Protecting Your Choices Through Prenatal Education | Dr. Nicole Calloway Rankins

02/05/2021

Protecting Your Choices Through Prenatal Education
Dr. Nicole Calloway Rankins

This episode was sponsored by:

Please donate HERE

We are a 501 3c Non-Profit. Our aim is to prevent and heal birth trauma through education. Women need to understand their options and rights in childbirth so that they can have a safe and healthy birth.

Today we talk to Dr. Nicole Calloway Rankins, birth educator and practicing OBGYN. She has been involved in over 1000 births over the last 15 years, and contributes to ongoing birth education through courses on her website (https://drnicolerankins.com/) and through her podcast, All About Pregnancy and Birth (https://drnicolerankins.com/podcast/)

We talk about Nicole's work as an OBGYN and how she got started, as well as how she manages long hours and how having long shifts for an OB hospitalist helps to decrease the rates of C-Section. We discuss her interest and training in holistic health coaching, how it ties in with her work as an OB, and how that led to her starting a podcast.

We then talk about how prenatal education helps to protect the choices of birthing women. We mention how U.S. hospital birth has a history of misogyny and racism that we are still battling today. We talk about being an informed participant in prenatal care and knowing the questions to ask a provider to ensure quality of care. We talk about how women should feel okay with switching providers whenever they want. We discuss the availability of childbirth education and how there are a lot of low cost resources that anybody can access.

We talk about pain management in birth and how epidural generally wont be held back from women who want it. We discuss about writing out your birth wishes so that your provider can help to integrate them in your labor as well as possible. We brush on how to make sure that your wishes are honored. We also talk about how to adapt birth plans for COVID restrictions.

Finally we talk about the affects of racism on the birth world. We talk about the rate of maternal mortality in black women, and some of the warning signs of postnatal complications that need attention. We talk about how taking the concerns of black mothers seriously can help to reduce mortality. We talk about persistence is important in seeking postnatal care.

To learn more, visit https://drnicolerankins.com/

For Any Questions, Email Us at media@birthcircle.com

https://drnicolerankins.com
Check Out Her Birth Course Here

Connect with our guest!

https://drnicolerankins.com/contact
https://www.instagram.com/drnicolerankins

Podcasts are sponsored in part by Empowering Fearless Birth
donate@empoweringfearlessbirth.com

Though a lot of advances have been made over the last few centuries to make birth safer and more comfortable, there is still plenty of room for improvement, especially in terms of racial disparity in hospital birth. On average, black women are 3 to 4 times more likely to die from birth complications than white women. Efforts to combat the systemic issues that contribute to this are hugely important, but birth education can also be a crucial factor in helping mothers to advocate for themselves, their health, and their birth wishes.

Sarah and Dr. Nicole discuss the importance of prenatal education in making informed birth choices. They also dig into the ways your OBGYN can work with you to help prepare for your birth experience, as well as how to make up your birth plan, and how to advocate for your choices before and during your birth.

Dr. Nicole Calloway Rankins is a board-certified, practicing OB/GYN and mom of 2 who empowers first time moms to feel supported and prepared for pregnancy and birth. Over the last 15 years she’s helped more than 1,000 babies come into this world and has demystified pregnancy and childbirth for thousands more women through her 5-star rated All About Pregnancy & Birth podcast, her free online birth plan class, and her signature online program - The Birth Preparation Course. Visit her website www.drnicolerankins.com and follow her on Instagram @drnicolerankins.

This episode was sponsored by:

Please donate HERE

We are a 501 3c Non-Profit. Our aim is to prevent and heal birth trauma through education. Women need to understand their options and rights in childbirth so that they can have a safe and healthy birth.