The Birth Geeks Podcast Episodes and Show Notes

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 presence will have the most impact, the answer is never one-size-fits-all. Our advice: define your terms, set up clear expectations, and communicate often. Sometimes your presence is emotional support. Sometimes it’s physical. Always, it’s collaborative and client-focused. Inductions are unpredictable, but your preparation doesn’t have to be. Listen to This Episode Episode Time Stamps 00:00 “Doulas Prioritize Client Support” 05:38 Support for Hospital Check-Ins 08:13 “Challenges in Labor Induction Timelines” 12:40 Doula Challenges Supporting Epidural Goals 14:37 “Induction Prep and Comfort Tips” 19:03 “Call When Extra Support Needed” 22:02 Clear Communication in Doula Support 23:49

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 sciences, years of taking insurance as a doula, and experience running an oral surgery practice where insurance claims were part of every single day. Hillary brings the on-the-ground perspective of a doula agency owner who has navigated company benefits, watched payment timelines stretch, and done the math on whether Medicaid reimbursement rates actually pencil out. Together, they unpack what it genuinely means to accept insurance as a birth professional. This episode covers the credentialing process, the critical distinction between insurance and company benefits like the Walmart employee program, balance billing rights, and the hidden contractual

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 phone. They share what they’ve done to reduce no-shows before they happen, how to respond when they do, and why extending grace doesn’t mean abandoning your systems. Listen to This Episode

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 environments—and even continents—reshaped her clinical practice, her understanding of trauma, and her own capacity to feel and recover. Together, they cut through common misconceptions about burnout, digging into why “resilience” is not a solo project and why systemic factors, not individual failings, drive much of the exhaustion experienced by birth workers and medical professionals. Real-life stories and concrete practices emerge, from negotiating boundaries in a field that rarely rewards them, to finding good enough care when perfection is always just out of reach. Throughout, both Dr. Hillary Melchiors and Kerry Makin-Byrd keep the focus practical

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 approach, and this conversation is a direct case study in why it works. From a corporate sales background that she describes as a long season of performance, she found her way into birth work and eventually into coaching other doulas to build businesses that can actually last. Her framework is simple and worth sitting with: visibility is not about glamour, it is about access. Families cannot choose support that does not exist in their line of sight. Pricing is where a lot of the conversation lands, and it should. Lisa makes a clear and practical

Episode Summary If you’ve ever felt like you’re doing all the things and still not getting inquiries, the problem probably isn’t your skills or your passion. It’s that you’re not tracking the right information to know what’s actually working. In this episode, Hillary and I sit down again with Darcy Sauers, who started in corporate marketing before becoming a postpartum doula, and that combination is exactly why her perspective cuts through the noise. She doesn’t speak in vague encouragement. She talks about evidence, and she talks about it in a way that will feel very familiar to birth professionals who know how to read data. The conversation starts with the simplest analytic any doula can track starting today: how did you hear about me? You don’t need software. You don’t need a dashboard. You need to ask the question and write down the answer, because that one piece of information

Episode Summary Robin and Hillary dig into what experienced birth workers actually do after they leave a birth, and why having a deliberate post-birth routine matters for long-term sustainability. This conversation covers everything from the first private moment in your car to sleep, food, family dynamics, and the anthropology of ritual itself. It’s honest, occasionally hilarious, and grounded in the reality that nobody is coming to design this transition for you. You have to build it yourself. Listen to This Episode Episode Time Stamps 00:47 – The car as your first private moment 01:36 – Robin’s shoe and sweater routine 04:03 – Decompressing 13:18 – Post-birth insomnia strategies 15:09 – Sleep podcasts, audiobooks, and 3am dance parties 16:22 – Why you always shower before sitting on your couch 17:09 – Food after a birth 21:17 – Hydration during births 22:17 – Who else needs post-shift rituals 25:29 – Processing with

Episode Summary Infant sleep is one of those topics where the gap between what we’re told and what the evidence actually supports is enormous, and Ann Grauer doesn’t dance around that. In this episode, Ann, a former DONA International president and postpartum doula trainer with 33 years of experience, breaks down why so much of the guidance families receive is rooted in 19th-century thinking rather than human biology—and why the American Academy of Pediatrics continues to miss the bigger picture. From the politics of the AAP’s 2022 sleep update to the quiet harm caused by an industry built on parents’ desperation for sleep, this conversation is the honest, evidence-grounded one your clients deserve and that most practitioners aren’t having. Ann also points birth workers toward the resources doing this right, including the UK’s BASIS (Baby Sleep Information Source) out of Durham University, James McKenna’s updated Safe Infant Sleep, and the

Episode Summary Prodromal labor gets called a lot of things in birth spaces, and most of them are wrong. “False labor” is the one that bothers me most, because the moment you attach that word to someone’s contractions, you’ve handed the people around them permission to stop paying attention. The contractions are real. The exhaustion is real. The mental and emotional wear of contracting for hours at 2 AM, only to have everything slow down again, is absolutely real. Dismissing it with the word “false” does genuine harm, and it’s a habit our field needs to drop. In this episode, Hillary and I dig into what prodromal labor actually is, why it happens, who’s more likely to experience it, and what’s worth saying versus what you should never say to a client who’s in the middle of it. The stopping and starting pattern is the hallmark, and it can go