Pain Free Birth #86 | From Fear to Power: How Trusting Her Body Changed Everything in Birth with Polina Westcott
What happens when a woman stops outsourcing her intuition and starts trusting her body?
In this episode, Karen sits down with Polina Westcott, creator of Sensible Mama, to share two transformative home birth stories that radically changed the way Polina views birth, fear, pain, and personal authority.
Polina opens up about her first pregnancy, where everything seemed medically “normal” until routine testing suddenly turned her pregnancy into a problem to be managed. When questioning protocols led to pushback from her providers, Polina made the bold decision to fire her OB team at eight months pregnant and pivot to a home birth. What followed was a long, challenging, and deeply empowering first labor that revealed strength she never knew she had.
Her second birth could not have been more different. She shares how mindset, education, and surrender completely transformed how her body responded to contractions and labor progression. This episode dives deep into birth autonomy, informed consent, intuition, and the mind-body connection in labor.
Tune in to hear:
- Why Polina chose to fire her OB team late in pregnancy
- How questioning medical authority led her to reclaim birth autonomy
- What really happens during transition and why many women want to “tap out”
- The doula moment that changed everything during her first labor
- How mindset radically altered her second birth experience
- What fetal ejection reflex actually feels like in real life
- Why trusting intuition protected her during the third stage of labor
- How fear, resistance, and control affect labor progression
- Why birth can be an initiation into motherhood, strength, and self-trust
Connect with Polina:
https://www.youtube.com/@sensible_mama
IG: @sensible_mama
CONNECT WITH KAREN:
Use code PODCAST to get $50 off the Pain Free Birth E-course HERE