Sex Birth Trauma with Kimberly Ann Johnson

What Holly Shares: Untangling hormonal birth control from feminism Why she was on the pill as a teen even before she was sexually active The positive effects the pill had for her The mental health affects the pill had on her Her journey discovering who she was without hormonal birth control What You'll Hear: The cultural marriage between feminism and the pill The pushback she received against her writing criticizing synthetic hormones How feminism has changed in the last 10 years Various forms of feminism and what they mean for women How the pill has become our cultural right of passage How hormonal birth control helped manage her painful periods Letting go of fear and embracing your teen's sexuality Teen pregnancy vs. side effects of hormonal birth control The paranoia, depression, and obsessive compulsive behavior she developed while on the pill Rediscovering her emotional landscape post synthetic hormones The dearth of critical examination of the pill's side effects Side effects of the pill including reduced senses, lactation, and suicidal thoughts Why so many women are suffering from anhedonia and are unable to experience inherent pleasure in life Questioning how synthetic hormones affect our birthing, our parenting, and attachment Reclaiming the power of your own emotions, sense of self, and libido How synthetic hormones affect your attraction to other people Getting support for your own journey leaving hormonal birth control Learning about fertility awareness within the context of feminism Imagining a future of feminist fertility awareness plus somatic consent practice Embracing men and boys in the feminist fertility movement How coming off of the pill can be part of a social movement

What She Shares: Why she believe the psoas should be considered an organ of perception How the psoas is connected to our emotional states and our nervous system How to find resiliency and tone the nervous system through movement and play What You'll Hear: Why the psoas, more than any other structure, is expressive and doesn't fit in a biomechanical box How the psoas relates to our sense of safety and full thriving How a full body orgasm relates to the psoas Why feeling safe is essential to reaching orgasmic potential Why cathartic work is not as useful as integration and nourishment Why it's important to create space for the psoas rather than trying to stretch it The psoas should not be classified as a muscle, but rather an organ of perception How the psoas is like the body's emotional GPS system What "Core Integrity" means to Liz and its importance Why turning towards yourself supports your agency What are our O-rings and why being acquainted with ALL your sphincters is important for holistic health How aging and drying are different A baby follows the mother's psoas during birth; how chemical intervention during birth can disorient the baby Valuing birth and women can positively affect health in later life How our cultures affects our Core Integrity The biological way of being human and trusting our animal selves Having a disrupted gut may affect gut feelings and intuition Rhythm in your life will help to balance the nervous system

What She Shares: The history of eating placenta Why single CDC case-studies on eating placenta aren't as trustworthy as are own experiences How her own postpartum period was affected by returning to work after two weeks, being alone with her baby after Day 9, and living with undiagnosed Hashimoto's How integrated postpartum care would be a dream for new moms How her agency, Baby Caravan, matches women to birth doulas, postpartum doulas, and back-to-work coaching services What You'll Hear: Placenta encapsulation: Chinese medicine history and modern-day uses The connection between homeopathy, cannibalism and eating placenta The recent CDC case-study and its implications on eating placenta Jennifer's experience with postpartum and how her plan shifted when her son was born late: she returned to work after two weeks, and how that affected her How do freelancers arrange postpartum so that we have what we need? The hard reality check of being on her own from Day 9 of postpartum Her diagnosis of Hashimoto's, and how she remained undiagnosed for 18 months Postpartum blood work from a functional medicine doctor is so important! What Jennifer is seeing in the birth world right now, and what we can do better in terms of supporting each other and women of color Woodhull Hospital in NYC as an example of integrated birth care with a 13% C-Section rate (the current rate in NYC is 30-50%) The complete absence of postpartum care, and the average woman going back to work in 12-21 days: this predisposes us for infection and disease Jennifer's postpartum agency, Baby Caravan, and how they help women who are preparing in advance---and in crisis Jennifer's postpartum plan for her current pregnancy: an aggressive savings plan, taking one month off before her due date/three months off after, having her in-laws come to rent an apartment down the street for a month so they can do laundry/cook for her (which she requested!), nutritional support like the API diet, bloodwork, and living in a "plush nest"---and the curveballs she and her husband have already faced in planning What to look for in a birth doula and/or a postpartum doula Jennifer's agency, Baby Caravan, which provides holistic support for families in and around NYC, from pregnancy through returning to work postpartum http://www.babycaravan.com/

EP48: Kimberly Seals Allers on How Medicine, Big Business and Feminism Undermine Breastfeeding What She Shares: How her book, The Big Letdown, explores the connections between medicine, big business and feminism and their effects on breastfeeding women today. How the environment we are currently in sets us up for failure. The importance of using our power as consumers to start dialogues with our care providers about breastfeeding and lactation. Taking morality and guilt out of the current debate on breastfeeding and birth. The ways feminism has let mothers down. The importance of re-centering mothers in the fight for reproductive justice and freedom. What You'll Hear: How the field of pediatric medicine arose in conjunction with the development of infant formula. How this original alliance has shaped the pediatric field and its relationship to breastfeeding. Breastfeeding and lactating management are not taught in medical school. The lack of holistic care for women after birth: "Women are broken down into the sum of their parts." How we only deal with the body when it's diseased, while there's very little support for its normal biological functions. These natural functions are embodied and unable to be monetized. What's the economic incentive to support them? Our increasingly isolated lives contribute to this loss and to the stress that negatively impacts a woman's milk supply. There are some cultures where this disruption never happens. We have to examine the systems we're living in and how they set us up for failure. The importance of creating a dialogue with pediatricians and holding them accountable for having training that comes from an unbiased source. What is "Choice Feminism"? Parsing out the moral language in the current debate over what is natural in birth and breastfeeding. "The guilt is not about you. It's the system that let you down." How this "blame and shame" conversation divides and distracts people from the larger issues. Cultural acceptance, public support, and encouragement from pediatricians can help women overcome obstacles to breastfeeding. The high cost of our feminist inheritance of "doing it all" and being "equal" to men. We have to see the work of mothering as just as or even more important than our productive work. Play the long game: investing in your health at this time can benefit you for the rest of your life. We can't evaluate our individual actions without also considering the systems in place around us. The importance of including motherhood in the conversation around reproductive rights. Kimberly Seals Aller's upcoming webinar offerings. Free: Upcoming webinar on Ethics and Supporting African-American Communities with Breastfeeding http://www.kimberlysealsallers.com/getting-it-right-ethics-engaging-african-american-communities-for-breastfeeding-support-live-webinar-on-october-23rd/

Kim Anami is a sex and relationship coach, vaginal weightlifter, surfer and mom. With decades worth of experience in Tantra, Taoism, Osho and Transpersonal psychology, she has helped countless women and men heal and maximize their innate sexual nature. What Kim Shares: How our sexual, emotional and psychological blocks show up in the birth experience The importance of removing these blocks in order to have an empowering birth Orgasmic birth; what it means and how to create the best conditions for having one Preparing for birth with sex; what can orgasms, exploratory sex, and even female ejaculation teach us about giving birth What You'll Hear: Why Kim created her new course on birth "The same blocks that show up in birth…are the ones that show up in bed." Is natural home-birth something that can be taught? How the dominant cultural messages about birth negatively effect women's birth experiences The importance of doing "due diligence" and educating ourselves Birth injuries are being normalized Women are being deprived of a crucial initiation into greater power and embodiment through giving birth Why emotional, spiritual and psychological blocks must be cleared in order to create an orgasmic birth The history of organized and concerted efforts by gynecologists to discredit home-birth "This requires a counter-cultural look." Every hormonal release during labor is perfectly orchestrated to create a healthy birth The "cascade of interventions" and how it effects labor and birth Oxytocin is a shy hormone! Why a woman needs to be in a safe, private, intimate environment to have a successful birth Why women have lost confidence in their ability to give birth "If we trust our bodies, our bodies will tell us what to do." What does orgasmic birth mean? The differences between clitoral, g-spot and cervical orgasms and how this relates to birth Why women need to address their emotional and psychological healing even and especially when they are pregnant The false ideas behind low libido Protection vs. Growth in a relationship "The point when people pass over from pain to pleasure is when they feel fully open, they can trust, they feel safe." Preparing for birth with sex Kim's idea of "demon hunting" The importance of birth being empowering instead of demoralizing The difficulty of trying to optimize the birth experience when our day to day lives are over-productive and highly stressful The danger of overriding our body's signals The need to create ample time and space before and after birth to maximize the potential benefits for both mom and baby Partnership postpartum; an opportunity for "the maturation of what sex is." Kim's perspective on the use of jade eggs How unresolved distance in the relationship becomes the perfect excuse to not be sexual after birth Learning how to push The connection between female ejaculation and the fetal ejection reflex Why the phrase "tight vagina" is a misnomer Why care givers often default to directed pushing during labor Inductions disrupt the natural production of the hormones that create the fetal ejection reflex Learning how to trust ourselves and our instincts; "there's a lot more that can go right than go wrong." Deprogramming and reprogramming during pregnancy Why we must fiercely protect our pleasure, our choices for our births, and our sexual health Sex and birth are opportunities to create the healing our planet needs Using sex and birth to self actualize, to become our deepest, truest selves www/bit.ly/sexymamasalon

In this special episode of the Magamama podcast, my right-hand woman Lynn Wolfbrandt interviews four women who have taken my course Activate Your Inner Jaguar. They share their experiences in the course, from decreased social anxiety, increased intuition and inner knowing, a more comfortable mindset around chronic illness, more congruence between what they desire and what they experience, and a newfound ability to shift from freeze during sex to a more fulfilling intimate relationship with their partner. We also interviewed the partner of one participant, to hear from him around what changed for him during the course. He experienced a profound shift in relationship and intimacy due to his wife's experience in Jaguar. Thank you to Alysse and Dan Doty, Susie Connerley, Stephanie Sandleben and Dorie Silverman for your intimate shares. The next round of Activate Your Inner Jaguar begins Tuesday, October 9th. Register at magamama.com/jaguar

Jaiya, a sexological body-worker, educator, and prolific author, discusses the Erotic Blueprint types and the role that they play in our relationships. In this episode, Jaiya shares how own blueprint has shifted throughout her life and details the different characteristics of each of the five blueprint types. What You'll Hear: What inspired her work on postpartum health How her sexuality shifted after becoming a mom What the Erotic Blueprints are and why they're important How she helps individuals understand, feed, and heal their blueprints through the Erotic Blueprint Breakthrough Course What She Shares: The pelvic floor trauma she endured while giving birth to her son Pressure within the sex-positive community for postpartum sex "We have multiple sexualities." Men and postpartum sexuality What led to her first session with Dr. Ellen Heed How her Erotic Blueprint changed after having her son What she learned from her surveys with postpartum women Talking about sex in contemporary society The difference between her and her partner's sexuality postpartum Finally having sex for pleasure The five Erotic Blueprints Why boundaries are so difficult for Energetics The Sensual's "superpower" Not understanding our partner's Erotic Blueprint can lead to "consent coercion" Culture and Sexuals' Erotic Blueprint Your Erotic Blueprint only shows you where you're limited Psychological vs. Sensation-Based How the Kink Realm helped her find her voice and heal Erotic Blueprints give us a language to understand our ever-changing sexual maps Shape-Shifters, erotic sophistication, and capacity for pleasure Where you can find out more about the Erotic Blueprints and how to find out your own type Her Erotic Blueprint Breakthrough Course How our sexuality as a culture is changing https://missjaiya.com/

Bethany Saltman drafted the nation's first "affirmative consent" policy at Antioch College in the 90s. That means she's been having the #metoo conversion and talking about the politics of pleasure for a good long time. She is now at work on a book about attachment- rejecting or revising the work that has been popularized and categorized as "attachment styles." Recorded right before the Kavanagh confirmation, we talk about the behavior during the hearings- body language and attachment style.

In this episode, "Mindfulness mama mentor" Hunter Clarke-Fields talks about the importance of practicing mindfulness in parenting and how she helps stressed-out moms become more grounded in their daily lives. Hunter also shares about her life as an artist and the role that painting played in own pregnancy and entry into motherhood. Hunter Clarke-Fields is a yoga teacher, "mindfulness mama mentor," podcaster, mama, and artist who teaches mothers how to implement mindfulness into their parenting. Her Mindful Parenting course helps mamas understand and transform their stress and become more grounded and centered as parents. What You'll Hear: All the different hats she balances in her professional and personal lives How she evolved from an art teacher to a mindfulness mentor What parents learn in the Mindful Parenting course What She Shares: What inspired her to begin painting [03:10] How she learned how to paint [04:00] Pregnancy, Predator vs. prey, and painting [6:41] Female bodies vs. male bodies in art [13:30] Gender norms and kids today [14:15] Technology and parenting [20:30] Breaking bad parenting habits [26:15] "...living what you want your kids to learn" [32:27] The role of painting during her pregnancy and entry to motherhood [34:57] Our actions are influenced by our instincts [36:28] We don't choose the triggers to our anger [39:20] Bringing mindfulness into parenting [41:10] How her second child differed from her first [43:48] What's involved in her Mindful Parenting Course [45:47] Her upcoming book [51:20] Where you can find her online [55:10]

In this episode, we talk to astrologer Shannon Aganza for a deeper understanding of astrology: both in your own birth chart, and in the current transits (specifically Mars and Venus retrograde). Often we think that astrology is just our sun sign, and that couldn't be further from the truth. All of the planets—Mars, Venus, Saturn, Mercury, etc—were in a certain sign and house of your chart when you were born. Shannon will tell you how to find Venus and Mars in your own chart, and what that means for you in terms of love, intimacy and sex. Normally, people view astrology as other-worldly, but actually, it can be used as a map of the physical body as well. In this podcast, we'll look at that in regards to relationship and sexuality. What You'll Hear The astrological map of the body: each sign and its corresponding body part How these body parts can unlock a key to a different kind of ertocism How to interpret Mars and Venus in your own chart, and how to find them The current Venus retrograde (October 7 - November 15), an invitation to look more deeply at our internal relationship to love What to do during a Venus retrograde: major cleanup! It's not a time to start a relationship, but the people who appear might be there to teach you something What this Venus retro means for your relationships and breakups She explains the nuances of the planets & their "exalted" placement Juicy astrological tidbits about the meaning of the sun in your chart, the moon, and more!