Ep 139: In-depth Review of Episodes You Might Have Missed

Welcome to a new year!!  In this episode, Rachael and Shannon celebrate the growth they’ve seen over the past year with the Aligned Birth Podcast.  We list out the top episodes of 2023, as well as listing out some lesser known episodes you might have missed.  With over 17K downloads and 140 episodes under our belt, we’re looking forward to continuing our conversations about pregnancy, labor, birth, motherhood, and beyond!  

Top Episodes of 2023:

1. #92 - All about epidurals
2. #84 - A Tale of 2 Home Births - Dr. Baley
3. #85 - Visualization for Birth and Life
4. #87 - Maternal stress and posture - what’s the connection?
5. #75 - TummyTime! Method with Michelle Emanuel

Top Episodes of all time:

1. #75 - TummyTime! Method with Michelle Emanuel
2. #62. - Signs of Labor and How Labor Progresses
3. #15 - Inside Look with Homebirth Midwife Rachel Hart
4. #55 - Tips for Optimal Fetal Positioning
5. #76. - Five Benefits of Labor Doula Support

Our Favorite episodes of 2023:

Transcript

Dr. Shannon (00:01.918)
Hello, hello. This is the Aligned Birth Podcast. You have both hosts here today. I'm Dr. Shannon. Dula Rachel is here as well. And if you're just listening to this in your normal lineup of having listened to our podcast before, then this isn't going to feel like a weird intro. But Rachel and I have not recorded since November and we are currently in January right now. So I feel a little out of sorts because I don't know what's going on.

We haven't been here for a hot minute, but that is because we prioritize rest and checking in with ourselves. So we are so excited you're here. We're excited to talk about what an amazing 2023 was for the podcast. Amazing growth, amazing learning opportunities, amazing interviews, amazing topics. So I know I'm super, super excited to go over.

our 2023 stats and a lot of it because there might be some episodes in there that you don't necessarily know about. And so we're going to talk about some of our top episodes, what our stats are, what our numbers are, and then what's to come because we have big things to come, we hope. But we're putting it out there for the big things to come. So it is so good to chat with you again, Jula Rachel.

Rachael Hutchins (01:22.64)
Hi Dr. Shannon, long time no see.

Dr. Shannon (01:25.914)
Long time no see in Riverside land. So we use Riverside to record. And like I said, I think it's literally been since November. We're recording this like partway through January. So yeah, now we've seen each other. We did go on a hike. We're going to talk about that in a minute because we do our like twice a year hikes. I think we do. We hike and we eat food and it works out magically. So we've seen each other, but we haven't seen each other.

Rachael Hutchins (01:45.963)
Yep.

Rachael Hutchins (01:49.302)
And we talk, we walk miles upon miles just talking.

Dr. Shannon (01:53.79)
We did five some odd miles last time. Like, how did that even happen? And we didn't even realize it.

Rachael Hutchins (01:58.888)
And it felt like it flew by. It was just like, I was like, what just happened?

Dr. Shannon (02:05.27)
It was one of those we met and we posted on social media, so you have to see the pictures. It's one of my favorite spots. I feel like it's like a little hidden spot. It's up in Cherokee County, so it's literally behind Cherokee High School at Bowling Park and for Atlanta area folks. And that's where we had our cross country races when I was in high school. So this, that place is very nostalgic. And then Rachel and I went to high school together, not at Cherokee, but in that area. And so it was also, that was just kind of fun.

But there's this loop and we would get to the end and we'd be like, do you wanna keep going? And we'd be like, sure. So we just kept going.

Rachael Hutchins (02:35.086)
Mm-hmm.

Rachael Hutchins (02:42.722)
kept going and talked about what I love about those hikes is that we do talk podcast, but really we talk life and I think we both enjoy, we don't take all the, we don't always have time in the day to day to touch base or catch up and when we do get together we kind of catch up on life and family and personal and all of that and it just feels so nice and just reminds me why we chose to do this together.

Dr. Shannon (02:45.053)
Huh.

Dr. Shannon (03:04.025)
Mm-hmm.

Rachael Hutchins (03:11.41)
energizes me and it's just such a gift. So I appreciate that we do that.

Dr. Shannon (03:15.886)
It is, and it's nice because it's one of those... Just before we started recording too, we're checking in with each other and we're like, how are you doing? And we're both like, okay, good. And then I was like, no, wait, let me backtrack on that. Some things are going on in the background. But that's what we do on these hikes. It's kind of like, are things good? Like you can be honest. It doesn't have to be, it doesn't have to be good. Like we've got that. Yeah.

Rachael Hutchins (03:33.351)
Mm-hmm.

Rachael Hutchins (03:37.874)
Yeah, no, we're very honest. We're very honest. But it's also just wrapped up in lots of compassion and positive energy so that it's like not silver lining each other, but just definitely affirming and listening. And we are in such similar stages and phases of life. And yeah, I just appreciate it so much. And I'm glad we do that. Yeah, it was December, mid December. And then we go eat our faces off.

Dr. Shannon (03:46.602)
Mm-hmm.

Dr. Shannon (03:57.728)
Mm-hmm.

Dr. Shannon (04:01.582)
Yeah, we talked about it was good. Yeah, it was, oh gosh, it's so good. It's so good. I saw something recently too, where it was like, let's normalize not going and stuffing our face with brunch with that girl time, going out and exercising. And I was like, why can't it be both? I mean, I know it takes a little bit of time. We were gone for a good chunk of time. We planned it, but yeah, so we.

Rachael Hutchins (04:24.219)
both this is a yeah that's why it's twice a year but no i do love i much prefer a good little walk or a hike with a friend than just eating now i love to eat so if i can have both i want both but if i can choose i choose the walk or a hike for sure yeah but then the meal yeah both i think we'll be a both

Dr. Shannon (04:32.298)
Mm-hmm.

Dr. Shannon (04:36.318)
Mm-hmm. I want both. I love the wok. It's such a mental, I don't know, you process things. Mm-hmm. But then the meal. Oh, the meal was so good.

Well, that's how we pick places to hike. I usually look at like, okay, let's go hike here and then what kind of cute little food spot is around there, so.

Rachael Hutchins (04:59.326)
And I'm pretty sure I start every hike with, so maybe I woke up thinking about where we're eating.

Dr. Shannon (05:06.518)
Yes, that's all about the food. Yes, food is my love language. So anywho, that's back to our 2023 stats. I'm really proud of last year. So we started the podcast in 2021. It was part way through. So in May was when we first put our episodes out. It was, when did we?

Rachael Hutchins (05:07.71)
Maybe it's on my mind. But I'm gonna enjoy this walk and pretend I'm not already hungry. It's fine.

Mm-hmm.

Rachael Hutchins (05:29.205)
Mm-hmm.

Dr. Shannon (05:35.242)
When was the podcast conceived? That's when it was birthed.

Rachael Hutchins (05:39.022)
I mean beginning of 2021 I think. I mean we might have been seeding the conversation in 2020 but it feels like we really started the process at the beginning and then we put that first episode out in May 2021. But I'd have to look back because it was I think it was winter time when we had the brainstorming session at Hopgood Park. I remember it was cold. So I think it was the winter that January, February, March of 2021. Yep.

Dr. Shannon (05:41.694)
Mm-hmm.

Dr. Shannon (05:51.823)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Dr. Shannon (05:57.478)
at Hobgood Park, because I remember it was cold out. I remember it was cold, and I snapped my little impromptu pic. Yeah.

Rachael Hutchins (06:07.03)
So really two full years of, I think two and a half years, but two full years of actual podcasts. And for both of those years, we released one episode a week, which is, yeah. Yeah, for us, that's one of our big goals is that we just keep doing it, we keep going. And that's been huge for us. And that's one, when you hear about creating a podcast, that's one of the things your people tell you is most important.

Dr. Shannon (06:11.646)
Two and a half.

Dr. Shannon (06:21.402)
every single week. Clapping, can you hear it?

Rachael Hutchins (06:37.298)
is consistency. And I think we've achieved that.

Dr. Shannon (06:38.814)
Mm-hmm. I think we did such a beautiful job of that. And we, but we communicated really well too, because just because we've put out episodes and been consistent, it doesn't mean like, we do rebroadcast episodes, which again, nothing wrong with that, because the content is really, really good. So I'm thankful that we have enough content there to rebroadcast that and put some things out there. So, but it's just staying there.

Rachael Hutchins (06:52.53)
Mm-hmm. Yep.

Rachael Hutchins (07:03.454)
Yes. Yeah, just so there's always something there to listen to. Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Dr. Shannon (07:09.538)
And then you don't have to hide, you know, sometimes because we have, how many episodes do we have now? What just came out? We had a... Yeah. So sometimes that can be quite a bit to scroll through. So that's why we like to highlight and rebroadcast a few things. But yeah, consistency. I think that's been super great for us. I'm very proud of our consistency.

Rachael Hutchins (07:16.686)
137.

Rachael Hutchins (07:33.398)
Yeah, and we are ranking in the top 50%, which is pretty good for our small little podcast. Independently ran, created, edited, broadcast, all independent. So for us, we're proud of that. Our top states aren't surprising. It's Georgia and Alabama and the US, but we are global.

Dr. Shannon (07:40.66)
Yeah!

Dr. Shannon (07:47.938)
Everything.

Dr. Shannon (07:57.332)
them.

Mm-hmm.

Rachael Hutchins (08:01.934)
We have top three countries, include Canada and Australia, like India was in there. So super cool to see the reach, which is just like mind blowing to me. Yeah. And the one that always gets me is our downloads, like knowing that each download is a set of an ears and a brain and a human listening to us talk about birth and prenatal and motherhood and all of that. And then we had 10,000

Dr. Shannon (08:07.69)
Mm-hmm.

Dr. Shannon (08:12.05)
That, yeah, that kind of blows my mind, yeah.

Dr. Shannon (08:18.47)
Mm-hmm.

Rachael Hutchins (08:30.762)
600 of those in 2023 is just like, all my brain goes to is like a stadium or an auditorium full of all of those people listening to me. And then I'm like, holy moly, that's so cool. Even though I know it's like sometimes repeat listeners, it's just cool.

Dr. Shannon (08:42.936)
Ah!

Dr. Shannon (08:49.654)
Yeah, no, that's a little overwhelming. Like I just, I don't know. And we went into this with no expectations. There was no like, oh, we're gonna, we want this many downloads and all of these things. It was, no, we just wanna be consistent with our content, congruent with our content as far as what we're putting out there and what we're saying. And it's one of those like, I feel like field of dreams. Like if you build it, they will come. And so it's kind of, they've been listening. So yeah, I think that is.

Rachael Hutchins (09:13.822)
Day will come. Yeah.

Dr. Shannon (09:19.238)
I think that that's super awesome. I'm really proud of us for that.

Rachael Hutchins (09:21.086)
Yeah, yeah and it's growth from the prior year because our total downloads is 17,700. So I know that is growth with 10,000 of those being in this last year. And I know we want to grow it's definitely been it's like a slow and steady just again trying to do a little bit here and there trying to help it grow help it reach more people but also keep protect and keep our you know.

Dr. Shannon (09:25.162)
Mm-hmm.

Dr. Shannon (09:35.722)
Mm-hmm.

Rachael Hutchins (09:50.314)
mental health and physical health and all of that in check because we do work and we are mothers and we, you know, have or married like all these other roles and hats that we carry and so this is where we were trying to do this and grow it at the same time as all those other things. So it feels like, you know, slow and steady.

Dr. Shannon (10:08.79)
Well, I feel like we've found our routine and our seasons, you know, just not like, you know, there's seasons for everything. And so I feel like November to December is really tough for us to record together. Sometimes we can, I mean, I did some solo episodes, like sometimes we get it in there, but it's like after Thanksgiving, because then we both have birthdays around then and then it's, you know, it's the holiday season or whatnot. So

Rachael Hutchins (10:23.838)
Mm-hmm

Dr. Shannon (10:35.142)
We're careful with that time. And then I think the summertime gets a little crazy for us as well, because the kids are home and out of school and travel and that type of thing. So we have found those ebbs and flows of when do we have energy to put forward and where does our focus need to be? And I don't know, I think that that's, I'm proud of that. Like instead of,

pushing, pushing to exhaustion type of thing. It's like we're, I don't know, we're honest with each other as far as, okay, this time does not work, this time does work. And knowing when to push, when to be like, okay, no, we really, okay, we can do this, this might just feel hard, let's push through this little bit. It's kind of figuring that out. So I think we did a good job.

Rachael Hutchins (11:14.923)
Yeah. No.

Rachael Hutchins (11:25.886)
Yep. No, and I just appreciate we are on similar pages. So when we want typically when we both want to pull back is around the same time. So just trying to push when it feels right. And when we have more bandwidth and more availability, but then also really giving ourselves time and space to go a little bit slower with the podcast when life demands it or we want it right. And I know we want to intentionally choose those seasons and I'm each year. I feel like I'm trying to get better and better with. Hi.

Dr. Shannon (11:35.091)
Mm-hmm.

Rachael Hutchins (11:55.51)
put schedules around school stuff, like end of year stuff, or end of summer stuff, or holiday stuff, and so that I'm not feeling completely drained.

Dr. Shannon (12:01.699)
Mm-hmm.

Dr. Shannon (12:07.694)
Exactly. Okay. So some of our number one episode of 2023 was episode 92, and that was all about epidurals. That's kind of fun that was the number one episode of the year. That was a good one.

Rachael Hutchins (12:25.758)
Yeah, it's a great one. And I do think it's a hot like our top question surrounding giving birth is, is pain, pain management, fear of pain. And a lot of people want an epidural or choose an epidural. So having that information, you know, it makes sense. And, and I know one thing we want to do with when we kind of get this feedback of the most

Dr. Shannon (12:31.678)
Mm-hmm.

Dr. Shannon (12:35.466)
Mm-hmm.

Rachael Hutchins (12:52.482)
Downloaded episodes is sort of leaning into those topics and trying to create more stuff around those topics and

Dr. Shannon (12:56.838)
Mm-hmm. Where else can we go with that? And what more information, you know, can we provide?

Rachael Hutchins (13:03.698)
Yeah, and with the epidural conversation, it's not a, it's not a right or wrong. It's purely like, here's the information, here are your options. Here's how to navigate it. Here's how to prepare for it. Even if you think you don't want one, like here's how to prepare for it so that if in the event you need one or choose one, it is, you know, you're, you're feeling more prepared for it. So seeing that at the top, I'm not too surprised, but also makes me feel very, very proud because it knows we would pick the good episode, um, for our audience.

Dr. Shannon (13:08.606)
Mm-mm.

Dr. Shannon (13:12.882)
That was our goal.

Dr. Shannon (13:34.842)
I know, that's a good one. So definitely check that one out. And again too, that one's super informational. And always one of our goals with this is when we put out episodes, we never want... Try not to be judgy. And we're not shitting on you. It's more of here's the information, inform decisions. Our number two episode was number 84. This is with Dr. Bailey.

dear Cairo friend of mine, and it was a tale of two home births. We, she came on and shared her home birth stories. And it's so good. It was so good. I love her. I've, and I remember, and I think we talked about this in the episode when she and I met, because we weren't in school at the same time. I think I had graduated before her, but it's beautiful to hear her talk.

about her birth story. And I'm not surprised that a birth story is in the top five. People do love those. And when we do share our birth stories and have people on, we are very intentional with it too. I don't want, I do want the good, the bad, the ugly to be shared, but we want it in a, I don't know, an empowering way, an informed way, instead of Aunt Suzy just providing you with her horrible birth story and just dumping that on you.

It's a, you can choose to listen to it, but hearing someone talk about their birth story is huge. Especially coming from a place of well intentions, good meaning and like, proud and happy and, or sad and upset. It's like, I don't know. I just, it was such a, I love birth story. So again, I'm not surprised that that's up there, but Dr. Bailey is, she's amazing.

Rachael Hutchins (15:30.306)
Yes, and she has that lens of being a chiropractor, which is super cool. And I like when you get to hear two birth stories, and we've had a couple people on who share like the first birth story and then second birth story and seeing and listening to the evolution and the growth and that second mom of wisdom come through, I think is like more powerful sometimes than a singular birth story. I mean, all birth stories are powerful. Don't get me wrong. But I like when we can kind of...

Dr. Shannon (15:33.22)
Mm-hmm.

Dr. Shannon (15:42.389)
Mm-hmm.

Dr. Shannon (15:51.455)
Really?

Dr. Shannon (15:54.909)
Mm-hmm.

Rachael Hutchins (15:57.046)
have that first and second birth combined. And that's what was that one.

Dr. Shannon (16:00.89)
Yeah, because it's a different perspective. It's so good. And it's so cool to see same mama, you know, and look at how different it can be, or what the mom has noticed and learned and incorporated into that birth. So that's a very, very good episode. Okay, number three was episode 85, and that was visualization for birth.

and life. I'm surprised that this one's up there. I don't know. And we were talking about this earlier. I love, I love, love that it's up there, but I was surprised. I just didn't think people would listen to it. I don't know. And we don't make episodes specifically for people to listen to, right? Like it's more of, okay, what do we want to talk about? What are we passionate about? But I guess that just, that is my little confirmation of like...

Rachael Hutchins (16:33.865)
Loved that episode.

Rachael Hutchins (16:41.482)
You were surprised by it.

Rachael Hutchins (16:52.618)
Mm-hmm.

Dr. Shannon (16:57.214)
keep doing what you're doing and talk about things because people wanna hear this stuff. But this one was about like vision boards and. And.

Rachael Hutchins (17:03.446)
Well, this one took on a life of its own, because honestly, it was like it came about because we were in the middle of vision board season and had done the vision board meetup together. And then it was beginning of the year and like how it morphed into like, as we were creating the outline, all of a sudden I'm like, Whoa, whoa, whoa. This is like parallel to birth. And so how we weave those together is awesome. And I love that it's up there and I want to, I want to like reenergize people to go listen to it.

Dr. Shannon (17:06.119)
Yeah.

Dr. Shannon (17:20.438)
Mm-hmm.

Rachael Hutchins (17:32.586)
because of the parallels that are drawn between how we kind of prepare and approach life to how we prepare and approach birth is, chest kiss.

Dr. Shannon (17:40.99)
I know, I love how it came together and with our outline, it ended up being so much more than I thought it was gonna be. Cause I can't remember if you would come up with the idea. And I was like, I mean, I guess we can talk about the vision board. Cause I host a vision board event at my office every year. And I was like, I don't know if anybody wants to hear about this, but here we go. And it was so good. Yeah.

Rachael Hutchins (17:59.826)
No, that's exactly how it started. It's like when we come up with episodes, we're always like, what's happening in our life? What's happening in the offices with our clients? And you literally in that same voice, you were like, I've been doing this, but I don't know if anyone wants to hear about it. And then I was like, wait, yes, this works with birth. And when we can find the two that can come together. So it was exactly that, so.

Dr. Shannon (18:05.811)
Mm-hmm.

Dr. Shannon (18:13.597)
Yeah

Dr. Shannon (18:17.502)
Hahaha

Dr. Shannon (18:24.834)
It was a lot like to, you're so good about that because I get caught up in the, who is gonna care about this? Why, what's the point, what's the purpose, like that type of thing. And then you come in with the like, no, let's talk about this, let's share this, let's put it out there and it's gonna be magical. And it always is. Because even like the, I ran an ultra marathon, golly, was two years ago now because it was December of a while ago. And we came on and we talked about

my marathon and then all these parallels to birth and I didn't realize it until you had me go through and write it out. I was like, oh, okay, I see this. This is why we're such a good balance. Everything parallels to birth. Yes, that was a really good one. If you're listening to this in January as we're recording this episode, it's a perfect time to go back and re-listen to that episode.

Rachael Hutchins (19:03.694)
So many parallels to birth. Yes. Yeah.

Rachael Hutchins (19:19.262)
Yeah, we'll link all of these in the show notes, so you'll be able to, because sometimes it's hard to find them, like you said, sometimes you have to scroll and scroll and scroll. So we're linking all of our top episodes of 2023, top episodes of all time, and then our favorite episodes in the show notes.

Dr. Shannon (19:21.61)
Mm-hmm. Yeah, there's so many. Yeah, they're going to be linked.

Dr. Shannon (19:33.582)
and our favorite episodes of this past year, 2023, not like all time. Okay, so number four on our top episodes of 2023 was number 87, maternal stress and posture, what's the connection? I think that this was a rebroadcast because I feel like we talked about it before.

Rachael Hutchins (19:37.536)
Mm-hmm.

Rachael Hutchins (19:55.669)
Mm-hmm.

Dr. Shannon (19:58.802)
But we will change the name sometimes of our rebroadcasts because words speak differently to people. Like, you know, it's kind of the same thing. We do these episodes all the time. I feel like sometimes I'm like, golly, I feel like I'm saying the same thing every time, but yet someone's gonna hear it differently. Something's gonna be said different. Someone's gonna be in a different season of life, you know, and wanna hear it. But this is one of my favorite episodes because of that link to really looking at

Rachael Hutchins (20:07.17)
Mm-hmm.

Dr. Shannon (20:28.766)
how our posture impacts our nervous system and how our body functions. And so this just really looks at like maternal posture, whether you're bottle feeding, breast feeding, I mean, it's a lot of everything is happening within arms reach in that embrace area. There's a lot of rounded shoulders. There's a lot of head looking down. And sometimes we can't avoid that, but what does that do to our body? It kind of symbolizes...

It kind of shows our body. That's that fetal position. That's that stress position. And so we're signaling that to our nervous system and to our body. And so that's where that episode goes. And that was even based off of Pathways magazine, I think. So the Pathways to Family Wellness put out by the International Chiropractic Pediatric Association. We love that magazine. We talk about a lot of those articles in there. I'm pretty sure that one was like based on that as well too. So...

Rachael Hutchins (21:12.247)
Hmm.

Dr. Shannon (21:26.144)
It's one of my all-time favorites.

Rachael Hutchins (21:29.97)
Yep. And it relates to so many aspects of life and different stages and phases for motherhood and beyond, or even before. I'm a walking example of what life stress, maternal stress does to the body and then the unwinding that is needed to feel better and how easily it can turn into chronic pain and increased stress over time. Because then you're kind of in a state of stress and pain and then

Dr. Shannon (21:56.542)
Constant stress.

Rachael Hutchins (21:58.018)
you have higher levels of cortisol because you're in discomfort because you're so tense and you're not taking care of your body in the way that you should. So just that general awareness and that the unwinding of it sometimes takes some time. Um, and there's not usually a quick fix, but chiropractic care is a great place to start. I, that's one of the things that has saved me in my journey of, uh, putting a stop to chronic pain. So, um, and then when you're pregnant, oh my gosh, so many things happening to your body.

Dr. Shannon (22:24.029)
Mm-hmm.

Rachael Hutchins (22:27.35)
changing the way you're carrying your body, increase stress, you're not sleeping the same, you know, and then over time you're carrying your body differently and that impacts just how you're experiencing the world. And so again, general awareness and taking the steps to alleviate that and try to head it off. And that's what that episode talks about.

Dr. Shannon (22:47.266)
And I love what you just said as far as impacting how you are perceiving your world. That's the big part, wanting to catch it before it gets to that chronic stage and knowing that you're sending those signs and signals to your body about what you're perceiving. And it's, yeah, I think that that's important. Exactly. And we don't always need to be there.

Rachael Hutchins (22:54.363)
Mm-hmm.

Rachael Hutchins (23:08.617)
Mm-hmm.

Kinda keeps you in a state of fight or flight.

Rachael Hutchins (23:16.483)
Uh, no.

Dr. Shannon (23:18.603)
You can't grow and run from a bear at the same time. Okay, so that was our number four. And so rounding out the top episodes of 2023 is number five. This one wasn't even recorded last year though. Number 75, this is that tummy time method interview I did with occupational therapist Michelle Emanuel. I'm pretty sure. But this is our top episode of...

Rachael Hutchins (23:21.682)
No.

Rachael Hutchins (23:44.927)
It's in 2023.

Dr. Shannon (23:46.286)
All time. Did we record it in 2023? Huh. Okay. But it is, and so, you know, yeah, a little spoiler alert. It's also our top episode of All Time, Tummy Time Method with Michelle Emanuel. That one was so good. That one was fun because I found her on social media and she is, everything that she was sharing, I was like, holy crap, this is golden. It's like the importance of tummy time, because I go over that a lot with my parents.

Rachael Hutchins (24:02.949)
Mm-hmm.

Dr. Shannon (24:15.026)
But it's also why is it important? What is it doing nervous system wise to baby in development? What is it doing spinally for development? Because tummy time, that's when babies are born in this like giant little fetal shape, that little C shape. And so when they do tummy time, they're lifting their head up. That's how they form the curve in their neck. So it was just, she had so much information to share, but she shared, it was so much from

not just a structural standpoint, but there was the nervous system standpoint. She was a huge proponent of chiropractic care as well, occupational therapy, like all the things to help parents and understanding the importance of tummy time. I know sometimes babies, you know, scream during it. We know that, but that indicates that there's something else going on. So you should have your baby checked. Side note.

Rachael Hutchins (25:05.258)
Well, and that's there's when you're told your most people are just told to do tummy time without that sort of background to understanding. Cause I think when you can understand the benefit of it and the connection and what discomfort during tummy time means, it's a lot easier because some people are like, I just told to do this. And if you don't understand the why you're less likely to do it and, or you're less likely to navigate the problems that come from like that your baby's signaling to you, if they're having a hard time doing it, like you miss all that. If you don't understand the why behind it.

So I found this episode highly educational and informative and helpful for new parents.

Dr. Shannon (25:34.448)
Mm-hmm.

Dr. Shannon (25:42.126)
So again, that rounds out the top episodes of last year and then also brings us to number one of all time. Some of these ones from all time, we're going to be going way back. Okay. So number two of all time was number 62, that signs of labor and how labor progresses. That makes sense that that's up there. I mean, isn't that what you always hear? It's...

especially in your doula world is like, how to know when I'm in labor? When do I need, if you're doing a hospital birth or something outside the home, when do I need to go? And is this real? And what are Braxton Hicks? It's, yeah, so good. Uh-huh.

Rachael Hutchins (26:16.086)
Mm-hmm.

Rachael Hutchins (26:20.464)
Mm-hmm.

Yep, it's the same thing with the epidural conversation. As a childbirth educator and a doula, these are like top topics that a lot of people want. It's kind of more of the like top of brain people or conversation that questions when people are preparing for birth. I love this conversation. It is one of my absolute favorites to teach about, to talk about, because like understanding the physiological process of birth and how it is a normal physiological process that it's not.

Dr. Shannon (26:29.523)
Uh-huh.

Rachael Hutchins (26:52.614)
medical emergency. It's just like breathing. It's just like your heart beating. It's like an involuntary thing that happens all by itself after conception of course and learning about it totally reduces fear because now you understand what's happening inside of your body instead of having no clue what's happening and all of a sudden you're having menstrual like cramps that then turn into more intense contractions over time and not understanding how that process works. Yeah the progression and how to cope with each

Dr. Shannon (27:17.886)
progression of it.

Rachael Hutchins (27:22.086)
stage and that it's not linear and that it you know can ebb and flow and be up and down and sometimes it's easy and sometimes it's not.

I love this topic. I love seeing that in the top. Top top.

Dr. Shannon (27:32.09)
I know, definitely listen to it. Me too, me too. I also love the next one, number three. This was episode number 15, so way back. This was one of our first interviews. It was Inside Look With Home Birth, midwife Rachel Hart. We love Rachel. She's one of the midwives in the midwife team of birthing way here in the Atlanta area. I think she just celebrated some milestone of like.

record number of births, not a record number of births, but just like lots and lots of babies born that she's been a part of, including her own six children. I believe she has six. So it was, it's, I love having birth professionals on here for interviews when you can hear...

Rachael Hutchins (28:06.61)
Lots. So many babies.

Rachael Hutchins (28:16.255)
Yeah, that's right.

Dr. Shannon (28:28.85)
how you hear their voice, you hear their story. It doesn't have to be their story. You hear their voice, you hear how they speak, how they speak about birth and your approach. Like it's just, I don't know, there's something to be said for that. And every, and that's why I think it's important to like interview midwives and those types of things. Like get that feel or interview your providers, interview your duals, what not, because everybody's gonna use different words. You're gonna align with...

Rachael Hutchins (28:39.958)
their approach.

Dr. Shannon (28:57.106)
with people differently. And so I think it was just a wonderful interview. And she has a good, I mean, she's got a lot to share. And we had a two-parter with her as well too. So in another part, she goes more in depth with some of the extra work that she does. And she's even since that interview, she's created a podcast herself. I was on the podcast there. Like it's so good. She's really, yeah, she's done a lot.

Rachael Hutchins (29:08.418)
Yeah.

Rachael Hutchins (29:11.83)
But she's so good. Started. Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Rachael Hutchins (29:21.766)
Yeah, she loves serving and she loves like lifting women up and like it's she loves birth, but she also loves like taking care of ourselves and her, her four seeds of self care and her, you know, self centered, like self centered, not self centered, you know, brand of like helping people learn how to women specifically learn how to prioritize self care in a meaningful and effective way. And then she

Dr. Shannon (29:24.33)
Mm-hmm.

Dr. Shannon (29:30.066)
Ha ha.

Dr. Shannon (29:38.659)
Mm-hmm.

Rachael Hutchins (29:48.918)
She weaves that into her birth work. It's all mixed in, right? But it's just, she's multifaceted. She has, I've been on her group of coaching. She was my midwife for my birth. I have high regard for Rachel, but the way she talks about birth specifically and dispelling a lot of fear and doubt and false knowledge about home birth is like so important for people to hear. And that's why we did do two parts. And the other part is great, but this where she talks about home birth.

Dr. Shannon (29:52.794)
Mm-hmm.

Rachael Hutchins (30:18.494)
I felt like was very honest and very raw and very like informative. And like you hear her talk about, you're like, okay, this makes a lot of sense. So hopefully it inspires others to explore different options when it comes to giving birth because hospitals, not the only way home birth is not for everybody, but hospitals, not the only way. And so hearing her talk about it is, I think, highly inspiring. And I think she even inspired herself in that conversation because again, when you're in a profession, I can speak even as a doula, like you're, this is your profession. You do it day in and day out. It is easy to kind of just get

Dr. Shannon (30:32.346)
Right.

Rachael Hutchins (30:47.626)
robotic about it or just see it as like, okay, another conversation. But by the end of it, she was like, shoot, yeah, I'm on fire. Like, you know, like. Yeah, like how feeling very like as she was talking, you know, about things she talks about all the time, she felt inspired herself. So if that doesn't say enough, I don't know what does.

Dr. Shannon (30:49.022)
Uh-huh.

Dr. Shannon (30:55.718)
Yeah, I'm a home birth midwife, this is awesome. Yeah, yeah.

Dr. Shannon (31:03.91)
Mm-hmm.

Dr. Shannon (31:07.646)
I know. So yes, that's one of our tops. Number four on our list was number 55, tips for optimal fetal positioning. I'm glad this is in the top five of all time. This is what I deal with a lot or potentially hear the most. Even if a mom is calling for like a consult call,

and baby isn't an optimal fetal position, or if they're just like, I feel good during this pregnancy, I just want to make sure that this remains, like checking pelvis alignment and wanting baby to be an optimal position. So this is something definitely that I hear a lot. And there are certain modalities you can seek out, certain practitioners you can seek out to help.

I'm not 100% guarantee that baby is in optimal positioning, but to set yourself up for success in the best way possible, kind of doing all that you can and all that you can control. So this is a really, yeah, this is a good episode.

Rachael Hutchins (32:20.426)
Yeah, and learning about how to how to carry yourself in like day to day life. So there's practitioners that absolutely help. But then it's also like what can you do just in how you're sitting at your desk, how you're hanging out on the couch, how you're getting in and out of the car, you know, ways to encourage optimal fetal position, which is that head down left side. But, you know, we try to talk very loosely and openly about this with our clients because we don't we don't want people to get too hung up on it. And I know we talked about this in our episode of like, again, just like you said.

Dr. Shannon (32:25.554)
Mm-hmm.

Dr. Shannon (32:31.067)
Mm-hmm.

Dr. Shannon (32:46.32)
Right.

Rachael Hutchins (32:50.102)
Do the things that you can do, but don't let it bring, try to, if it's bringing stress, then you've got to like reevaluate it. It shouldn't bring stress because then that's counterproductive. But yeah, understanding why optimal fetal positioning matters, how to navigate if baby's not in optimal positioning, understanding kind of how that works and things you can do to, we like to use the word encourage. Just encourage, because you can't like, you can't do something and it happened, right? We just, some people can do all the things and.

Dr. Shannon (32:57.63)
that is very counterproductive.

Dr. Shannon (33:11.747)
Mm-hmm. Mm-mm. Yeah.

Rachael Hutchins (33:17.75)
still end up with a malposition baby. And so we have to hold it very loosely, but just general, we're all about that general awareness to set you up for success, just like you said. Yeah.

Dr. Shannon (33:18.106)
It still doesn't happen.

Dr. Shannon (33:23.454)
Mm-hmm. Exactly. So yeah, I'm not surprised that it's in the top five, but I do like that one. And rounding out our top episodes of all time, we have number 76-5, benefits of labor doula support. What, what? I love it. Yeah, of course. Of course. I talk about doulas a lot in the office.

Rachael Hutchins (33:40.75)
I'm not mad about that. Ha ha ha.

Dr. Shannon (33:52.802)
And I talk about it from a standpoint of I have two births and I did not have a doula with those two births And so I come at it from a different standpoint of What I think I could have done differently and what I kind of wish I had done differently not you know beating myself up But more of trying to spread like this is why I think it's important and this is what I've seen

with other moms and this is what I have personally experienced and this is how, I know how it could be different. So yeah, labor support, that's essentially someone outside of your partner being there for labor support. Because I'm talking about this too, I'm like, I love my husband, but he's not a good doer. And I love to know that.

Rachael Hutchins (34:26.221)
Mm-hmm.

Rachael Hutchins (34:43.226)
Yeah, something we say is like the partner, the husband, the spouse, the partner, whomever is like your trusted loved one in the birth space with you, knows you intimately. And then the doula knows birth intimately, right? And so we don't putting all the pressure on either yourself or your partner to know all the things about birth or to help you navigate that process is a big ask. It's doable and lots of people do it. But I think our experience

proves that having the doula there to help shoulder that and help guide through the unknown and the unpredictable and provide knowledge and support, emotional, physical, all of that just helps boost the whole experience. So it's not like a doula equals unmedicated birth or doula equals. Yeah, like it doesn't.

Dr. Shannon (35:24.138)
Mm-hmm.

Dr. Shannon (35:28.854)
Mm-hmm. Satisfied birth experience or dual, like, you know, as far as like, oh, I had the birth, the exact birth I wanted. Mm-mm, mm-mm.

Rachael Hutchins (35:36.074)
It's not about checking boxes. Yeah. It's about learning about the process. And so doulas help. Yep. Help you tap into the support system that you need. Learn teaches you how to like use the support people around you build your birth support team or all about like here are good people to bring onto your team, chiropractors, massage therapists, pelvic floor therapists, lactation consultants, you know, and we don't have a society where everyone around you is well versed or educated on birth. Like

Dr. Shannon (35:41.61)
feeling supported.

Dr. Shannon (35:50.899)
Mm-hmm.

Rachael Hutchins (36:04.834)
hundreds of years ago, like the grandmas of the grandmas of the grandmas, like knew about breastfeeding, knew about herbs to help take care of you. We're surrounded with it. And now we are not as so like you have the one provider who has a specialty of birth, but then there's like so many other components and everyone's different. Not everyone needs pelvic PT and not everyone needs lactation support. Like it's not like you need all those, but if you can kind of have a little bit of everything and that's what we say, just kind of build, make those contacts, make those relationships.

Dr. Shannon (36:09.842)
and you were surrounded with them. So the birthing mom was surrounded with it. And then now we're not.

Mm-hmm.

Dr. Shannon (36:27.619)
Mm-hmm.

Rachael Hutchins (36:34.07)
then that kind of helps, that's your village, as far as birth goes. And then even getting into like how to build your family and loved ones support so that it's setting boundaries, it's healthy and protecting your mental space and setting you up for success in the postpartum. It's so much more than just the moment you give birth, while that is a major event. It is everything leading up to it, and then the several weeks and months after. And as a doula, like that's what we focus on is that whole year really. And so we want mom as

Dr. Shannon (36:36.326)
Mm-hmm.

Dr. Shannon (36:52.751)
Mm-hmm.

Rachael Hutchins (37:03.886)
whole and family as whole as possible on the other side of this, regardless of what you come up against. And that's the benefit of doula support. And that is an evolved thought process. When I started doula work, I was like, how many things can I put in my doula bag that can help me support this person? Like how many tools can I physically have? Or like, you know, you want to learn about all the hip squeezes and all the counter pressures and all of that. Because you think like if you're doing

Dr. Shannon (37:29.308)
Mm-hmm.

Rachael Hutchins (37:32.094)
in the birth and you're succeeding, but over time I've learned that it's so much more than that Dula brings and a relationship. Many of our Dula clients are still friends forever and have even been inspired to get into birth work themselves because they're just like, this is awesome. So obviously touching on this episode fires me up. I care a lot about birth Dulas and feel that they are highly, highly beneficial or obviously I wouldn't be doing this work.

Dr. Shannon (38:01.19)
Yes, well I'm writing notes real quick. I love your dog. No, I'm writing notes, because we need to do an episode on that. It's not all about the tools and the tool belt for the doula, like, you know? Like what to expect with that. So jot that down. That was a good one. I know, I was like, wait, keep talking. Let me write that down.

Rachael Hutchins (38:01.546)
And I apologize for my dog in the background.

Rachael Hutchins (38:16.514)
That's a good idea. Everything I said after that is so good. All right.

Rachael Hutchins (38:23.19)
Well, I'll say I actually saw, and I'm so sorry, my dog, he's right above me upstairs and he's just, he probably sees a little squirrel outside and he's just having so much fun. So I'll try and edit that out if I can. But if not, I love dogs. But I did see a post, like a midwife posted it recently. And I think it was a repost from someone else. You know how social media is, but like, it was like doulas are not all about hip squeezes. It's about doulas are about navigating the unknown.

Dr. Shannon (38:31.)
He's having so much fun.

Dr. Shannon (38:37.919)
Cough

Dr. Shannon (38:46.323)
Yeah.

Dr. Shannon (38:50.367)
Hmm.

Mm-hmm. So that's, yeah, maybe stay tuned for year 2024 because we're probably going to have that episode come out. Another good little topic. So yes, that rounds out our top episodes of All Time. So let's see. We talked about our number of downloads. So...

Rachael Hutchins (38:53.37)
And I was like, oh, chills. Yes, yes, yes.

Dr. Shannon (39:21.574)
We're excited there. Our favorite episodes of this past year. We did jot down, I think we have five where we kind of agreed on like, oh yeah, these were all really good. I will say, and this happens every time we do these like year in review ones, is our favorite episodes are not necessarily the ones that are in the top five. But we like to mention these because, well, because they are our favorites. They're our favorites for a reason.

and maybe you could benefit from listening to them. But our, I guess these are really in no particular order though. Like this is more of, I don't know, we just.

Rachael Hutchins (40:01.99)
No, the order I did put them in the list was purely number of like where they fell, um, not in ranking of priority just for my type A brain.

Dr. Shannon (40:06.478)
Oh, when we recorded them. Mm-hmm. Yeah, no, that's good. So our first one was holding two truths. So this was episode number 90. This one, this was a game all the time. Yeah, it's come up ever since we, well, I mean, it's obviously been a topic before this, but ever since we did talk about it, it has like come to the forefront of my mind as far as things being...

Rachael Hutchins (40:20.498)
Love it. I love it. I use the phrase all the time.

Dr. Shannon (40:36.49)
hard and beautiful and the struggle and beautiful, you know, like it's the two truths and it's honoring both sides of that, not just forgetting maybe some of the hard, the difficult or trying not to feel that, maybe trying to avoid that. That's the whole point of this. I'm like holding my hands like in a little cup. I'm like holding two truths. I don't know. I keep doing this while I'm talking about it. It's...

Rachael Hutchins (40:41.404)
Mm-hmm.

Rachael Hutchins (40:59.65)
Toot toot!

Dr. Shannon (41:05.682)
It's honoring that instead of just pushing some of the hard out of the way. And I think there's something to be said when you can do that. When you can hold those two truths. Doesn't necessarily make it easier, but I feel it's better mentally or better emotionally. You are more capable to handle things.

I don't know. But, and this was also based off of Pathways article thing, I think too, right? Wasn't this?

Rachael Hutchins (41:37.97)
I think it was inspired, but I think we sort of ended up taking that one into its own. Yeah. Cause I love this conversation. We use it a lot with mamas in pregnancy, really a lot more in postpartum once baby's here and you have these like, it's not black and white. It is constantly living in the gray and there's like brief moments of bliss and moments of struggle. And like, if you've got to be able to see that both can exist.

Dr. Shannon (41:42.18)
This went into its own realm. Yeah. There you go.

Dr. Shannon (41:49.06)
Mm-hmm.

Dr. Shannon (41:53.746)
Mm-hmm.

Dr. Shannon (41:57.339)
Mm-hmm.

Rachael Hutchins (42:06.89)
in the same day within moments of each other. And when you can hold both things and hold them, I'm doing it too, right? Loosely. Then it kind of does free up some sort of burden of expectation that motherhood is supposed to be a certain way or that postpartum is supposed to be a certain way and say, okay, I can I'm going to feel a range of emotions on a daily basis and just sort of taking it in stride versus

Dr. Shannon (42:13.534)
Yes, we have to do this.

Dr. Shannon (42:21.843)
Mm-hmm.

Rachael Hutchins (42:35.038)
again, that burden of expectation and that applies to life. I mean, I use this all the time in my life because it is not like fully balanced and it is not fully great all the time. There's always something happening that's hard at the same time as something happening that's amazing. And so that helps me like not for my brain, not get bogged down too much or helps me kind of come out of a funk from feeling in a funk, right? We're all allowed to kind of be different at different times.

Dr. Shannon (42:38.991)
Mm-hmm.

Dr. Shannon (42:45.226)
Mm-mm.

Dr. Shannon (42:52.146)
Mm-hmm.

Dr. Shannon (43:00.931)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Rachael Hutchins (43:04.766)
And I'll never forget when I learned about like red. I was, I mean, again, the idea has been around forever, but whenever I read this article newly postpartum with my first baby about the, the don't be a silver lining person that really helped me. That was the beginning of this like whole two truths thing of like when someone shares their hard with you, it doesn't have to be, Oh, but at least baby's healthy or at least you're live at least.

Dr. Shannon (43:18.41)
Mm-hmm.

Dr. Shannon (43:22.792)
Mm-hmm.

Dr. Shannon (43:29.028)
Mm-hmm.

Rachael Hutchins (43:33.61)
whatever, it's sort of like affirming the hard, like gosh that really stinks, I'm so sorry that happened. How can I help you? Yeah.

Dr. Shannon (43:40.363)
Yeah, it's saying that you listened to someone. I feel like that's a big part of that too. Yeah, now, it's huge.

Rachael Hutchins (43:48.258)
Cause it takes away, same thing like maybe you've had a miscarriage cause I've been there too and well intentioned people you'll get pregnant again. It's just a sign. It's just a sign that you weren't supposed to have this baby. And I'm always like, you can take that sign and shove it. Cause that's not how I feel on the inside, right? All you want is that baby in your arms, but I get it. I understand the like intention behind it, but let me

Dr. Shannon (43:52.739)
Mm-hmm.

Dr. Shannon (43:57.358)
I think we did have, you know, at least, yeah. Mm-hmm.

Dr. Shannon (44:06.471)
Mm-hmm.

Dr. Shannon (44:14.554)
right. The word, I don't know, the words can be different and it's honoring, it's holding that space for the two truths. I think maybe.

Rachael Hutchins (44:21.95)
Something is so powerful about saying, gosh, that is so hard. Like, I'm so sorry you're going through that. I can't imagine. And so I'm trying to fix it, right? We try and put a bandaid on it or fix it, you know, and then let them, you know, I don't know. I could go on and on. Love this conversation. We refer to the two truths on the podcast a lot. Hannah and I are constantly talking about it with our clients to truth. I think it's a it's a, you know, seasoned mom. I do think now being almost 11 years in.

Dr. Shannon (44:25.716)
Haha

Dr. Shannon (44:29.139)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Dr. Shannon (44:35.97)
Mm-hmm. I know that's a given. That's a given.

Dr. Shannon (44:44.402)
Mm-hmm.

Dr. Shannon (44:49.41)
Mm-hmm.

Rachael Hutchins (44:51.762)
more seasoned of a mom and an evolution of motherhood that I think we try to impart on people.

Dr. Shannon (44:55.558)
Yes, yes, yes. I feel much better holding two truths now. Like, yeah. And my wisdom in our advanced stage.

Rachael Hutchins (45:03.487)
Yeah.

Rachael Hutchins (45:06.718)
Well, yeah, we won't be too cocky because there's wisdom upon wisdom in the next generations to come and in our Parents and all of that. So I saw something recently I saw something recently that was like I wish they would um Instead of however many years old you are it's like leveling up like a video game So i'm level 41 Versus level whatever 25 right? Like i'm level 41 and then it has a like

Dr. Shannon (45:11.71)
Ha ha!

there yet. Yeah, not even there yet.

Dr. Shannon (45:27.126)
Oh yeah.

Yeah.

Rachael Hutchins (45:34.358)
Yes, you made it to level 41. That's awesome. Or like you're at level 60. Oh my gosh, way to go. You get to each year is leveling up versus the feeling of each year being oh yeah it's to have such a negative connotation.

Dr. Shannon (45:35.934)
point one.

Dr. Shannon (45:40.854)
Level 60. I'm going to use that now. It's leveling up.

aging, right? It's, yeah, no, I am leveling up. I'm going to call it happy level leveling up. Okay. Writing it down. We're going to come up with the whole entire year's worth of podcast episodes in this one recap. Leveling it up. I'm going to start saying happy level up day instead of happy birthday. Okay. It's good. I like that. I like that.

Rachael Hutchins (45:54.658)
Girl, quiet it down, I'll talk about that.

Rachael Hutchins (46:00.876)
I'm sorry.

Rachael Hutchins (46:10.334)
It's good!

Dr. Shannon (46:13.95)
Um, okay. Next one was Ripple Effect. As far as favorite episodes, this is episode 97. Um, the Ripple Effect. It's the butterfly flaps its wings and there's a tornado in Mexico. I don't know. I'm just making that up. But it's like, it's kind of like that. It's the not to put a lot of stress in each moment.

Rachael Hutchins (46:30.882)
That's a major ripple effect.

Rachael Hutchins (46:35.953)
Mm-hmm.

Dr. Shannon (46:42.254)
or in each outcome of things, but knowing dropping a pebble in the water creates these ripples that come out that impact the world and environment around it. But this is coming from that well intention as far as, oh, it's so important to look at your birth and your birth experience and your pregnancy experience and what you want out of it.

Rachael Hutchins (46:50.988)
Mm-hmm.

Dr. Shannon (47:09.638)
and knowing that can have the ripple effect into postpartum, into how you parent. And I think any parent would speak to that. Maybe parents of multiple would speak to it too, knowing, wow, the first time around, I didn't realize the ripple effect of pregnancy, labor, birth, and how that was gonna impact postpartum and how that was gonna impact motherhood. I think that's kind of the, I guess the basis of it, but I do.

It's one of my favorites.

It can easily be, but I mean, it's one of those where it can easily go into bringing stress like, oh, I know that this moment is so important and impactful. And that's where we go in that conversation is understanding the why we're talking about it and then ways that you can impact that ripple effect.

Rachael Hutchins (47:44.598)
Now I love this conversation, yeah.

Rachael Hutchins (48:09.978)
Yeah, I think it's kind of understanding each little stone that you step forward onto kind of leads to the next and the next and the next and how one little thing like, you know, being more intentional with your pregnancy and an early on phase can slowly but surely over time because with each stone you step onto it leads to the next. So therefore over time you end up with a greater ripple effect that can impact your postpartum. Like who knew that taking a childbirth education class

Dr. Shannon (48:33.246)
Mm-hmm.

Rachael Hutchins (48:39.022)
in pregnancy would help you have a better first six months with your baby because of like that process of like decision making and education gathering and advocacy and autonomy and all these things that you learn like incrementally along the way the overtime ends up with a greater whole that is never just one thing and that's where when you talk about birth like focusing on

Dr. Shannon (48:46.122)
Exactly.

Dr. Shannon (48:56.112)
Mm-hmm.

Rachael Hutchins (49:08.898)
Birth can go a number of ways that can still leave you with a positive ripple effect because of all the little things you did before and that come after, right? So love it.

Dr. Shannon (49:11.634)
Mm-hmm.

Dr. Shannon (49:15.632)
Mm-hmm.

Dr. Shannon (49:21.402)
Mm-hmm. We highly recommend listening to that episode. Let's see. Number three. This is going to be episode number 107. This was birth expectations and bridging the gap. This was managing expectations. I feel like my later years in life have been a lot of managing expectations and what that means and how that can directly impact.

um gosh like not my outlook on life but can directly impact how situ how i react to situations you know it's really managing those expectations having realistic expectations and you even we taught these all kind of are i guess our favorite ones are all kind of somewhat similar

Rachael Hutchins (50:02.275)
Mm-hmm, exactly.

Rachael Hutchins (50:08.572)
Mm-hmm.

Dr. Shannon (50:16.762)
and what we're trying to get at as far as embracing the unpredictability of birth, but still putting forth the work and the effort and still wanting a certain thing, but again, not managing those expectations and not saying my happiness is going to be based on the fact that this is going to be the specific outcome. It's going to happen the specific way. So yeah, there's things that... That was a good conversation.

Rachael Hutchins (50:17.757)
Yeah.

Rachael Hutchins (50:26.836)
Mm-hmm.

Rachael Hutchins (50:41.554)
Yeah, yeah, I love it because it applies to not only, it really applies to like marriage, partnership, friendship, birth, postpartum, when you can kind of set expectations in reality based on your current situation and then like have communication around that, you're shrinking the gap and you're shrinking the potential for not meeting your expectations and you're creating a better situation for...

Dr. Shannon (50:47.614)
Mm-hmm.

Dr. Shannon (51:04.778)
Mm-hmm.

Rachael Hutchins (51:08.69)
positive experience when you can kind of manage that gap and that's what we kind of guide people through.

Dr. Shannon (51:14.37)
Mm-hmm. Yeah, it's like when I know that the break, air quotes, the break that I'm taking from the office and work between Christmas and New Year's is not going to be restful. I am managing those expectations because we know it's just crazy. No, it's a then, then I'm ticked off. No, like I said, 41 years. I've leveled up.

Rachael Hutchins (51:29.481)
Hahaha

Rachael Hutchins (51:33.566)
Right, right, because then if you think it's going to be restful and then it's not restful, what are you?

Rachael Hutchins (51:43.223)
Still figuring it out.

Dr. Shannon (51:43.466)
21 years, I'm still working on this. Still working on it, no. And let's see, another one of our favorites was number 118, Partner Tips. Ways that you, this was one that started off loosely based on an Instagram post and then we morphed it into this amazing way to truly be supportive of whomever.

Rachael Hutchins (52:03.77)
Mm-hmm.

Rachael Hutchins (52:12.474)
Mm-hmm simple lifts

Dr. Shannon (52:13.098)
is giving birth, who just truly be supportive. Yeah, simplest. That was a good one though.

Rachael Hutchins (52:18.476)
Mm-hmm.

Loved it and I think it's a good listen for people expecting and their partners and anyone who's immediately around the birther To kind of just be like, oh, that's so simple. I had no idea I could be so helpful

Dr. Shannon (52:26.162)
Mm-hmm.

Dr. Shannon (52:35.106)
Mm-hmm. The difference of just coming to see the baby versus what can we do to support, to truly be supportive. I mean, obviously you want to go and see baby and check in on mom and family, but can you bring a meal? Can you vacuum? Can you do some laundry? Can you, you know, like there's other things that you can do as well. So that was a really, really good episode. And then rounding out our top.

favorite ones. This was episode number 126. This was one of the last ones I think we recorded like together before our November break came up. But it's tapping into your mental strength. It's looking at

Dr. Shannon (53:26.458)
It's kind of digging deep. It's digging deep and finding that last little bit that you can tap into for labor and birth. Those kind of like those reserves that you don't really even know you have. And maybe you haven't really had to tap into them yet or anything. And this was loosely based on that Treasure Box article from Pathways. And again, this like...

morphed into something completely different. Because then we went into conversations about when we've had to tap into those mental reserves and where do you go mentally to do that? Because birth is gonna bring that out of you, you know? And sometimes if you resist it, it's a little bit, but it's a little bit tough. I think I resisted it in my first.

Rachael Hutchins (54:13.362)
Yeah. Mm hmm. Yep. I was just.

Dr. Shannon (54:23.726)
And when I look back on that and it's kind of like, no, we're gonna have to dig deep. What can you do to remind yourself that you can do this? You were beautifully crafted and designed to do this. So kind of reminding yourself of that.

Rachael Hutchins (54:34.417)
Mm-hmm.

Rachael Hutchins (54:40.042)
Mm hmm. Yeah. No, I love it. We just had this conversation yesterday with a potential or not potential, but with a client and talking about because like she was an athletic, she's an athlete, right? So when we have athletes or people who have had like things in their life that they've gone through where they have been pushed mentally, emotionally, physically, and that looks different for everybody. But we try and draw on those like life experiences to be like, look what you did.

Tell me where you went to get through that. And that's what we're talking about. It's going to a different place that we don't typically access on a day-to-day basis, mentally and emotionally, in order to get through something. We equate it to like doing a plank, doing reps with heavy weights, doing a long run. You have to kind of break it down incrementally and go to a different place in order to keep going, but we do it.

Dr. Shannon (55:08.48)
Hmm.

Dr. Shannon (55:11.869)
Mm-hmm.

Dr. Shannon (55:17.999)
Mm-hmm.

Dr. Shannon (55:21.779)
Mm-hmm.

Rachael Hutchins (55:34.582)
we do it for the betterment of our bodies for the most part, right? And then at some point, if you're, if it becomes suffering, then you stop doing it ideally and you protect yourself. Like it doesn't mean you have to go through suffering, but we go to these places. Like some people call it a dark place. Some people call it a labor land or a running land or hypnosis, like pain. Oh yeah. Pain cave. That was it. A pain cave. Yeah. And so like you kind of like, and if you can have the, this idea even in your head,

Dr. Shannon (55:42.652)
Mm-hmm.

Dr. Shannon (55:52.562)
The pain cave, we talked about that. That was part of the, yeah.

Rachael Hutchins (56:03.99)
this is somewhere you have to go that's another plane it feels like you can give yourself permission to kind of tap out in a way of like the mental tap out like not giving up but just like i'm going to i have to go somewhere else in order to get through this but i can do that and if i go somewhere else it's actually going to help me get through it and protect me and that's in labor land and pain cave and all of that can be used yeah all right what ride are you on today

Dr. Shannon (56:16.37)
surrendering a bit.

Dr. Shannon (56:26.198)
Laborland. I like that. It's like an amusement park. I know what ride am I on. But yeah, those are our favorite episodes from the past year. I would highly recommend going and listening to those. So congrats to us. We are celebrating. We're so excited for what's to come for this year. We...

one of my newsletters that I sent to my office, I had two things in there as far as looking forward to the next year and planning and goal setting and those types of things. But you really have to kind of, it starts with looking at where you at, what did you do well? What did go well, what did not go well? Why did it go well? Why did it not go well? Where did you feel peace? Where did you not? All of those things, being truthful and honest. And so that's what we've done with the

with looking over the podcast as kind of looking at where we're at. There's a few things that we do know. We know we're gonna keep going. That's kind of the one thing we do know. We wanna keep recording, we wanna keep doing this, keep doing our interviews. We wanna be consistent with it as well. So whatever that looks like. But I think that's my big thought with it is, yeah, I'm gonna keep going. This is fun.

Rachael Hutchins (57:52.042)
Keep going. And year after year, we add a little bit more and we improve on something every year. And, you know, last year was taking on our own editing and adding video. And we did that. And it's hard to be like appreciative of that because you always are like, well, what's next? But that was a big thing for us. It saves for us financially. It's improving our ultimate aesthetic and control of our podcast. Yeah. And so like we did that. And it takes us longer because we are.

Dr. Shannon (57:56.628)
Mm-hmm.

Dr. Shannon (58:08.607)
Mm-hmm.

Dr. Shannon (58:15.89)
and giving us a control, yeah, yeah.

Rachael Hutchins (58:22.122)
We have other primary jobs. We have family, right? So we're doing, but we're still doing like, we're still growing. Like if you would have said, imagine this conversation with where we're at now, what we're doing in May of 2021, I would have been like, Whoa, Whoa. Where am I hosting my podcast? Like, yeah. And had this many episodes. Like I wouldn't have been able to like hear that at all. Just like, so the next thing for us is growing and doing our own.

Dr. Shannon (58:36.346)
No. We're doing our own editing and we're recording.

Rachael Hutchins (58:51.146)
curated sponsorships and advertisements and doing our own reading and adding that in. So we're sharing products and services with our listeners that we truly believe in and having meaningful tidbits that we can share about those things to help grow us financially, but also help improve. Because we talk about a lot of different products and services that we don't really...

Dr. Shannon (59:03.018)
Mm-hmm.

Rachael Hutchins (59:16.69)
Highlight in that way. So we really want and we've been talking about this now for probably six months or longer. But this is how it is. We massage it out. We talk about it. It takes time because we want to do it right. And we want to do it intentionally. And so that's kind of what's next for us. And to just keep going and doing what we're doing and growing and And really bringing even some of the same topics, but bringing them on another level, I think, is also something that's important to us. So revisiting some of our top topics are our favorite topics like we just went over and then

Dr. Shannon (59:20.814)
Yeah, this is, it takes time.

Dr. Shannon (59:33.066)
Mm-hmm.

Dr. Shannon (59:41.404)
Mm-hmm.

Rachael Hutchins (59:46.614)
going deeper and creating some really meaningful resources around each topic. So there we go, I spoke it, now we have to do it.

Dr. Shannon (59:52.426)
Mm-hmm. I know. There it is. It's coming true. It's going to come true. That's one thing though, speaking it out. And that's maybe that's why the hikes do so well too. You know, you're just, you're, it's not just writing it. We talk it out. We speak it out. So yeah. So those are some of the things from our hikes. I know.

Rachael Hutchins (01:00:07.465)
We talk it out. I do really wish I had we had an ability to do that more often. I feel like it would do me well in many ways like just that like, but I'll take what I'm getting.

Dr. Shannon (01:00:17.738)
Mm-hmm. Yeah, exactly. I'm appreciative of that. Always open to more. So, yeah, thanks for tuning in. Thanks for listening to our year end review. And we're looking forward to the rest of 2024.