe, and grieve before jumping back in.

In this week’s episode, we sit down with Whitney, a mama, business owner, and the heart behind The Crunchy Cottage - a wellness company shipping nourishing, holistic products nationwide.

Whitney shares her powerful story - getting pregnant young, finding deep love, and planning a home birth that led to an unexpected transfer and cesarean, followed by the unimaginable heartbreak of a TFMR (termination for medical reasons).

But through every layer of pain, God’s redeeming love showed up in the fire - teaching her grace, healing, and purpose on the other side of heartbreak.

✨ In this episode, we talk about:

• Navigating home birth transfer and cesarean recovery
• The emotional depth of birth trauma and TFMR
• How faith and grief can coexist
• Building The Crunchy Cottage out of pain and purpose

💗 Connect with Whitney:
Instagram: @crunchycottage_

Website: thecrunchycottage.com

🎧 Tune in on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or YouTube - and don’t forget to follow, leave a review, and share this episode with someone who needs to be reminded that even in the fire, redemption is possible.

In this moving episode, Becca and Arielle sit down with Abby Astle, a mother whose story reminds us that even in the deepest loss, love can take on a new life.

Abby opens her heart about her journey through multiple births — from a hospital delivery, to a birth center experience, to the homebirth that brought her full circle. But at the center of her story is her son, Daniel Lee, born with anencephaly. His brief life changed everything.

Abby shares what it was like to carry a baby she knew she would have to say goodbye to — how she prepared, grieved, and still found peace in the sacred moments they shared. Out of that heartbreak came something extraordinary: Daniel Lee’s Gift, a non-profit that helps families facing miscarriage, stillbirth, and infant loss by covering funeral and medical expenses.

What began as a way to honor one little boy has become a ripple of love touching families across the country. Abby’s courage and compassion show that from pain can come purpose — and that a mother’s love truly never ends.

💫 In this episode:

The emotional journey of carrying and birthing a baby with a fatal diagnosis

Finding faith and strength in the hardest goodbye

How grief became the foundation for Daniel Lee’s Gift

What it means to turn personal loss into community healing

The mission and impact of Daniel Lee’s Gift today

Reflections on motherhood, legacy, and love that lives on

🕊 About Daniel Lee’s Gift

Founded by Abby and her family in honor of their son, Daniel Lee’s Gift is a non-profit organization that provides financial support to families who have experienced miscarriage, stillbirth, or infant loss. Their mission is simple but profound: to share the burden so families can focus on healing.

Learn more, donate, or apply for support at daniel-leesgift.com

Instagram: @danielleesgift

Located in Roseville, CA — serving families nationwide.

💗 A note from Becca & Arielle

This conversation isn’t just about loss — it’s about transformation. Abby’s story reminds us that even in grief, there is grace. That love can move mountains, and that sometimes the hardest chapters of our lives become the most beautiful legacies.