Podcast

Episode Summary Today we dug into the real challenges of supporting clients through inductions as doulas. We named why clear, early conversations about induction matter, not just for our clients but for our own well-being. Whether it’s adjusting to higher induction rates after the ARRIVE trial, navigating hospital policies, or simply figuring out when your […]

Episode Summary Insurance coverage for doulas sounds like a win for everyone. More clients, broader access, sustainable practice. But the reality is messier than the headline, and Dr. Robin Elise Weiss and Dr. Hillary Melchiors have both lived that reality from opposite sides of the billing process. Robin brings a background in health management system

Episode Summary No-shows are one of those topics birth professionals talk about in private but rarely address out loud. In this episode, Robin and Hillary get into both types of no-shows that doulas actually deal with: the potential client who ghosts a consultation, and the client who goes into labor without ever picking up the

Episode Summary On this episode of TBG 2026, Dr. Hillary Melchiors sits down with clinical psychologist Kerry Makin-Byrd for an honest, experienced-grounded conversation about burnout, moral injury, and the emotional realities of long-term careers in birth and mental health work. Kerry Makin-Byrd shares her journey from Colorado to Wellington, New Zealand, reflecting on how changing

Episode Summary There is a version of this work where you stay quiet, play it safe, and hope the right clients find you. And then there is the version where you show up as exactly who you are and let the right families self-select in. Lisa Vee built her entire coaching practice on the second

Maggie Runyon joins us to talk nurse advocacy, savior culture, burnout, trauma recovery, and the community care that keeps birth professionals in this work.

Dr. Connie Liu on practicing OB at Gallup Indian Medical Center, the Indian Health Service, rural hospital closures, and the policy decisions that hit hardest.

Dr. Andrea Ford, anthropologist, doula, and author of Near Birth, on what a doula even is today and the strange, contradictory world of modern birthwork.

LaToshia Rouse on the path from NICU mom to national perinatal boards as a doula, childbirth educator, and speaker, with flexibility and boundaries throughout.

Dr. Sarah Rubin on her research on motherhood and postpartum depression in South Africa, and what the field misses when we treat it as purely medical.